Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Hinesburg Citizen
First, a global pandemic. Then, a devastating flood. For Everybody Wins! Vermont, expanding its childhood literacy program to Hinesburg has been a long journey.
Hinesburg Community School applied to the program before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it took until January to launch its reading mentorship program. The initiative pairs students with local community members for an hour of one-on-one reading each week.
“For a community like Hinesburg, where the community is small, the school is kind of the home,” said Janet Gray, site coordinator at Hinesburg Community School. “Everybody Wins gives the opportunity for people who might not regularly be in this school because they’re not parents, or their kids are older, to come in and see sort of what’s happening in the school.”
Since 2000, Everybody Wins! Vermont has partnered with schools across Vermont and New Hampshire. However, the pandemic forced the program online, disrupting in-person mentor relationships and delaying its intended expansion to towns like Hinesburg.
“We’re building back up,” said Kelly Bouteiller, the program manager for the western half of Vermont.
On top of the pandemic, the non-profit’s home office in Montpelier flooded in July 2023, further postponing the non-profit’s intended expansion into Hinesburg.
“There was COVID, and then there was that,” said Bouteiller, “So it’s been a lot of work for everybody involved — our staff, but also our community members — to get our programs back up and running at capacity and growing.
“To get another program up and running in this area was really exciting,” she said. “It’s been a long process.”
The expansion comes amid steady declines in Vermont students’ reading scores since COVID-19. Traditionally, Vermont students outperform their peers nationally, but last year, fourth-grade reading scores fell below the national average.
Only about 31% of the students surveyed scored at or above proficiency in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Everybody Wins! Hopes to reverse this decline by building years-long mentorships between individual students and adults.
The program has more than 400 pairings across the state ready to help raise Vermont’s literacy scores.
In Hinesburg, however, only about ten mentors have signed up, leaving many children still on a waiting list.
“It’s hard to find the people,” Bouteiller said, referring to potential volunteers. “It’s just kind of figuring out who are the people in the community, how do we reach them and then get them to apply?”
“I do feel like that background check and kind of the interview process is the most rigorous part of being a mentor,” Gray said. “Once you get through that process, I feel like people [think], ‘Oh, this isn’t all that.’ It’s not as heavy of a lift as I think it sounds.”
Gray said mentors in Hinesburg come from all walks of life. Many work from home and seem interested in engaging with the wider community.
Despite the difficulty of finding mentors, Gray believes the program will fill a void for community members left by the pandemic.
“Post-COVID, it’s been really hard to find opportunities [to engage with the school],” she said, “So this provides an avenue to get in and just get a vibe of what is going on in the school and see the good work that’s being done there.”
Gray believes the community will rally behind the program, ensuring lasting impact.
“That’s the best thing within Hinesburg, the more people that get excited about it, and tell their friends about it,” she said, the more volunteers will come.
“Even if somebody thinks that they don’t have the time to do it, if they can think about the people in their lives who might be willing and spread the word,” she said, that would be helpful.
Prospective mentors should email Gray at hinesburg@everybodywinsvermont.org.