Do you have Type 1 Diabetes? Interested in mentoring?
The Pediatric Endocrinology Department at Vermont Children’s Hospital and Spectrum Youth and Family Services have partnered to pair adults and adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes in supportive, active and fun relationships. Participation will include mentoring training. Matched pairs will be encouraged to meet weekly for a one year commitment.
You don’t need to be perfect, just understand!!! Mentoring is a structured and trusting relationship that brings young people together with caring individuals who offer guidance, support, and encouragement. A mentor provides a young person with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and a constructive example. Mentors are good listeners, people who care, people who want to help young people bring out strengths that are already there. Finally, mentoring is a lot of fun!
How we picked them: First, with help from the Outdoor Industry Association, we got the word out to eligible applicants–nonprofit or for-profit companies with at least 15 employees working in the U.S. Our project partner, the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based research firm Best Companies Group (bestcompaniesgroup.net), then sent registered companies a confidential employee-satisfaction survey and an extensive employer questionnaire to collect information about policies, practices, and benefits. The results were analyzed by the Best Companies Group, which ranked the 50 winners in order of who best enables employees to balance productivity with an active, eco-conscious lifestyle. [Source URL > http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/201005/best-places-to-work-intro.html?imw=Y ]
14. The DREAM Program – Winooski, VT
ABOUT DREAM pairs college student mentors with children from affordable-housing neighborhoods. These positive relationships allow children to recognize their options, make informed decisions, and achieve their dreams. DREAM accomplishes this through an innovative approach to mentoring, community development and summer programming that is complemented by a residential summer camp and an adventure-based teen program.
COMPANY CULTURE DREAM is a young company. More than three-quarters of the employees are under 30. This offers fresh and new ideas to an ever-changing company. DREAM often hires mentors after they graduate college to help build experience, continue their DREAM passion, and make a difference. Everyone in the office has freedom to work on personal projects for DREAM, whether it may be learning how to build a structure at camp, write grants for new cameras, or program a “barbershop” fundraiser. One of DREAM’s core values is contagious energy. We use this energy to pump up mentors for retreats, Fridays, trainings, etc. DREAM is mentor-driven and the office encourages the mentors to run their programs.
OFFICE FACILITIES We work on college campuses to support our mentors. One may work at home if sick or if no meetings. Coffee shops, bakeries, outside, camp, or a DREAM satellite office are all places of work for DREAM.
FITNESS BENEFITS DREAM owns a camp. Once a month, office staff participate in a camp work day. This time is used to prepare camp for our programming activities, like Winter Adventure Camp, Summer Camp, and other retreats. While at camp, staff cross country ski, swim, hike, canoe, mountain bike, and more. DREAM organizes staff ski-days, retreats that include hiking, biking, sledding, and games. DREAM also works with the mentors to create programs during the summer in our communities that revolve around being outside (e.g., sailing on Lake Champlain, and the infamous daylong beach trip to Maine).
COMMUNITY SERVICE Employees can volunteer up to two hours a week during paid work time. On MLK day, DREAM staff volunteers as a group in the community with other Americorps.
GREEN INITIATIVES DREAM maintains a car and bus that run on vegetable oil to transport staff, mentors, and mentees. And everyone gets a bus pass!
EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION Each employee is celebrated a number of different ways. Celebration of our work occurs on adventure-training days (days half-filled with something educational, half-filled with enjoying each other and talking about our work), and the end-of-the-year celebrations where employees are recognized. There are numerous small awards/surprises throughout the year. To help keep employees engaged, we “raid” each other. If our development director, for example, has been working hard to address and mail out all of our annual appeal letters, a few office staff may show up in crazy costumes with ice cream, a snack, or beer, and sing “I’m a maniac” to him to cheer him up and let him know what solid work he is doing.
ADDISON COUNTY — The number of low-income students in Vermont’s schools is on the rise, and teachers and administrators reacting to these shifting demographics are struggling to close the achievement gap between low-income students and their higher-income peers.
Schools in the Addison County area, like those around the state, are trying different strategies to approach the problem.
Currently, the only official measure of poverty in schools is the number of students who enroll in the free or reduced lunch program. To qualify for the program, students’ families must meet certain income requirements.
According to these measures, a third of Vermont students come from low-income families.
Though cognizant of ever-shrinking school budgets and resources, education officials in Vermont say the state can’t afford to ignore the needs of low-income students, who are significantly more likely to drop out of school than higher-income peers. Nationally, a child born into the lowest economic quintile — a family whose income is in the bottom one-fifth of all families — is four times less likely to graduate from high school and 10 times less likely to graduate from college than a child from the top economic quintile.
According to Susan Hayes, who oversees standards and assessment for the Vermont Department of Education, Vermont students perform better, on the whole, than their national peers when it comes to national assessment tests. But she added that the data still show a widening achievement gap between low-income students and their peers. That culminates in lower graduation rates among low-income students, particularly low-income boys. By 11th grade, fewer than one in five low-income boys are proficient in either math or writing.
“It starts early, and then it ends with this depressing fact: They’re dropping out,” Hayes said. “We’re just not getting traction on this issue.”
So Hayes and a team of researchers from the Department of Education last year headed into a few of the schools in the state that have found success better serving low-income populations. That research culminated in a report called “The Roots of Success,” which was released in October.
“I think this is one of the biggest issues the state faces,” said Hayes. “When these kids drop out of high school, they’re putting a great financial burden on the state. There are so many benefits to really tackling this, and I’m glad there’s this sort of momentum building around the issue.”
SCHOOLS REACT
On the ground, schools are adapting in their own ways.
At the Bridport Central School, close to 40 percent of students participate in the free or reduced-price lunch program. The school is a “Title 1” school, meaning Bridport qualifies for federal funding because of the high percentage of students from low-income families.
Principal Georgette Childs said that the school is lucky, because it has a number of support services not always common in a school its size. A counselor is on staff three days a week, and the school employs a part-time clinician, too. There’s an educational support team, not to mention teachers that Childs praised as “excellent.”
But time in the classroom isn’t enough, Childs said.
“I think one of the things that we’ve found is that many of our students with low incomes are needing a longer time, a longer length of the school day, so we support them with an after-school academy,” she said. “We support all of our students with this.”
The after-school program is voluntary, and students are invited to join based on their performance in class and on standardized tests. Four days a week, students stay after for an extra hour to work with a licensed teacher. Half of the additional instructional time is devoted to math, and the other half to reading and language arts skills.
It works out in the end because the bus that brings home middle and high school students from the union schools in Middlebury rolls through town just in time to pick up students who stay late for extra help.
“It’s fairly specific, and designed to help kids bring their skills up so that they’re not lagging behind their peers,” Childs said. “Sometimes kids just need that extra time.”
Meanwhile, at Neshobe Elementary School in Brandon, Principal Judi Pulsifer said that, unfortunately, the conversation about poverty in the school isn’t a new development.
In the past, the school’s percentage of students enrolled in the free or reduced-price lunch program hovered near 45 or 46 percent. Now that number is at 51 percent — and Pulsifer warns that the number isn’t an accurate indicator of financial need in the school. Some families choose not to enroll in the free lunch program, and others fall through the cracks.
Hayes, from the Department of Education, acknowledged that the measure for studying poverty in schools is lacking — particularly when students reach middle or high school, and are more concerned about the possible stigma attached to participating in the free lunch program.
“Because we have had children that are facing these circumstances for a long time, this has been an ongoing situation,” Pulsifer said.
The approach at Neshobe, so far, has been to look at individual children and try to meet those needs. The school has a homework support group in place that meets first thing in the morning. For some students, Pulsifer said, it’s a way to get a bit of extra help — and for others it’s a way to find guidance that students might not be getting at home.
The school is also experimenting with more physical activity throughout the day to help students focus on their studies. There are groups that exercise briefly early in the morning, which Pulsifer thinks is giving students a better start for the day.
“The whole physical piece ties into the academic learning piece,” she said.
There’s a focus on social and emotional needs, too. Sixth-grade student volunteers are matched up with students in kindergarten and first grade in peer mentorships. Meanwhile, the school reaches out to families, too, and tries to link them to social services or other support networks if a family finds itself in need.
“Some of us here are used to navigating through some systems,” Pulsifer said. “For a parent it can be very intimidating.”
But Pulsifer, and other principals, pointed out that schools have to find middle ground in reaching out to students in trouble while also challenging high achievers.
“We look at every child,” she said. “We need to continue to challenge (the high achievers) and build on their learning, as much as we need to help students who are struggling. It’s a very hard balance.”
CHANGES THAT WORK
In an age of intense concern about school spending, Hayes said that the “Roots of Success” report doesn’t have to mean costly reforms at Vermont schools.
“A lot of it has to do with attitudes and beliefs, and there isn’t necessarily a dollar sign attached to that,” Hayes said. “There’s a lot that schools can do that doesn’t cost a lot of money.”
The recommendations, in fact, boil down to eight simple values: high expectations, continuous improvements, leadership, changes informed by strong use of data, a professional teaching culture, student support systems, an encouraging school climate, and family involvement.
The recommendations were culled after extensive — and anonymous — studies at three schools the state deemed successful in their efforts to bring up test scores and help low-income students. The take-away message, according to the report, is that demographics do not determine destiny: There are examples of schools, both nationally and in Vermont, where students excel academically despite coming from lower income brackets.
“This research proves that all students, given the right learning environment, can excel,” wrote Vermont Education Commissioner Armando Vilaseca in an op-ed last month. “We must no longer accept that some children, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, cannot succeed in school. With conviction and passion, the schools and staff profiled in this report implore us to abandon that antiquated assumption.”
Vilaseca also pointed out that the study’s findings aren’t new — but Hayes said they do give schools a snapshot of what works, and can serve as a starting point for making other changes in schools like internships or mentoring programs.
According to “The Roots of Success” research, students’ success doesn’t boil down to individual programs at these schools so much as the atmosphere in the building, and teachers’ and administrators’ high expectations for students across income levels.
That, according to Leicester Central School Co-principal Kate Grodin, is just the approach administrators should take. The school is investigating ways to help students improve their test scores — Grodin mentioned more intensive writing across the disciplines as one option. But at the end of the day, she said, a school’s success boils down to something more straightforward.
“Good instruction for low-income students is simply good instruction,” Grodin said. “It’s simply best practice at the end of the day. Everybody ends up benefiting.”
School budget to increase less than 1%: Taxes could rise by 6 percent
By Tim Simard, Jan. 28, 2010
Williston Observer staff
Despite a late addition that increased costs, the Williston School Board approved a budget that increases less than 1 percent. The total budget for fiscal year 2010-11, which voters will approve or reject on Town Meeting Day in March, comes to $16.47 million, a 0.95 percent increase over the current budget.
Property taxes for next year, however, are expected to climb more than 6 percent — a 2-cent increase on the property tax rate. Using estimates provided by the Vermont Tax Commissioner, taxes would escalate even if the school budget did not increase at all, according to Bob Mason, Chittenden South Supervisory Union chief operations officer.
The board unanimously approved the budget during its final budget meeting on Jan. 21. The board previously told administration officials of its hope that a budget increase would remain at less than 1 percent. District Principal Walter Nardelli said at previous meetings that this would be the case. But at Thursday’s meeting, Nardelli said assessment changes in a preschool payment program created a 1.32 percent increase in the budget.
Nardelli told the board the school’s Early Learning Program costs will increase by $126,000 in the next school year. Vermont requires school districts to help cover tuition and other costs for students attending state-approved preschools. Mason told the board the district receives revenue from the program, but it’s not reflected in any budget until the 2011-2012 school year.
“It’s actually a good thing,” Mason said. “Unfortunately, you get the benefit two years after you incur the cost.”
Board members stated their unhappiness with the news and asked Nardelli to find $61,000 to cut to keep the budget increase at less than 1 percent. Board members expressed their concern about the current economic times and the fact that taxes are likely to increase.
“The only way people can say they’re frustrated is by going to the polls,” board Vice Chairwoman Holly Rouelle said. “I want to pass (the budget) the first time. I don’t want to come back and have to cut more.”
Nardelli said he would reexamine next year’s budget and find $61,000 that could be removed. He said the cuts could come from a number of places. For instance, the outcome of the contract negotiations between CSSU and the Chittenden South Education Association may lower costs for next school year if there are changes in teacher raises or health benefits.
Another possibility would be to cut back on increases in technology equipment, science supplies and other areas the board already approved, Nardelli said. He added grants could come through for math teaching training and the school’s mentoring program, which would cover the $61,000 in cuts he needs to make.
As for the mentoring program, Nardelli said it will be funded next year regardless of whether a grant comes through. The board approved $30,000 for the program, although the administration initially asked for $40,000. Nardelli said $30,000 would keep the program functional without cutting services.
“We’re going to support the mentoring program, no matter what happens,” Nardelli said after the meeting.
Tax implications
Mason detailed to the board that no matter how small the district’s budget increase would be next school year, property taxes for Williston homeowners would likely increase. While nothing is finalized, taxpayers may see taxes increase by 6.08 percent. That number includes budget implications from Champlain Valley Union High School.
Mason said the state’s tax formula makes it hard on schools that have declining or steady enrollments. Even before the School Board worked on the budget, taxes would have increased by 2.5 percent, he said.
Residents who own a $300,000 home could expect an increase of $236 on their tax bills, which would cover the Williston and CVU school budgets. Residents who apply for Income Sensitivity will get a significant break, Mason said. People who make $90,000 or less and own a home receive a tax increase cap. Mason said 55 percent of Williston residents participate in the program.
Mason said his numbers are only estimates. The Vermont Legislature may change tax rates in the next few months. In his budget address in Montpelier two weeks ago, Gov. Jim Douglas urged lawmakers to set the state tax rate at current levels. Mason said that would significantly reduce a resident’s tax burden.
By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau – Published: January 27, 2010
MONTPELIER – The students in the packed gymnasium of the Union Elementary school quieted down and listened intently as Gov. James Douglas read to them Tuesday, and as he told them the importance of the state’s mentoring program, which connects children with adults who can help and guide them.
But Douglas, long a champion of the program, is also recommending a significant cut to its budget.
“We are trying to be balanced,” Douglas said after the gathering. “We are trying to prioritize.”
It is one small example of the budget decisions being made in Vermont during a year in which dropping state revenue and increasing need are squeezing programs across state government. The mentoring program, which has received about $250,000, would lose about $80,000 of state money under Douglas’ budget.
But the fact that it will continue to get some state money – 19 other programs or grants would be eliminated entirely under the proposed budget – shows that it remains a priority for the administration, said Robert Hofmann, secretary of the Agency of Human Services.
The mentoring program by the Permanent Fund for the Well Being of Vermont Children connects adults who want to be mentors with children who are looking for the companionship and help they can provide. Kids who have mentors are less likely to use illegal drugs, less likely to get in fights and more likely to go to school, according to the administration.
Sometimes that mentoring can be as simple as reading a book together.
“It’s something I look forward to every week,” said Dennis Menard, a mentor in the Montpelier program.
Desiree Watson, the fifth grader who Menard reads to, summed up the advantages succinctly.
“It is really, really fun,” she said.
The program has, so far, connected more than 700 such pairs and hopes to reach 1,000 by the end of the year.
But if approved the reduction in state funding – although there are private sources that also provide money for the organization, such as Chittenden Bank – will put a dent in its work.
Still, until three years ago, there was no state funding for the mentoring work, Douglas said. And the proposed cuts do not mean his administration is not committed to the program, or believes it won’t help the children enrolled in it become leaders in the state, Douglas said.
“Maybe there is a future governor here,” he told the assembled students.
WASHINGTON — Citing his own story growing up without an engaged father, President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced a year long mentoring program that his aides will lead for young men in the capital.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama welcomed the first class of mentors and proteges to the grand East Room to kick off the program and National Mentoring Month. Obama urged them to take advantage of their potential and the access to senior White House officials.
“It doesn’t take much to make a big difference,” Obama said.
The effort will plan programs for the boys, including monthly workshops to encourage them in education, career planning and community service. It is similar to one Mrs. Obama started in the fall for young women, pairing about 16 girls from the Washington area with women at top levels in the Obama administration.
“This is one of those that I can’t take full credit for,” the president said on the one-year anniversary of taking office.
Mrs. Obama smiled and told the students to use the opportunity to ask questions of their mentors and learn from the experience.
“They are here because they believe in your potential and they want to share some of the lessons that they’ve learned along the way, because even though they might look a little old, remember that these men were standing in your shoes not too long ago,” Mrs. Obama said.
Pointing to her husband, she said that their family is a product of hard work and pulling themselves up. The president agreed.
“I was raised by a single mom who struggled at times to provide for me and my sister. And while I was lucky to have loving grandparents who poured everything they had into helping my mother take care of us, I still felt the weight of my father’s absence throughout my childhood,” said Obama, who has written about his early life in a best-selling memoir.
“So I wasn’t always focused in school the way I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of. I got in more trouble than I should have. Without a bunch of second chances and a whole lot of luck, my life could have taken easily a turn for the worse,” the president said.
Mrs. Obama started the girls’ mentoring program in November. Just last week, the girls and their mentors packed bags of food for children who don’t get enough to eat on the weekends. The girls also attended a career skills workshop where they learned about personal development, networking, etiquette and other topics.
Many of the girls also have spent one-on-one time with the first lady and attended local events with her.
The first lady said last week that the mentoring program is designed to help young people develop the “intangible confidence that really can push kids from mediocrity to fabulousness.”
“We’re excited to see how these kids respond, and what it does for their futures, if anything, and how these relationships grow over time,” she said, adding that she plans more travel this year to encourage the development of mentoring programs around the country.
In his remarks Wednesday, the president emphasized the need for mentors around the country and highlighted mentoring efforts by companies, nonprofit groups and governments.
“What we need now is committed adults to come forward,” the president said.
Among the White House officials who will mentor boys: Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff for the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs; Bill Burton, deputy press secretary; Emmett Beliveau, director of advance; and speechwriter Adam Frankel. Among those mentoring girls: Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes; Tina Tchen, director of the Office of Public Engagement; Cecilia Munoz, director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; and Susan Sher, chief of staff for Mrs. Obama.
For 11 years, the Williston Central School mentoring program has built a solid and trusting foundation within the community. Hundreds of students have come through the school system and been matched with mentors — community members that act as role models.
When students feel uncertainty and stress at home or in school, mentors can be a supportive presence, say school and program officials.
“I think our program is the premier program in the state of Vermont,” District Principal Walter Nardelli said. “It’s an essential part of this school.”
But the mentoring program within Williston, as well as other schools in Chittenden South Supervisory Union, is threatened by lack of funds. A grant used to finance mentoring programs across CSSU has run out and other grants may not be available in the struggling economy. A lack of resources could mean significant cuts for mentoring programs, or worse.
The Williston School Board is being asked to consider adding $40,000 to next year’s budget to ensure the mentoring program doesn’t suffer. If the board does not agree to the funding, Nardelli said the program would be “pared back tremendously or disappear altogether.”
The School Board has expressed concern for the survival of the program, but has not made any decision on added funding. The board is expected to address the issue when it votes on a school budget on Jan. 21.
For Nancy Carlson, any cuts in the program could be damaging for students already lined up with mentors this year and next. Students within the program look to mentors as a source of stability, she said.
“It would be painful to have to freeze this program,” Carlson said. “It would be very devastating to cut kids already in the program.”
Roughly 50 Williston Central students, in grades five through eight, have mentors that meet with them weekly during school hours, Carlson said. In a model reminiscent of a Big Brother-Big Sister program, community mentors spend time with students, helping them take their mind off school by engaging in different activities.
Prior to this school year, Nardelli mentored a student for four years, spending time talking, playing games and cooking. He said it was one of his favorite times of the work week.
“It’s about creating a safe environment for the kids,” Nardelli said.
If funding disappears or is drastically cut, there will be fewer resources for mentors to work with in terms of activities, said Jan Bedard, administrative director for CSSU’s Connecting Youth.
Connecting Youth administers all mentoring programs within CSSU. Bedard said there is still a possibility that grant money will come through for next year, but school boards won’t know until after residents vote on budgets on Town Meeting Day in March.
“Everything is up in the air,” Bedard said. “This is a very fluid financial world we’re operating in right now.”
Bedard said much of the mentoring program costs cover the salaries of coordinators. Those staff members are integral in finding good matches for students and mentors, she said. She credited Carlson’s work with Williston and across CSSU for making mentoring such a success.
“She is much of the reason why the program happens,” Bedard said. “She puts in far more time than she is paid for.”
If grants are found to fund the Williston mentoring program, the $40,000 budget addition would not be needed, Nardelli said. Still, if grant money doesn’t come through and funds are not set aside to keep the program running, there would be a negative outcome, he said.
While Connecting Youth looks for other funding avenues, Carlson hopes the Williston School District will be able to subsidize much of the program in the future instead of relying on uncertain grants.
“I’m very much hoping that Williston is able to step up and bring this program in-house,” Carlson said. “We should make this program a guarantee, not a hope or a speculation.”
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and his senior staff have traveled the country over the past seven months on a “Listening and Learning” tour, asking for input on the Obama administration’s education agenda. Their endgame is to restore America’s position of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.
Secretary Duncan and President Obama both realize that helping our children succeed in school and graduate from college is the ticket to restoring America’s position as a global leader. They know, too, that the problem is not so much across America as it is across low-income America where we are losing ground at an alarming pace.
As the fastest-growing segment of our population, low-income children will account for 50 percent of all children in a dozen years. What’s more, the education gap between our low-income children and their wealthier peers has widened every year since 1980. A child born into the lowest economic quintile is four times less likely to graduate from high school and 10 times less likely to graduate from college than a child from the top economic quintile.
The economic impact of this inequity is staggering: Dropouts cost the nation $84 million in lost income tax revenue each year.
The challenge before us is stark: If we do not move significantly more underserved youths to college and ensure that they have the skills required in the 21st-century marketplace, we will face a diminished tax base and a generation that’s undereducated and unemployable.
Duncan and Obama understand what’s at stake. It just seems they can’t figure out what to do about it.
In their effort to listen and learn, they missed what works to reverse this trend — mentoring.
College For Every Student (CFES) has 8,500 students involved in peer mentoring across 20 states. Older students mentor younger ones, or seek out peers who are struggling and find a way to provide guidance.
In other schools, students tutor their peers, read to younger children, and launch clean-up drives that restore their playgrounds, parks and communities. By serving, they learn to lead — and they fulfill President Obama’s goal of integrating service into education.
CFES also engages college students. At Castleton State College, 110 students mentor younger students at the nearby elementary school each week, and a new partnership with America East (an athletic conference whose nine universities include the University of Vermont) will begin providing 1,000 college student mentors to low-income children next fall.
In Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C., hundreds of young professionals not only mentor our students, they have also raised resources to fund college access programs.
Corporate America is stepping up, as well. Employees from Ernst & Young mentor monthly in nine cities, while volunteers from GE, New York Life, and Colgate-Palmolive are helping our students in Denver and New York City down the pathway to college.
The impact of mentoring is staggering. Over the past four years, 95 percent of the more than 3,000 CFES students (almost all low-income) who graduated from high school have gone on to college. Recent data placed one of our school districts — Gulf County, Fla. — in the state’s No. 1 spot for its high school graduation and college-going rates for students of color. Tim Wilder, Gulf County’s superintendent of schools, celebrates the extraordinary success of his students from Wewahitckha and Port St. Joe: “When they were in the fifth grade, all the indicators predicted they would drop out, but we didn’t buy it. We got them mentors. We exposed them to college.” Those Gulf County students not only made it through high school, they enrolled in college last fall.
If we listen, we can learn a lot from Tim Wilder and his students and from the thousands of mentors out there who are helping to transform our fastest-growing population of children from a looming liability to our greatest asset.
Rick Dalton is the president & CEO of College For Every Student, a nonprofit based in Cornwall that helps underserved students nationwide gain access to college.
Governor Jim Douglas will highlight the importance of mentoring relationships at his 10:30 am January 26th press conference, celebrating National Mentoring Month.He will be joined by Secretary of Human Services Robert Hofmann, Christine Zachai, Executive Director of the Permanent Fund for the Well-Being of Vermont Children, and members of the state’s mentoring community at Union Elementary School in Montpelier.*
“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,” said Governor Douglas.“Mentoring just makes sense – we can all remember times when we needed another person to lean on.And, mentoring has also been proven to be an effective investment in a young person’s life.”
The Governor will speak to the ongoing success of the Vermont Mentors! initiative he championed during the 2006 legislative session: a partnership between the Agency of Human Services (AHS) and The Permanent Fund for the Well-Being of Vermont Children, which has been linking mentors and mentees throughout the state – matching nearly 800 Vermont children with caring adults over the past three years and anticipating over 1,000 matches by the end of 2010.
The Governor will recognize Chittenden Bank’s generous commitment to mentoring with the second “Vermont Mentors! Mentoring Champion Award”.Many of their branches in Vermont support the mentoring movement through giving their employees work-release time, allowing programs to recruit in the workplace, offering office and meeting space and helping to financially support their local mentoring programs.This generous bank knows that a healthy community is just as important as a healthy bottom line.
Adults interested in becoming a mentor to a young person in your communities should sign up with your local mentoring program by clicking on “Find a Program” and contacting for a program in your area.
* Due to very limited parking, please carpool or park in one of Montpelier’s long-term parking areas.
FROM THE NORTH or SOUTH – Take exit 8 off I-89.Go straight through three sets of lights.Take a left at the 4th set of lights onto Main Street.Go through one set of lights and take a right onto School Street (before the Kellogg Hubbard Library).UES is at the end of the street.
Presidential Proclamation – National Mentoring Month
A PROCLAMATION
Every day, mentors in communities across our Nation provide crucial support and guidance to young people. Whether a day is spent helping with homework, playing catch, or just listening, these moments can have an enormous, lasting effect on a child’s life. During National Mentoring Month, we recognize those who give generously of themselves by mentoring young Americans.
As tutors, coaches, teachers, volunteers, and friends, mentors commit their time and energy to kids who may otherwise lack a positive, mature influence in their lives. Their impact fulfills critical local needs that often elude public services. Our government can build better schools with more qualified teachers, but a strong role model can motivate students to do their homework. Lawmakers can put more police officers on our streets and ensure our children have access to high-quality health care, but the advice and example of a trusted adult can keep kids out of harm’s way. Mentors are building a brighter future for our Nation by helping our children grow into productive, engaged, and responsible adults.
Many of us are fortunate to recall a role model from our own adolescent years who pushed us to succeed or pulled us back from making a poor decision. We carry their wisdom with us throughout our lives, knowing the unique and timeless gift of mentorship. During this month, I encourage Americans to give back by mentoring young people in their communities who may lack role models, and pass that precious gift on to the next generation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 2010 as National Mentoring Month. I call upon public officials, business and community leaders, educators, and Americans across the country to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
