2014-2015 Vermont Mentoring Grants

For the 2014-2015 Vermont Mentoring Grants funding cycle, Mobius granted $295,500 to agencies, school districts, and independent non-profits that manage adult-to-youth mentoring programs. This funding is supporting 100 new and existing program sites, and nearly 1,900 mentor pairs. Two grants were also made to support the planning phase of two new programs which intend to launch next year.

These grants were made through funding support from The Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children, the A.D. Henderson Foundation, and the State of Vermont. The criteria for this year’s granting process was determined collectively by our funding partners, Mobius staff, and the Program Leadership Council.

Grant Award Recipients

New Program Planning Grants
Mentoring Agency	Program	Program Type	# of Matches	Award Amount
Orleans Southwest Supervisory Union	Our Food Matters	N/A	N/A	$4,000
VSA Vermont	TBD	N/A	N/A	$4,000
First-Year Implementation Grants
Mentoring Agency	Program	Program Type	# of Matches	Award Amount
Addison Northeast Supervisory Union	Lincoln Mentors	School-based	8	$9,800
*The DREAM Program	Salmon Run (new site in Burlington)	Community-based	*See Continuing Support Grants	*See Continuing Support Grants
Second-Year Implementation Grants
Mentoring Agency	Program	Program Type	# of Matches	Award Amount
Addison Northeast Supervisory Union	Monkton Mentors	School-based	10	$4,600
Addison Northeast Supervisory Union	Mt. Abraham Union High School Mentoring	Community and School-based	10	$5,000
*Everybody Wins! Vermont	Vergennes and Bridport sites	School-based	*See Continuing Support Grants	*See Continuing Support Grants
Continuing Support Grants
Mentoring Agency	Program	Program Type	# of Matches	Award Amount
Addison Northeast Supervisory Union	Starksboro Mentoring Program	Community and School-based	28	$7,000
Cabot Connects Mentoring	Cabot Connects Mentoring	Community and School-based	28	$12,000
The Collaborative	The Collaborative Mentoring Program	School-based	8	$2,000
Chittenden South Supervisory Union	Connecting Youth Mentoring	School-based	135	$22,000
The DREAM Program	The DREAM Program	Community-based	285	$25,500 (includes first-year implementation listed above)
Essex CHIPS	Essex FriendCHIPS	School-based	24	$5,000
Everybody Wins! Vermont	Everybody Wins! Vermont	School-based	655	$51,000 (includes second-year implementation listed above)
Franklin County Caring Communities	Cornerstone Mentoring, Friends for Lunch, Royal Lunch Bunch, and Watershed Mentoring	Community and School-based	41	$9,000
Grand Isle County Mentoring	Grand Isle County Mentoring	School-based	42	$9,600
HowardCenter	Community Friends Mentoring	Community-based	75	$12,000
King Street Center	Junior Senior Buddies	Community-based	65	$10,000
The Mentor Connector	See What 2 Can Do	Community-based	96	$17,000
The Mentoring Project of the Upper Valley	The Mentoring Project of the Upper Valley	Community-based	12	$5,000
Milton Community Youth Coalition	Milton Mentors	Community-based	22	$8,000
Northeast Kingdom Youth Services	JUMP Mentoring	School-based	11	$1,000
Ottauquechee Community Partnership	Mentor and Buddy Program	Community and School-based	25	$6,000
South Burlington School District	SB Mentoring	School-based	50	$8,000
Spectrum Youth and Family Services	Spectrum Mentoring	Community-based	75	$14,000
Twinfield Together Mentoring Program	Twinfield Together Mentoring Program	Community and School-based	38	$13,000
United Counseling Service	Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bennington County	Community and School-based	60	$14,000
Washington Central Friends of Education	Girls Boyz First Mentoring	Community-based	38	$13,000
Windsor County Partners	Let’s Do Lunch, and Partners Always Lend Support	Community and School-based	55	$4,000

 

These Grants Were Designed to Fund….

• A planning process by a committed agency or group of diverse community members for the purpose of creating a quality mentoring program.
• The first-year implementation of new adult-to-youth mentoring programs.
• The growth of a new program in its second year of implementation.
• Supporting well-established quality mentoring programs that meet best practices.
• Supporting the vision of mentoring matches continuing through high school graduation.

 

Criteria for Determining Grant Awards

The amount of funding requested from qualified applicants exceeded the amount of funds available. The grant committee considered the following criteria when making grant award decisions:

• The quality of program practices: alignment with all the Vermont Core Standards for Mentoring and aiming toward implementing the National Mentoring Partnership’s Elements of Effective Practice – 3^rd Edition.
• Geographic location of program, and availability of other funding resources in the region.
• The sustainability of the mentoring program: the diversity of revenue sources, costs per match in alignment with Vermont costs for new and established programs (program type was taken into consideration), and overall financial stability of the program and/or agency.
• The diversity and level of engagement by the program’s advisory committee.
• Participation in collaborative statewide initiatives and conversations.
• Use of a quality program management system that tracks priority outcomes (use of the Vermont Mentoring Database is not required).
• An indication that the program commits to a vision of creating mentor matches that last through high school graduation.
• Tracking and sharing of priority data on program and youth outcomes.
• Efficient and effective use of resources.
• Achievement of past grant outcomes.

For full grant guidelines, please visit the Vermont Mentoring Grants page.

Eligible Funding Amounts

• New Program Planning: $1,000-$4,000
• First-Year Implementation: $10,000 max per program site
• Second-Year Implementation: Typically half of first-year grant award
• Continuing Support Grants: No limits

Grant Committee Members

Ben Doyle, Vermont Arts Council
Eddie Gale, A.D. Henderson Foundation
Paula Francis, Inspired Consultation