Fair Looks to Boost Mentoring Volunteers

An informational fair held Thursday evening at the reiterated a by its mentoring and tutoring coordinator: more mentors are needed.

Several groups came to the school to show what programs are available for prospective mentors. Peter Schulteis, community outreach coordinator for the city of New London, said the hope is to create a collaborative organization of all available mentoring services.

Dr. Nicholas Fischer, superintendent of , said the schools try to find mentors for children who spend the majority of the day alone or have nowhere to go after school. He said mentors are critical for connecting students with services and activities available to them, and that for every person who signs up to mentor the schools could use four more. The school will let anyone who is interested know what the expectations of the volunteer work are, he said.

“If there’s one single thing you need to commit to, even if it’s for a half-hour a week, it’s showing up,” said Fischer.

Diane Raffanello, senior program coordinator with the Governor’s Prevention Partnership, said the organization works with about 150 mentoring groups serving 12,000 kids. She said children with mentors are more likely to stay in school and have pride in the school, and said the programs are strong in New London but for the need for more volunteers.

“When you mentor a person, two lives change and it’s well worth it,” she said.

Mayor Martin Olsen said he has been with the mentoring program at the middle school for three years, and encouraged the attendees to get involved by signing up to help. Curtis Goodwin, who is heading the mentoring division of New London Anti-Violence, said not every child is fortunate and that the time commitment should not be a discouraging factor.

“We need you, and our community needs you,” said Goodwin.

The meeting also heard a brief presentation from Carly Allard and Cristina Moren, who work with ’s co-ed and girls only mentor programs. Joe Petroff, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeastern Connecticut, said a strong adult influence in a child’s life can help them build trusting relationships with their parents and teachers. He said the organization is currently looking to match 50 children with adults.

“It’s friendship,” he said. “Mentoring is a very used word right now, but it’s friendship.”

The event also presented awards to Olsen and Petroff, as well as community outreach officer Antonio Gooding and police officer and youth leader Anthony Nolan, for their work with mentoring efforts.