Vermont Business Magazine MENTOR Vermont recently awarded 25 grants, totaling $348,735, to support youth mentoring programs throughout the state. The 2019-2020 Vermont Mentoring Grants will support more than 100 new and existing program sites, and more than 1,800 adult-to-youth mentor pairs in communities across Vermont.
“MENTOR Vermont and our funding partners are excited to be able to continue supporting the amazing work that mentoring programs and their mentors are doing to support youth in their local communities,” said Chad Butt, executive director of MENTOR Vermont. “Together we are building toward a future in which every young person in Vermont has the supportive mentoring relationships they need to grow and develop into thriving, productive, and engaged adults.”
The Vermont Mentoring Grants are made possible each year through funding support from the A.D. Henderson Foundation and the Vermont Department for Children and Families. The 2019-2020 grants will provide continuing support for established programs that demonstrate they meet best practices and help expand mentoring programming in underserved regions of the state.
All 2019-2020 grantees have committed to being partners in the Vermont K-12 Mentoring Initiative, a multi-year project, spearheaded by MENTOR Vermont, to establish the statewide program infrastructure needed to allow youth the opportunity to be matched with a mentor from elementary school until they successfully enter adulthood.
Additionally, grantees beyond their first two years of operation are required to demonstrate that they are meeting best practices through the Quality Mentoring System (a program assessment system developed by MENTOR Vermont and MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership). Grantees will also continue to use common questions from the Vermont Mentoring Surveys to survey their mentors and mentees.
Through the 2019-2020 Vermont Mentoring Grants, MENTOR Vermont has awarded 25 grants to agencies, schools and districts/supervisory unions, and independent non-profits throughout the state, including:
- Statewide: The DREAM Program; Everybody Wins! Vermont.
- Multiple Counties: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Vermont (Chittenden, Essex, Orleans, and Windham Counties); The Collaborative (Bennington, Windham, and Windsor Counties); Franklin County Caring Communities (Franklin and Grand Isle Counties); Living Proof Mentoring (Chittenden and Windsor Counties); New Circle Mentoring Program/Safer Society Foundation (Addison and Rutland Counties); and Spectrum Mentoring/Spectrum Youth and Family Services (Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties).
- Addison County: Mt. Abraham Unified School District.
- Bennington County: Mentoring at UCS/United Counseling Service.
- Caledonia County: See Statewide section above.
- Chittenden County: Connecting Youth Mentoring/Champlain Valley School District; Essex FriendCHIPS/Essex CHIPS; Maker Mentor Program/The Generator; King Street Center’s Junior Senior Buddies; Milton Mentors/Milton Community Youth Coalition; and SB Mentoring/South Burlington School District.
- Essex County: See Multiple Counties section above.
- Franklin County: See Multiple Counties section above.
- Grand Isle County: Grand Isle County Mentoring.
- Lamoille County: No agencies applied.
- Orange County: The Mentoring Project of the Upper Valley; and RAMP Mentoring/Randolph Area Mentoring Program.
- Orleans County: See Statewide and Multiple Counties sections above.
- Rutland County: The Mentor Connector.
- Washington County: Cabot Mentoring; Twinfield Together Mentoring Program; and Girls/Boyz First Mentoring.
- Windham: See Multiple Counties sections above.
- Windsor: Empower Up!/Windsor Central Supervisory Union; and Windsor County Mentors.
For more information about the Vermont Mentoring Grants and this year’s award recipients, please visit: www.mentorvt.org/vermont-mentoring-grants.
About Mentoring: According to the “Mentoring Effect,” a study released in 2014 by MENTOR, one in three youth in Vermont will enter adulthood without having a formal or informal mentoring relationship with a caring adult. National studies by MENTOR and Big Brothers Big Sisters demonstrate that youth with mentors are less likely to engage in risky behavior with drugs and alcohol, and they are more likely to develop positive relationships with peers and adults and pursue college and other post-secondary opportunities.
Based on the 2019 Vermont Mentoring Surveys, more than 66 percent of middle and high school youth supported by mentoring programs in Vermont feel like they matter to people in their community, and more than 86 percent of mentors play a direct role in their mentee’s education.
About MENTOR Vermont: MENTOR Vermont (formerly known as Mobius) supports 140 adult-to-youth mentoring program sites that serve 2,300 mentor pairs throughout the state. In addition to awarding grant funding to youth mentoring programs, the organization provides technical support to mentoring program staff, maintains an online program directory and referral system for volunteers, manages a quality-based program management database, raises public awareness of mentoring, works with programs to ensure they are meeting best practices, and leads statewide mentoring initiatives. For more information about mentoring programs and initiatives in Vermont, visit www.mentorvt.org.
Source: MENTOR Vermont 11.15.2019