Mobius and Chittenden County Mentoring affiliates have reached over 800 mentoring matches for the first time ever!

As the article on thriving volunteerism in the July 29th Free Press indicates, Mobius, The Mentoring Movement, notes that Chittenden County mentoring programs are serving more children than ever before. “My mentor taught me to never give up” sums up just one of the many benefits that mentoring offers children in these difficult times.

Mobius, an umbrella organization for Chittenden County based mentoring programs, is pleased to report that 817 local children now have the attention of another caring adult in their lives.  That number of mentor matches sets a new record for the region and represents five years of intensive recruiting efforts on behalf of Mobius and twenty area mentoring programs.  The number of matches seems to indicate something beyond effective recruiting, however.

Our community seems to be doing exactly what Vermonters always do when things get tough – they help each other.  Local people of all walks are keenly aware that many of our children need mentors now more than ever.  The economy is putting tremendous stress on families and kids feel it when their parents worry about jobs and household finances.  People are aware of that, and they are stepping up to the plate.  More and more, we get emails like this one: “I’ve been thinking for a long time that I would like to find a way to help local youth; becoming a mentor seems like the perfect way to do that right now.”  And they are right –  the timing of this spike in volunteerism couldn’t be better.

“Not many people have a mentor, so it makes you feel lucky for what you do have”, says one Burlington student.  Only 355 children had mentors when Mobius was formed six years ago.  Since then the number of adult-to-child mentor matches has grown steadily, breaking the 800 mark after an intensive recruitment campaign during National Mentoring Month in January of this year.  Working with numerous local mentoring programs within Chittenden County agencies, Mobius aims to grow the number of children with mentors to 1,500 by the end of 2011.  The current estimated need for mentors is 3,300.

The mentoring movement has a lot of support in this community.   We know that mentoring helps children avoid illegal drugs, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and other self-destructive behaviors.  Studies have shown that mentored children have more confidence, do better in school, and may even be less likely to commit crimes when they become adults.  The kids really love that someone is there to do things with them and give them undivided attention and in return they want to make us proud of them.

We applaud the citizens of our community for putting their compassion into action and we thank them for the recent growth in mentoring.  Mentoring gives us all a renewed sense of pride in community. Mentoring gives each of us a chance to do something truly meaningful by helping a child.  And here’s the most interesting and unexpected outcome – mentoring changes two lives, the mentee’s and the mentor’s.

Anyone interested in mentoring is encouraged to contact Mobius at 658-1888 or go to www.mobiusmentors.org to learn more.

Tags: chittenden county, Mentoring, volunteer, volunteerism