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CELEBRATING OUR 10TH YEAR OF MAKING A DIFFERENCE...
ONE HOUR AT A TIME

Guilford Youth mentoring is a unique collaboration of the Guilford Public Schools and volunteers from the local community. Our goal is to provide support, guidance and advocacy to children during their critical transition from childhood to adolescence. We began with 12 mentor/student pairs in Guilford High School in February 2000-now we now have over 150 student/mentor pairs in GHS, Adams Middle School, Baldwin Middle School, Calvin Leete, Melissa Jones, Guilford Lakes & the Cox elementary schools. In the 2007-08 school year, GYM's volunteers provided well over 6,000 hours of service to the children of Guilford. We currently have many new mentors in training as the program continues to grow.
Please Visit Our Fact Sheet Web Page for Additional Information about Our Program!

Click here to Downlaod a PDF Mentor Job Description

On February 10th, Guilford Youth Mentoring held it's Annual Mentoring Celebration. This was the kick-off of the 10th Year Celebration for GYM. The faces above are just some of the people attending the event!

MEET ALL THE MENTORS
by Dani Howard
Re-printed from the Guilford Courier

At Guilford Youth Mentoring, we are often asked about what traits or experience we look for in our mentors.  We also have people tell us that they would love to mentor, but they don’t think they would be very good at it.  This week we’d like to introduce you to all of our mentors so you can see exactly what kind of people we’re looking for.

There are now 140 of us volunteering in all of Guilford’s Public Schools.  We have 80 women and 60 men.  Our youngest mentor is 29 and our oldest 75, but we’re not naming any names. 

Some of us are Guilford natives, or at least native New Englanders.  Some grew up across the country and others across the world, but they volunteer their time just the same. 

As for how we spend our days, the differences are vast.  Some of us are retired, but most of us still work – some at professions you would not expect.  There are teachers, tutors and coaches, but also doctors, nurses, therapists, psychologists, and dentists’ and physicians’ assistants.

We have bankers, financial planners and investors to manage your money.  We have entrepreneurs to help you spend it.  We run our own businesses as mechanics, lawyers, realtors, tree specialists, printers, restaurateurs and sail makers, to name only a few.  We are writers and editors, engineers and police officers.

Some of us are professionals at things most people only get to do for fun.  We are musicians, artists, jewelry designers, chefs, travel consultants, event planners, yoga instructors, and tennis pros.  We have Presidents, VPs, CFOs, and CEOs, but no CIA…at least not that we know of. 

Hopefully, this laundry list of our volunteers has shown that it does not take a particular kind of person to be a mentor - just a kind person who can give special attention to a child.