Two Upper Valley mentoring groups are seeking volunteers to spend time with school-age children in the region.
Fall can be a particularly busy time for matches because educators start to send in referrals for students that they think can benefit from having another reliable adult in their lives, said Matthew Garcia, executive director of Windsor County Mentors.
The Windsor-based nonprofit organization, which facilitates matches in Windsor County, as well as Sullivan County and the Kearsarge Regional School District in New Hampshire, has 50 to 55 active mentor/mentee pairs.
“We’d love to get that to 65 to 70 in the fall, but I don’t know if we’ll get there,” Garcia said in a phone interview.
Mentors must be 21 and older and pass a background check. People can volunteer through the school program, where they primarily spend time with mentees in a school setting during the academic year, or the community program where they spend time with their mentee year round. Prospective mentors are asked to commit to meeting with their mentees six to eight hours a month for at least a year.
“In Claremont and Newport, we could use a lot more,” Garcia said. “There’s a lot of kids there who could be served.”
The Bradford, Vt.-based nonprofit Mentoring Project of the Upper Valley, which serves students in the Orange East and Rivendell Interstate school districts, currently has 17 matches, said executive director Anne Hatch.
There are two boys on the organization’s waiting list “which may not seem like a lot but they’ve been waiting for a couple months, but until I have them matched I’m not actively recruiting new families or kids,” Hatch said in a phone interview.
Prospective mentors must be 21 and older, pass a background check and able to spend at least five hours a month with their mentee.
Both organizations are actively recruiting mentors — even if they don’t have kids lined up yet because it is often harder to find mentors than kids who could benefit from the program.
“If I receive an application from a mentor and go through the onboarding process, I’m going to seek out and advertise an opening for a … mentee who will be a good match for that person,” Hatch said.
The organizations also try to match mentors and mentees who live geographically close so that it is easier for them to spend time together.
“It’s always better if we have mentors waiting,” Garcia said. “It’s easier to match quickly.”
Mentoring can have benefits for mentors, as well as mentees. Mark Rizzacasa has been volunteering through The Mentoring Project of the Upper Valley since January 2024. He had some spare time and was looking for a meaningful way to spend it, Rizzacasa, of Bradford, Vt., wrote in an email. He’d heard about the Mentoring Project of the Upper Valley and thought it would be a good fit.
“I don’t have kids yet and it made sense to be a part of something like this as a way to give back,” Rizzacasa, 35, wrote. “I understand the value of having positive male role models in my life, and thought I could try to do my part in being that for someone else.”
Rizzacasa was paired with a now 11-year-old boy. They spend around 12 hours a month together and participate in a variety of activities, such as trips to the Upper Valley Aquatic Center or the Montshire Museum of Science. Other times they just hang out and play video games.
“I really appreciate his enthusiasm and his ability to teach me things,” Rizzacasa said in a phone interview. “I like to really encourage that and show a deep interest in the things that he’s interested in.”
His mentee has also taught him how to fish.
“That wasn’t stuff I grew up doing or had really awareness of so he’s kind of showing me the ropes,” Rizzacasa said. “I’ve seen a lot of benefit in just being humble that way and allowing him to take charge in that way, empowering him.”
For more information about becoming a volunteer mentor, visit mentoringprojectuv.org for the The Mentoring Project of the Upper Valley or wcmentors.org for Windsor County Mentors.