Village Impact Project is a mentoring program in Yellow Springs, Ohio whose mission is to provide children in the Yellow Springs area with responsible mentors from our community who share their interests and to help make a lifelong difference in both of their lives and in our village through monthly events with community partners. Our goals are 1) for all children in the community who want or need a mentor to have one who shares their interests, and 2) for the people in the program to become an integral part of the community through activities, fundraisers, and community services opportunities. Our motto is, “Changing our community two people at a time,” because we believe a mentoring relationship changes the adult as much as the child and that our entire community will change for the better because our young people have good role models and positive experiences within the community.
Most children involved in the program are from Yellow Springs School District, but children may also come from The Antioch School or another private school, be homeschooled, attend a school outside the district through open enrollment or an alternative school (such as the Greene County Learning Center or Outdoor Advantage through the Greene County Educational Service Center). Most children in our program are between the ages of 6-18, though exceptions can be made for older students who have not graduated by the age of 18.
My role with the Village Impact Project is focused on organization and planning fundraisers. However, my day-to-day experience is me sitting on my laptop categorizing files. Village Impact Project is a program I would be interested in continuing to work with because this experience is important for my future goal of being a social worker.
Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/VillageImpactProject/
