Welcome Nydia!

Spectrum Mentoring is pleased to introduce Nydia Guity. Nydia is a senior Bachelors in Social Work student at the University of Vermont who will be doing her field practicum with our program. Her office hours will be 9am-5pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays until May 09.
Nydia hails from NYC, The Bronx more specifically. She will be reachable via email at nguity@spectrumvt.org and phone 864-7423 ext. 204.

Match of the Month for September: Linda O'Brien and Nina

For the month of September, we are so pleased to honor Linda O’Brien and her mentee, Nina, for match of the month. Although their friendship started much earlier, they will celebrate their one year match anniversary with Spectrum on September 28th.

Congratulations!!!

Linda never considered any kind of volunteer work with young people, but then one day the girl who lived next door “plunked herself down on my couch, we’ve been friends ever since.” Nina clearly chose Linda as her surrogate grandmother—being neighbors made it very easy to hang out with each other often. Since then, Nina has moved down the road but not out of Linda’s life—they have continued their friendship and enhanced it by joining Spectrum’s Mentoring Program.
Joining a mentoring program has allowed this pair to participate in several organized mentoring activities like the National Mentoring Month celebration at Memorial Auditorium last January and our program’s annual beach party in July. Other activities the two enjoy include shopping, movies, eating out, and spending time together on the golf course. Most of all though, Linda and Nina take great pleasure in talking to each other and having time where they can each listen and be listened to.

CONGRATULATIONS again on being matched for one year!

Hats Off to Summer

Here we are in August and it feels so much as though summer just got started. I guess that's the way it goes in Vermont. I hope you've enjoyed nice weather outings with your matches, tried a few new things, and simply had fun with a young person.
I wanted to take this chance to fill you in on some of the goings on with Spectrum Mentoring. This Thursday the 7th is Deborah Lewis' last day here with us at Spectrum. She has accepted a position teaching middle school students in Honduras and leaves the 8th on that adventure. If you haven't had a chance to wish her well, feel free to be in touch with her this week.
I (Deanna) will be on vacation from Aug. 11-Aug 27. If you have any pressing needs while I'm gone, you can contact my supervisor, Joan White at extension 330 or jwhite@spectrumvt.org. She will, however, be out of the office Aug. 25th and 26th so for those two days, Mark Redmond is your best contact at extension 209 or mredmond@spectrumvt.org. Hopefully there won't be too many pressing issues while I'm gone!
On September 9th, I will have a social work student intern starting with me for the coming academic year. Her name is Nydia Guity and she hails from The Bronx. She will be learning all aspects of the volunteer/mentor program here at Spectrum so you'll all have a chance to interact with her. Alas, she will be the only other person working here with me as I did not receive an A*VISTA for the coming year.
Program News: We have 38 matches currently. I should be able to make a couple more matches very soon after my vacation. I also expect to train about 5 new mentors in September as well.
I would love to hear what you all have been up to. I'm wondering if our program again had representation in the annual Dragonboat Races as it has for the last couple of years. What a great thing to blog about--hint, hint!
Enjoy the rest of your August!

Match of the Month for August: Lisa Jacques and Heather

For the month of August, we are so pleased to honor Lisa Jacques and her mentee, Heather, for match of the month. On July 12th, this pair celebrated their first anniversary of being matched!

Congratulations!!!

Having benefited from mentors in her own life and seeing our program’s recruitment ad in a Fletcher Allen newsletter, Lisa decided to apply to be a mentor with Spectrum. With two teenage daughters of her own as well as having gone through her own struggles as a young person, Lisa felt uniquely qualified to provide guidance to another young woman.
Heather was working with another Spectrum program when she learned about the mentoring program. She hoped to be matched with someone fun who liked the things that she liked—swimming, movies, bowling and animals. Being a fairly active young person, she was a good match with Lisa.
Since being matched, Lisa and Heather have enjoyed going out to eat together, having their nails done, visiting pet stores, swimming and seeing movies. Heather has even begun taking classes to become a veterinary assistant. She says of Lisa, “we have things in common that we like to do.” Lisa enjoys Heather’s chattiness when they spend time together.

CONGRATULATIONS again on being matched for one year!

2nd Annual Mentoring Beach Party

Sorry it's taken me a couple of days to get this in the blog, but I've been so busy fielding phone calls and emails from mentors telling me how much they enjoyed the beach party on Friday. It's been so great to hear such positive reactions to the event. Alot of the credit should go to both Mark Redmond (Spectrum Ex. Dir.) and to Joan White (Dev. Dir.) for their ideas on how to bring excitement to the event in ways that would appeal to young and old alike. Having the event catered made the night stress-free for those of us putting it on and left us to simply enjoy the time with the mentors and mentees. Sugar Snap provided a wonderful spread of sandwiches and salads which allowed some of the folks there to try some new foods.

The organized games were a lot of fun, too. The water balloon toss was very exciting and a little wet. Congratulations to Brian and Simon on thier win of that event. Sally and Tabby won Spectrum's version of Match Game which was an interesting look into how well our matches know each other. Congratulations to this pair as well.

Thanks to all of you who attended and we missed those who were not able to attend. I'm really looking forward to planning next year's event!

Check Out Mark's Blog on Mentoring

http://spectrumyouthandfamilyservicesblog.blogspot.com/

Read This Great Sunday Editorial on Mentoring

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/OPINION/806290303/-1/ARCHIVE

July Match of the Month: Robyn Stattel and Amanda

For the month of July, we are so pleased to honor Robyn Stattel and her mentee, Amanda, for match of the month. On July 2nd, this pair will celebrate their first anniversary of being matched!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Having had experience working in schools with young people in the past, Robyn knew she enjoyed assisting this population. She also knew how stressful it can be. She deciding mentoring would be the perfect way for her to be involved with youth without the demand of a full-time position in the field. “With mentoring, it’s all the good without the bad of being in a school situation (like punishment),” Robyn stated during the matching process. On her application, Robyn wrote that she remembers being a teenager and that with her care and patience she could assist another young girl with this difficult stage of life.
Amanda was referred to mentoring by her counselor who felt that she could benefit from a positive role model as well as from having the opportunity to get assistance with career planning. Amanda stated that she had a mentor as a youngster and that it was a “great experience”—she definitely looked forward to having a mentor again.
Since being matched, Robyn and Amanda have spent a lot of time together walking, talking and going out for pizza. On one of their early outings, Robyn’s car broke down and the pair was forced to walk quite a distance in order to get help. Robyn wrote, “…we put one of my dogs on a leash and we traded off carrying my other dog back into Burlington! She was great…”
Amanda is pretty quiet when asked about her mentor, but she gets a little grin on her face and says simply, “she’s awesome.”
CONGRATULATIONS again on being matched for one year!

www.kingdomcounty/calendar/

The Voices Project

A great activity for you and your teenage mentee!

Shout it Out is an original musical based on the lives of Vermont teens. The feature film is an adaptation of the groundbreaking original stage musical The Voices Project that toured to thirteen towns across Vermont in 2005 and was based on writings by Vermont teenagers with original music by teens. The stories and characters were developed during an intensive, yearlong statewide research phase in which more than 1000 teens participated.Shout it Out tells the story of a group of teenagers making their way through high school. The film follows them through some of the more tumultuous moments of teenagehood: academic pressure; friction with peers, teachers, and parents; trying to fit in, trying to find one’s self, fear of the future; nostalgia for the past; friendship; and first love.
Shout it Out is a raw, real, revealing, compassionate, powerful, funny and ultimately affirmative look at the transformative powers of young people The songs are dynamic and range from love songs to rap and hip-hop.

Shout it Out is about listening to the voices of youth, respecting and honoring their struggles and aspirations and hearing their voices loud and clear!

Mature Themes.

Match of the Month for June

Marybeth Redmond and Madina

For the month of June, we are so pleased to honor Marybeth Redmond and her mentee, Madina, for match of the month. On June 7th, this pair will celebrate their first anniversary of being matched!

Congratulations!

Several years ago, Marybeth and her husband, Mark (yes, Spectrum’s own Executive Director!), hosted a Somali Bantu refugee family who had just arrived here in the United States. For several weeks, the Redmonds provided a home for the family and showed them a whole new way of living here in the United States. In a short time, the family moved into a home of their own and began a new life here in America. It wasn’t difficult for Marybeth with her warm nature to forge a relationship with all of the children in this family, but with the oldest, there was a special bond. Being the oldest child in her own family, she was aware of the unique position this can put a young girl in. Madina also faced additional challenges as she helped her mother and younger siblings acclimate to a new culture. Marybeth saw the potential to provide her with a stable, supportive, inspiring example of adulthood.
Together, Madina and Marybeth enjoy fun, outdoor activities. They’ve been able to visit many local attractions like the corn maze at Mazza’s, Church Street , and the Champlain Valley Fair (Madina’s personal favorite). They’ve also been bowling together and seen a few shows in the area. Marybeth states Madina “has a positive attitude and a deep desire to learn and understand other people.” Madina loves to remember going to the fair with Marybeth and looks forward to doing so again this year. According to her “that was the best day ever!”

CONGRATULATIONS again on being matched for one year!

Here's What's Happening

Just a quick note to let you know some of what is going on.

• Our next new mentor training is scheduled for Monday, June 9th and I've invited 15 people to it. I doubt that I will be training that many folks, but we definitely have a steady stream of mentor applicants. This is a little unusual as we come into the summer months--a notoriously slow time in the world of volunteer management.
• Plans are well underway for the BBQ scheduled for July 11th. We hope that everyone enjoys all of the changes that we're planning for it. :)
• I will be out of the office June 11, 12 and 13 as my family transitions from school to summer vacation. After that, my in-office schedule will be varied from week to week as I'll be at the mercy of summer camp start and end times. As a rule, I'll be in the office at least from 9:15 until 3:45 but many weeks will have me in the office longer hours than this.
• The mentoring program is now fully on board with using a new data keeping system and will be measuring program success a bit differently as a result. I thank all mentors and kids who have so quickly filled out the annual evaluation as required by a particular grant we receive. Spectrum will be adding a new online evaluation for both mentors and mentees and we plan to execute this bi-annually in October and April.

Thanks For Forwarding Our Email

By now, you should have all received Spectrum Mentoring Program's email asking you to forward on to one (or more!) friend the message of mentoring. If each mentor in our program (currently 37!) gets just one of their friends to become a mentor with us, we could double our program size just like that. Not to mention completely eliminate our waiting list of young people who are eager to be matched with someone!

I really appreciate your being willing to pass this email along!

Match of the Month for May

Mary Mesirow and Olivia

For the month of May, we are so pleased to honor Mary Mesirow and her mentee, Olivia, for match of the month. On May 12th, this pair will celebrate their third anniversary of being matched!
Congratulations on 3 Years!

A number of years ago, in her capacity as an educator at Champlain Valley Union High School, Mary began working with Olivia. Olivia had moved a lot up until this time and didn’t have too many adults in her life whom she could count on since she really never had a chance to settle into a place for very long. Mary recognized both this and a great potential in Olivia. When Olivia again moved on from CVU, Mary didn’t want to lose the connection she had established with Olivia and sought out a way that she could continue to be a positive, enduring influence in Olivia’s life. A friend of Mary’s recommended she get involved with Spectrum’s Mentoring Program and have this program serve as a support for this already well-established match.
After talking with Olivia about it, Mary pursued becoming a part of our program. She went through the required screening and training in order to become an official match with the program—that was three years ago.
Now, Olivia and Mary live about 70 miles away from each other. Even with this great distance separating them not to mention the enumerable frost heaves and potholes along the way, this pair continues to get together regularly. Typically they’ll meet up in Burlington and either catch a movie or get a bite to eat. This geographic distance between them is challenging, but a big part of their relationship is riding together and having the chance to talk. It’s also a great testament to the strength of their relationship that they continue to meet even with half a state between them.
CONGRATULATIONS again on being matched for three years!

VT's Working With Youth Conference

I was fortunate to be able to attend this conference this past Friday. One of the workshops I attended was on Life Coaching and I found it to be very useful for mentoring. One of Jo Romano's staff presented on the topic and ran a very interactive discussion of the principles of life coaching. If you'd like to learn more about Jo and her program, the website is www.greenmountainlifecoach.com.
Very briefly, some of the principles we went over were:

• Hearing Without Reacting
• Connecting with your Client (mentee)
• Reflecting Back
• Responding
• Tuning In
• Being Fully Present
• Letting go of Ego, Truth, Attachment and Judgment

I was excited about incorporating some of what I learned into our new mentor training as it really speaks well to the process of mentoring.

I'm happy to share more of what I learned so feel free to ask for a copy of the materials I received.

Federal Child Welfare Test Fails Children

By Mark Redmond

Last year, I had my first experience with the federal Child and Family Services Review (CFSR), which many people in child welfare have come to dread. This is the process in which each state is assessed once every six years for what the U.S. Administration for Children and Families (ACF) calls "substantial conformity with certain federal requirements for child protection, foster care, adoption, family preservation, family support and independent living services."
A 60-person team from the ACF's Children's Bureau traveled to Vermont in order to read case records, review policies and meet with local child welfare officials, caseworkers, parents, foster youth and stakeholders. That's where I came in. Because I am executive director of an organization funded by the Vermont Department of Children and Families, the department invited me to participate.
In the lead-up to the visit by the feds, several meetings were held between stakeholders such as myself and Vermont child welfare officials. The officials said they were fairly certain of which areas would be labeled as a "strength" for the state, and which would be cited as an "area needing improvement." At one meeting I asked, "How do you think you will do in terms of your response rate to abuse and neglect calls?"
I asked this because I knew from the Federal Child Maltreatment 2005 report that among 38 states examined, Vermont had the lowest "screened in" rate - that is, the rate at which calls alleging abuse or neglect of a child are accepted to be investigated. The national rate for the investigation of abuse and neglect calls is 62 percent, while Vermont's rate is 19 percent. Naturally, I deduced that this would be an area of great concern to the CFSR team.
A Vermont official answered, "The CFSR doesn't cover this."
I slumped in my chair. The only thing I could think to say was, "I can't believe that. I am absolutely amazed."
I do not believe that states should investigate every single allegation of abuse or neglect that comes to their attention. According to the federal Child Maltreatment report, Arizona does this - it has a 99.2 percent acceptance rate - and I think it is a mistake. There is no easier way for a person to seek revenge on a relative, ex-spouse or neighbor than by calling the local child protection agency and stating, "I think I see bruises on his daughter." Next thing you know, an investigator is knocking on the door. Some element of judgment must come into play before launching a full-fledged investigation.
But in my mind, the CFSR is severely deficient by not even looking at this. The CFSR measures 45 items, including the stability of foster care placements, placement with siblings, worker visits with children and how quickly the child welfare system acts on cases it has accepted for investigation. But the CFSR does not rate how a state's child protection system performs on the very bedrock of its mission: How well does it respond to claims of child abuse or neglect?
It is incredible to me that the Children's Bureau would use its time and money to visit all 50 states once every six years, but fail to evaluate how each state performs in this most basic of measures.
To be fair, the final report that the bureau issued for Vermont included several notations related to this issue, such as, "Stakeholders noted that as a result of this uncertainty, many reports are screened out (that is, they are not referred for an investigation or assessment), which can result in many children being left at risk of harm." Nevertheless, for the federal government to not have this as one of the official items by which a state is rated, and to count on stakeholders to speak up to point it out, is a major failing of the oversight process.
To their credit, Vermont child welfare officials have decided to change the way they respond to abuse and neglect calls. They are creating a central intake team to receive calls, with one toll-free number for citizens to call to report suspected abuse or neglect (a common practice in some other states). Vermont is revising its policies for the acceptance and investigation of such calls.
I hope this brings Vermont's 19 percent acceptance rate closer to the national average. If that means hiring more investigators, thus driving up costs, so be it. I believe the public will support expenditures that concern child safety.
Even more importantly for all states, I hope the federal government reassesses its methodology for overseeing the performance of child welfare systems in this crucial area.

VT Kin As Parents Presents: 4th Annual Kinship Care Conference

For those of you who are mentoring a youth who is living in the care of family member other than Mom and Dad, you may find this conference very informative in your work with your mentee. If you do decide to attend, be sure to report back on this blog what you thought of the conference and any helpful information you think others would benefit from.
http://www.uvm.edu/conferences/kinshipcare/

Check Out Mark's Latest Op Ed on Mentoring

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/OPINION/804040305/1006/RSS06

2008 Empty Bowl Dinner a GREAT Success

Just a very quick note to say a special thank you to the mentoring pairs who helped out with this event: Colleen Montgomery and Samantha along with Kristin Dearborn and Shanna. You all were a great help during this hectic event.

Shanna left us a little note that I have tacked up over my desk:

"Thank you Staff,

I want to thank you for a good opportunity to give back all that I have gotten"

Spectrum raised $11,500 at this event which will go towards providing meals to the youth who use our Drop In Center!

Adam Bortz and Dennis Celebrate 5 Years Matched

Here is the recent write up in the Burlington Free Press...

Local Mentor Match Celebrates Five Years Together

Burlington, VT
Tuesday, January 30th, 2008

Spectrum Youth and Family Services held a five year anniversary party last Tuesday to honor Adam Bortz of South Burlington and his now twenty-year-old mentee, Dennis. Twenty of Spectrum's mentor matches attended the dinner and recognition ceremony. "It was a wonderful opportunity to see what mentoring is all about," commented Liz Barron, Spectrum mentor. "You see the bond that these two share and realize the true impact that mentoring has."

Adam and Dennis have explored many different activities throughout their five years together. They have cooked, gone climbing, and waited in line at midnight for the latest Harry Potter book. "The bond that Adam and Dennis have forged is undeniable," says Deanna Cameron Spectrum Mentoring Coordinator. Though mentoring takes very little time each week, it can positively affect the lives of both the mentor and the mentee. Mentees understand that there is a caring and consistent adult who values them. Mentors feel connected, both to our community and to our community's youth.

"I know that with Adam, I can just be who I am and he isn't judging me," says Dennis. From the age of fifteen to twenty, through these formative years and into adulthood, Dennis can count on Adam to always be there. The mentoring relationship has essentially formed into a lifelong friendship. Spectrum is proud to celebrate their first five year mentoring match with Dennis and Adam.

The Spectrum Mentoring Program is a community-based mentoring program that matches responsible adult volunteers with adolescents from Spectrum between the ages of eleven and twenty-one. Mentor matches participate together in various activities in order to build a trusting relationship from which the youth can draw support. Spectrum undertakes its mission with the conviction that mentored youth benefit from positive adult role models.

If you would like more information on becoming a mentor, visit www.spectrumvt.org or call (802) 864-7423 ext. 343.

Tips for Mentors on Discussing Sexuality with Mentees

Hi Mentors,

I just finished editing (after scanning) a great document that a mentor passed along to me. This mentor had attended the training in February on sexuality that was put on by Planned Parenthood. I know some of you were fortunate to have been there for this great training, but for those who didn't get to go, I have this great list of tips for delving into this topic with your mentee. Please let me know if I can forward a copy of it to you.


This same mentor also reminded me of a really amazing book that she and her mentee had decided to pick up: Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Book Collective.

This has something for EVERYONE and is a great, no-nonsense approach to learning about our bodies. Teens so need this information as they go through the inevitable changes of adolescence. Also, there is a lot for most any adult to learn as well.



I wish you all a very blessed Easter and/or Passover season!



Deanna

Check Out Mark's Blog on Mentoring

If you haven't had a chance to check out Spectrum's Executive Director's latest post about mentoring, check it out at http://spectrumyouthandfamilyservicesblog.blogspot.com/

It's March...Where's Spring?

Hello Mentors!
As the title of this post will indicate, I'm just a bit antsy for spring. I can just feel the little extra warmth in the sunshine so I know it's coming, but I'm pretty impatient for it. I bet you all are feeling the same way. After this terribly long winter, my guess is that you're eager to get outside to do stuff with your mentees. I think if we all keep the faith for spring, we might just be able to coax it along a little more quickly.
We've been working on some new evaluative criteria for our mentoring program. Consultant Trine Bech is taking our program through the Results Based Accountability model. I encourage all of you to check this link to her website for more information: http://familyoutcomesvt.com/resources.html

Some of what will change for you as mentors is that we hope to have all of the 6 month evaluations done online with Survey Monkey. This will be pretty easy to accomplish with mentors as you all have access to computers. It will be trickier with the kids so I will be enlisting help from all of you to get your mentee to a computer if they can't access one any other way. Between public computer labs, your personal computer and my office, I think we'll be able to reach everyone to get the surveys done. Something else that will change are the questions on the surveys. There will less than 10 questions (I think the kids will have 4) on these surveys and my hope is that they will ask for meaningful information that is easily answered.

I'd love to hear any comments any of you may have about this so please feel free to share them.

Deanna on Vacation until March 3, 2008

I will be out of the office for the coming week. No, I'm not going anywhere warm. It's school vacation so I'll be home with my daugther for the week. We hope to check out a movie or two and maybe get outside for some sliding.
If you're going to be around this coming week, it might be a great time to spend some extra time with your school-aged mentee--all of the local schools are on vacation so it might be possible to change up your meeting time. Or some other get-together ideas:

• Take Your Mentee To Work Day--show them what you do in a typical day at your job
• Do Lunch--there are several breakfast and lunch only restaurants in the area
• Start a Project--school vacation might give you the extra time you need for it
• Visit the VT Statehouse--go to http://www.leg.state.vt.us/ for more information

What other ideas do you have??? Share them here!

See you all in March!

Deanna

Welcome Mentors!

Hello Spectrum Mentor!
If you’re reading this, then you have found your way to the new Spectrum Mentoring Program blog and are seeing the first entry into it.
Now, even though I consider myself pretty computer savvy, this is the very first time I have ever “blogged” so please bare with me as I find my way with how to do this thing.
I was just looking over Spectrum’s Executive Director’s blog and see that he includes a lot interesting anecdotes on his as well as high profile spots about Spectrum. Now, Mark is a very accomplished writer so when he makes a blog entry, it’s truly a literary work. I’m not sure I possess such prowess but I promise to do my best.
For those of you who weren’t able to attend the Jan. 29th dinner to celebrate Dennis and Adam’s 5 years of being matched, you missed a wonderful evening of mentoring camaraderie! It was pretty hard not to become comrades during the event as there were 20+ people squeezed around our boardroom table meant to seat about 14. The food was wonderful (special thanks to Kountry Kart Deli and Deborah for ordering it!) and I think the kids really enjoyed the time together. I know that most of you mentors feel that you are a part of something larger here at Spectrum, but it can be really hard to convey that same feeling to the youth. That dinner made me feel though that at least those few youth who were in attendance do see the larger picture of mentoring and of being a part of Spectrum.
January was certainly a busy and exciting month as it always is with celebrating National Mentoring Month. I hope all of you were able to enjoy at least some of the festivities that were going on throughout the month. I was able to attend the Thank Your Mentor Breakfast and also the press conference with the Governor—please check that out on the link from the E-newsletter. Now, with February here, hopefully all of the publicity will bring in lots and lots of mentor applicants. Don’t forget to tell your friends how much you enjoy being a mentor!

Check out CCTV Channel 17, www.cctv.org for the new show on mentoring in Chittenden County!

Now it’s your turn…what do you have to say to the other mentors at Spectrum?