Windsor
Windsor County Partners has about 50 volunteers who participate in community mentoring, meeting directly with children in programs that aren’t facilitated through the school, and in a school program in Springfield. The organization is looking for at least eight mentors for the Windsor program, which is in its first year. Volunteers for that program must be available to go to the school on Thursdays at 12:45 p.m. for one hour throughout the school year.
Jennifer Grant, executive director of Windsor County Partners, said in a telephone interview that mentors enhance the lives of the children they work with in all areas.
“We really look at a whole-child approach,” she said. “The mentor is there to be a listener, a friend, a role model, to model a healthy lifestyle, and to help the child identify their values.”
At the school program, mentors will play games with kids, do crafts or just talk, she said. Because the program is administered during the school day, there does not have to be any contact with the child’s family.
Grant said that, whether in the classroom or in the community, having an adult role model outside the family helps kids and teens succeed.
“Mentoring has been shown to decrease risky behaviors, increase school attendance and volunteerism, and improve work-readiness,” she said. “In our surveys, 100 percent of youth in our programs report that having a mentor has made a difference in their lives.”
It also makes a difference in the lives of the adult mentors.
“Our mentors find that contact with a child helps them stay young and feel alive,” Grant said.
The intergenerational bond is important for the whole town, she added.
“Mentoring is a way to build healthy communities because we are connecting across generations, which is so rare in society today.”
The organization’s annual luncheon will be held Sept. 27, from noon to 1:30 p.m., at The Windsor Mansion Inn, 153 Pembroke Road, Windsor. The cost for that event is $25, and pre-registration is required. For more information, call 802-674-5101, email WindsorCM@outlook.com or visit www.windsorcountypartners.org.