Putting mentoring to work
January 15, 2007, Burlington Free Press (Vermont)

By DAN McLEAN

Don't be surprised if you see Don Vickers, president and CEO of the Vermont Student Assistance Corp., hanging out at the arcade for a few hours every week.

Vickers, who is mentoring his third youth in 11 years, spends three to five hours each week with a Winooski High School student, seeing movies, playing games, stopping at book stores -- and talking.

"You have to play a little bit. You have to get to know each other," he said of the mentoring process. "We always make sure we laugh a lot."

Vickers is one of hundreds of adults in Chittenden County who serve as mentors for local teens.

"Some want help with homework. Some want help with life. Some want help growing up," he said.

Vickers began spending about an hour a week with the student his was mentoring, but increased the time to bond more effectively. Conversation is often about problems with peers, family, school, "and we always talk about career planning, about what they want to do," he said.

Winooski's Vermont Student Assistance Corp. -- which was founded in 1965 to encourage Vermont students to go to college or seek other types of training after high school -- is closely connected with Winooski High School through the mentoring program. Twenty of the Winooski-based nonprofit's 390 employees are involved with the mentoring program, he said.

Vickers' first match, a Colchester High School student, went on to get a master's degree in occupational therapy. He is now working with a 14-year-old who wants to be a rapper. Vickers is working to persuade the Winooski teen to get a college education as well.
Making connections

Mobius Inc. is a Burlington nonprofit that connects businesses with mentoring opportunities and spreads the message that there are many ways to become involved.

There are 665 mentoring matches in Chittenden County today, said Andrea Torello, Mobius' executive director -- 330 more than in 2003.

She estimates, however, that about 3,300 students in the county -- about 10 percent of the public school enrollment -- need mentors.

Mobius aims to increase public awareness, recruit new mentors and maintain existing programs, she said. Torello has been working to get Vermont to follow the successful efforts adopted in California, Colorado, Connecticut and Florida -- states which she says have the best mentoring programs in the country.

Programs in those states have two common elements: the governor's support and healthy partnerships with the business community.

"The concept of mentoring is one that everyone can understand -- it's fairly simple," she said. "The challenge is mobilizing the community."

Several companies throughout the county -- including Vermont Student Assistance Corp., Green Mountain Power Corp. and Vermont Mechanical Inc. -- have developed different types of mentoring programs.

"There are lots of ways to mentor, but it has to work for the people involved," Torello said.

Deirdre Johnson is one of eight Green Mountain Power employees spending an hour a week, one-on-one, with a student at Colchester Middle School. She is paired with a 13-year-old, eighth-grade student.

"Kids without a goal can really wander," said Johnson, who has been working with the student since October. "If I can provide any kind of support for her to believe in herself some more and have some more motivation -- that's absolutely the best I can hope for."

Kayla Alexander, 12, is a seventh-grade Colchester Middle School student paired with Stacey Shusda, another Green Mountain Power employee. Alexander, who also had a mentor in fourth grade, said she likes having a mentor because "she helps me with stuff I need help with."

"You're more comfortable sharing your grades because you know they're not going to tell anyone," she said, offering an example.

Alexander's guidance counselor, Doris Bard, is pleased with the additional support the program offers.

Mentoring programs are currently linked with half of Chittenden County's public schools districts, Torello said. Burlington and Winooski, which are connected with programs, still have the highest need in the county, she said.

"Children have been my life's work," said Torello, a former guidance counselor at Rice Memorial High School. "But I've always been drawn to the higher needs or at-risk kids ... they have such potential."
State commitment

Mentoring in Vermont received a boost last year.

For the first time, the state made a one-time allocation of $250,000 through the "Vermont Mentors!" initiative.

This is the first time Vermont has created direct funding for mentoring, said Scott Johnson, deputy commissioner of the Agency of Human Services' Field Services division. "It's a pretty powerful statement."

Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican, held a news conference Thursday to announce the mentoring grants and signed a proclamation declaring January "mentoring month" in Vermont. January also is national mentoring month.

"Mentoring is based on the simple concept of a caring adult spending time with a child in their community, and I have long been an advocate of mentoring," Douglas said. "Mentoring just makes sense. We can all remember times when we needed another person to lean on."

So far, $139,901 of the money has been used to make 21 grants to organizations throughout the state -- establishing another 313 mentor matches, said Christine Zachai, executive director for The Permanent Fund for the Well-Being of Vermont Children, the Montpelier nonprofit charged with distributing the funds; Mobius was given $50,000 to distribute throughout Chittenden County.

Including the new matches, the 21 groups said they now have 1,522 mentoring matches, Zachai said.

"When an adult becomes a mentor to a child and the child realizes that his mentor genuinely cares about him and believes in him, the child is given the gift of hope," said Rick Davis, the founder of Mobius and chairman of The Permanent Fund.

Mentoring help the youths involved, and also adds another dimension to the mentor's life.

"Mentoring in an opportunity to make a difference in a young person's life," Vickers said. "And it's extremely rewarding. Your mentee becomes a special friend in your life."
Contact Dan McLean at 651-4877 or dmclean@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com