Grantees: Mentoring
DREAM Program
DREAM's mission is to help close the opportunity gap for at-promise youth. Historically, they achieve this mission through year-round programming including (1) Weekly after school “Village Mentoring” (2) Summer Enrichment (3) Afterschool Enrichment, and (4) Local and regional adventures taking youth as far as DREAM’s residential Camp in northern Vermont, Camp DREAM. All of DREAM’s programming is free for enrolled families. This grant supports DREAM’s newest program, Guided Mentoring, an in- school peer-to-peer mentoring program in which high school students are trained in mentoring best practice, matched with elementary youth, and guided by DREAM staff through an extensive mentor-in-training curriculum.
Everybody Wins! Vermont
On the 2022 reading NAEP, only 43% of VT 4th-graders scored proficient or above—& only 19% of children in poverty. Reading well and liking to read are tied to further education, well-paying jobs—and a good life as an adult. Everybody Wins! Vermont helps children love to read by matching them one-on-one with volunteer reading mentors who share books & literacy activities and build friendships weekly at school. Children are exposed to new topics & discussions, enhance self-esteem, and show gains in reading skills, self-esteem, and overall classroom performance. Everybody Wins! Connects children with their communities and citizens with their local schools. One principal: "Everybody Wins! Is our most important connection with our community."
Greater Burlington YMCA
The Black Youth in Action (BYA) Program offers youth a collective space focused on health, wellness, and belonging. Black youth in Vermont have limited opportunities to engage in positive spaces with other Black youth and adults. This program provides that opportunity while creating healthy life habits and discipline to contribute to future success. BYA provides social connection, mentorship, and community service activities for teens, along with opportunities to explore flexible pathways after high school.
Mad River Mentoring
Mad River Mentoring is a community-based mentoring program for youth, aged 8-18. They work with families, schools, and local groups to ensure all youth in the HUUSD have access to high-quality, 1:1 mentoring. Our goal is to create strong support networks for young people to reach their full potential. They will continue to offer formal, adult-to-youth mentoring as well as provide more resources and support to participants. Additionally, they will launch a series of free, weekly, mentoring groups led by our mentors. The groups will be open to all interested youth, with content based on their interests. Through these efforts they seek to increase the support and resources youth need to thrive.
Windsor County Mentors
Windsor County Mentors has provided youth mentoring services in Windsor County, VT, for 50 years. Over this time, Windsor County Mentors has developed a robust mentoring infrastructure with both school-based and community match programs, creating over 1,500 mentoring pairs across these rural communities. The need for this program is clear, as high rates of absenteeism and social isolation continue to negatively impact students in our largely rural service area. Over the past three years, they have continued to expand at the request of schools and parent groups into areas that entirely lack mentorship programs.
Youth First Mentoring
Youth First Mentoring plans to boost the protective factors of their established community mentoring program by offering an enrichment program that involves youth in the arts, sciences, outdoors, service, and wellness. This will close the opportunity gap at-risk youth face, enhance youth and mentor recruitment, strengthening social connectedness, resilience and outcomes for youth. The youth they serve are often deprived of typical enriching and educational experiences because of the risk factors they face (poverty, parental absence, e.g.). They will augment this with an educational program for mentors on adolescent development, adverse childhood experiences, and mental health first aid, which will boost protective factors in their mentor relationships.