Grantees

New Circle provides one-on-one mentoring services to Vermont children from primary school through high school who have one or more parent/s who are incarcerated or who have a history of incarceration. Mentors are carefully recruited, trained, and matched with mentees, and each match is supervised by a Clinical Director, a retired school counselor with decades of experience. This is a long-term program, with a three-to-five-year minimum commitment by both mentors and mentees. New Circle's goal is to support these children academically, psychologically, and emotionally so they can be successful in school and graduate from high school ready to pursue higher education or career training.

The Foster Grandparent Program is a unique school-based volunteer program for individuals 55 and older. Foster Grandparent volunteers serve as tutors, mentors, and friends to children. They visit preschools and K-12 schools, working one-on-one or in small groups with children with exceptional needs. Foster Grandparent volunteers contribute crucial educational, social, and emotional support that helps children to reach their full potential. Engaging program participants in effective, high-quality trainings—which allow them to be helpful and respond to the needs of the children they serve—will allow us to extend the program throughout the Northwest region to support more children.

The Mentor Connector is expanding our Positive Action group mentoring program to serve 35 additional vulnerable youth with bi-weekly social-emotional skill-building tools and resources. The Positive Action Group Mentoring Program is one such program that utilizes two evidence-based interventions (group curriculum and one-on-one mentoring) as a multi-layered approach to enhance outcomes and provide sustainable, long-term support to youth. Bi-monthly meetings are established to 1) provide a platform for youth to discuss and learn tools to reduce stress, enhance refusal skills, and improve prosocial behavior and 2) an engaging group activity to expose youth to new activities and connect youth with each other.

The Mentor Connector is expanding early mentoring in Rutland County, Vermont with a special focus on matching children ages 7 to 10, when habits around learning, relationships, and behavior are rapidly forming. The program connects youth with trained adult mentors who meet weekly to build trusting relationships, strengthen social and emotional skills, and support positive decision making. By ensuring children have a consistent caring adult before challenges escalate, the initiative strengthens families, supports healthy development, and helps prevent future truancy, substance use, and school disengagement.

To launch a pilot year for Power Breakfast, a reading and mentoring program modeled after the power lunch program.

A mentoring program in Rutland County

New England Youth Theatre is rebooting our Peer Mentorship Program, which was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic as programming was scaled down to focus on smaller group sizes. This program is designed for youth ages 13-18 who are interested in deepening relationships with other students and staff at NEYT as they work together on projects. Peer Mentors will focus on developing leadership, communication, team work, and confidence. Each participant will take on responsibilities in support of NEYT programs through a role that aligns with their interests. Throughout the program, a cohort of 12 Peer Mentors will be supported through the process of planning and implementing three events at NEYT with aspects of performance, community engagement, and education.

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.