WINDSOR — For close to half a century, adult mentors have helped children throughout Windsor County through life’s challenges.
Now, Windsor County Mentors is expanding its reach across the river to Sullivan County to assist youth ages 5 to 18.
“People have really come out of the blue saying ‘we’ve got kids, we’ve got kids, we’ve got kids,’” said Matthew Garcia, executive director of the Windsor-based nonprofit organization. “Oddly we’ve been overwhelmed by the response.”
Now staff are trying to recruit volunteers who want to work with youth, particularly in Claremont and Newport. While the organization has long wanted to expand, Garcia said the plans came to fruition when he was approached by people from the Sullivan County
“In my work I was really talking to a lot of people in the community, a lot of school staff, law enforcement, everyone and everyone I could talk to,” said Deryn Smith, community health partnership coordinator at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Population Health and substance misuse prevention coordinator for the Greater Sullivan County Regional Public Health Network. “Across the board everyone was on the same page that youth need mentors.”
The problem was that no one had the capability or capacity to build a mentoring program from the ground up. Instead, Smith reached out to Garcia who shared his goal of expanding to Sullivan County.
“People said there was a need and we said ‘hey let’s see if we can serve that need,’ ” Garcia said.
Both Smith and Garcia said it has worked out well so far.
“It was honestly perfect timing,” Smith said. “The reaction and the response that we’ve gotten from people in the community about it starting has been incredible. So we’re super excited and proud of that.”
Since the program launched earlier this year, staff from schools, recreation departments and Family Treatment Court, among other institutions, have referred dozens of kids who would benefit from mentoring.
“The list of kids who will be using this program is so long,” Smith said. “Recruiting the kids was super easy but it’s definitely more difficult to get those reliable adults.”
Garcia said the organization already has a pool of mentors who are interested and that matches with kids will start in the coming weeks.
“We look at the interests of the child and adult and try to put them together,” Garcia said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, kid referrals had slowed down and mentors have been eager to resume volunteering. Typically, the organization has between 40 to 60 pairs. Mentors must be age 21 and older. They go through an extensive background check process. Once matched, they’re asked to spend two hours a week with their mentees. If the match is through a school, that time is one-hour per week and pairs meet at the student’s school.
“We do try to match a mentor and mentee as close geographically as we can because we want them to be able to get together,” Garcia said.
While the organization asks for a mentor to commit for a year, it is not uncommon for those pairs to be together for five or six years. Smith pointed to evidence that shows youth who have adult mentors are more likely to graduate from high school and less likely to engage in substance misuse.
“It means having a reliable connection that they could meet with, learn from, feel safe with, talk about what’s going on at home, at school, any stressors in their lives,” she said. “Mentoring in general has such such a great outcome.”
Editor’s note: For more information about volunteering and to fill out an application, visit wcmentors.org, email info@wcmentors.org or call 802-674-5101. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
