Social Service - Windsor County Partners

25 Years of Mentoring Services for Windsor County Youths

Our youth mentoring program celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. The Vermont Commission on National and Community Service recognized our milestone with a Governor's Award for Outstanding Community Service while we continued to provide at-promise youth with positive, healthy, and supportive adult role models that help improve our youth's self-esteem, direction, and leadership potential.

Last year we supported 32 mentoring partnerships for children aged 10-17 throughout Windsor County. We served 10 Hartford residents. Our corps of committed Senior Partner volunteers spent over 3,780 hours with these children, providing them with guidance, modeling of healthy behaviors, and fun and wholesome activities and opportunities.

We also sponsored 13 activities allowing all of our Partnerships to get together and share a fun and cost-free activity. Each activity contained an anti-substance abuse component and fostered a congenial and fun-filled atmosphere completely devoid of violence, alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs. Partners especially enjoyed singing holiday carols to nursing home residents, climbing at The Wall, a pool and pizza party, and our 30th anniversary celebration picnic.

Our adult volunteers initially commit to meet for about three hours each week for a year with a child of the same sex. Many mentoring relationships last three or more years. All of our services are free of charge to the volunteers, children and families we serve.

The organization is in the process of finalizing a five-year strategic plan that seeks to expand the organization to support 100 mentoring partnerships by December, 2009. We request continued support of our work to better serve more of our area's youth.

For more information or to volunteer, please contact Mary Beth Heiskell, Executive Director, at (802) 674-5101 or (800) 491-5101 or windsorcountypartners@adelphia.net.

The Hartford Housing Authority | Windsor County Partners | Health Care & Rehabilitation of Southern Vermont | Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) | Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) | The Upper Valley Haven, Inc. | Women's Information Services (WISE) | The Vermont Center for Independent Living | Vermont Adult Learning | Visiting Nurse Alliance of Vermont and New Hampshire, Inc. | The Family Place | Headrest | Bugbee Senior Center | Advance Transit