Demand #8

Year summary: This team has done incredible work this year, creating a handbook for multilingual mentorship program policies, as well as securing an $7,500 grant from Mentor Vermont to help with funding a Multilingual Mentor Coordinator position. They ran into obstacles when the legal team took several months to review the handbook before it could be approved, as well as the fact that there was not funding specifically designated for this position in the current ARSC and Action teams budget. The approved FY24 budget does not include funds for this position for the upcoming school year.  

The team continues to work on securing funding for a Multilingual Mentor Coordinator position, with plans to meet with the school board to determine how to make this possible for the upcoming school year. 

The team has made the recommended edits to the mentor handbook that they created. They are awaiting decisions from the administrative team about funding the position of Multilingual Mentorship Program Coordinator for the upcoming school year.

The team has encountered two roadblocks: securing funding for the Program Coordinator position, and approval of the mentorship handbook that they created. Their next step is to connect with area schools that have existing mentor programs, to learn about their successful processes of implementation. They are also planning on meeting with the administration to share youth testimonials of why a Winooski Multilingual Youth-specific program would be the best fit, rather than a program that serves all local youth. If you would like to express your support of the creation of this program, and/or share a testimonial about why mentorship is important to you, please contact Action Team Leader Maeve Poleman at mpoleman@wsdvt.org. 

The group presented a 2023-2024 funding plan for the position of Multilingual Learners Mentoring Director to the steering committee for their feedback. In the plan, they stated that they anticipate recruiting between 5-10 community members to begin working with students from a pool of up to 50 elementary, middle, and high school students. The steering committee had concerns about part of the director’s salary coming from fundraising, and will be meeting with the board and administration to address these concerns. 

This group has finished their handbook. They have been working with Mentor Vermont who can provide training and technical assistance. They created a job description and are hoping to hire a program coordinator once funding is secured. 

Discussed Logic Model from the Theory of Change Template that MentorVermont asked us to create. Next step is to complete the Theory of Change Template and send both to Mentor Vermont. 

Edited the job description for our future Program Director, Kirsten will talk to Nicole Mace and Sarah Haven about salary for this position. 

Review of Mentor Vermont program & application 

• Would provide technical assistance to get this off the ground by the fall

• Quickly and continuously 

• Not running our program 

• Would need a director of the program, can try to help with recruitment, want someone with a mentoring program 

• Oversee and provide assistance at no cost (grant funded)

Discuss decision process

• Ask the Steering Committee about partnering with Mentor Vermont 

• To then get technical assistance around program 

• Need to request a .5 FTE Program Director 

Review liability concerns about handbook

• Concerns about any in home visits

Next Steps 

• Kirsten will reach out to those who have expressed interest 

• Maeve will reach out Amelie and the Steering Committee 

• Ryan will ask Mentor Vermont how mentoring is organizing in other schools around in home visits vs at school 

They’ve continued recruiting mentors and identifying students interested in the program. They wrote a vision statement and are going through policies to include in their handbook. The school lawyer will look over it once they have a draft. They would also like to organize anti-bias, anti-racist, and student's rights trainings for mentors.

They continued working on the program handbook, mentor and mentee recruitment, and planning trainings for mentors. 

They recruited fifteen mentors. They will be working on writing up a program handbook that will have to be reviewed by legal consultants and the school's insurance company. They created a mentee interest survey. They would also like to organize anti-bias, anti-racist, and student's rights trainings for mentors.

This Action Demand Group attended an orientation by the Antiracism Steering Committee on Oct. 4, 2021. 

This group plans to meet on the third Tuesday of each month. They are working on recruiting youth.

They worked on identifying students who don’t have mentors and prioritizing them based on interest and needs. They are planning on connecting with local mentoring agencies for long-term planning and recruiting mentors.