Launch of Vermont Mentoring Database

Dear members of the Vermont mentoring community:

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Vermont Mentoring Database, a mentoring program data management system built by CiviCore and based on feedback and direct input from mentoring programs, funders, and Mobius staff over the past two years.  Moving forward, Mobius will manage this system, help new programs join, and provide ongoing trainings and technical support for users.

There are two levels of access to the system:

1. A free account (available to all mentoring programs in the state) which many of you have already used or are currently using to update information about your programs and agencies for your pages in the statewide mentoring directory, apply for grant funding from Mobius, and download mentoring materials.
2. A paid annual account (click here for pricing details) which will allow you to store and track ongoing information about your mentors and mentees, including valuable demographic and outcome data.   Programs will be able to manage match information, and mentors will both be able to apply and submit information about their mentoring sessions through the system.

Starting in mid-September, we will officially begin bringing interested programs on board to the full (paid) version of the system.  We will begin by hosting two introductory webinars:

• Thursday 9/12 (2:00 – 3:30 p.m.)
  
• Tuesday 9/17 (10:00 – 11:30 a.m.)

These webinars will allow mentoring representatives from around the state to get a tour of the system and also ask questions:  Click here to RSVP.

Mobius AmeriCorps VISTA member Daron Blake stopped by for a training with Spectrum mentoring coordinator Dee Johnson, one of seven Early Adopters of the Vermont Mentoring Database.

After these introductory webinars, we will begin working with programs from around the state on a first come first serve basis to get people onto the system.  We are grateful to our partners at the A.D. Henderson Foundation, who in addition to funding the design of the system, are also funding the first year of its implementation (the beta test period plus the first six months for programs joining this fall). The pricing structure, which will go into effect in April 2014, was developed based on input from programs who were willing to pay for a database but were unable to afford the cost of the national mentoring database, and was reviewed by the statewide members of the Program Leadership Council.  The program fees will allow Mobius to pay for CiviCore’s annual fee for hosting and maintaining the system, as well as allow for future additions to the system based on program feedback and needs.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Chad and myself at [email protected].  I look forward to connecting with many of you on the webinars in a couple weeks, and will send out information for connecting to the webinar the day before.  Thank you for all you do to support mentoring in your communities, and throughout the state of Vermont!

-Benji Thurber
Communications and Technology Manager