From gathering the very first adult mentors with student “mentees” in 2000, Guilford Youth Mentoring (GYM) has grown into the award-winning, school-based mentoring program that this community has come to count on for pairing caring adults as mentors with Guilford students who can benefit from their attention.

Since 2015, GYM Program Coordinator Lisa Ott has helped to foster and grow the program, which relies on volunteer adults from the community (and beyond) to step up and show support that’s been proven to help Guilford children thrive.

January is National Mentoring Month, but every month is an important month in the world of mentoring, says Lisa.

“We try every year to recognize our mentors in many ways. We encourage people to thank their mentors, and we put up posters at Cilantro’s to recognize our mentors and everything they bring to the community — and also to attract new mentors because there’s always a need.”

Lisa grew up in Guilford and has raised her family here, as well. From a young age, Lisa says her parents modeled to her the importance of contributing to their community.

“My family moved to Guilford when I was 4 and, all the time I was growing up, I watched my parents pitch in to make the town a better place,” she says. “I’ve seen how important intergenerational relationships are for kids within my own family and want that for as many Guilford kids as possible. My husband and kids have served as mentors, and my daughter, who is an occupational therapist, ran a [GYM] training on sensory integration.”

Several years before Lisa stepped into the role of GYM Program Coordinator, she was first attracted to join GYM as a mentor in a way that still makes her smile when she talks about it.

“I was walking across the Green and bumped into my dad, who was heading over to a mentoring celebration. I tagged along to learn more,” says Lisa. “I studied psychology-based human relations and trained as a teacher, worked in youth services in Deep River and Guilford, and had mostly been home with my kids for 10 years.”

At the time of her walk with her dad on the Green, Lisa was also the Youth Empowerment Coordinator at Women and Family Life Center in Guilford. As for the outcome of tagging along to that GYM celebration, Lisa says, “...my dad didn’t get hooked, but I did.”

For the next three years, Lisa was a mentor to a Guilford High School (GHS) student. When Lisa’s mentee graduated, long-serving GYM Program Coordinator Barbara Solomon asked Lisa to come aboard on staff as GYM Assistant Coordinator.

Lisa worked with Barbara for six years and, upon Barbara’s retirement in 2015, became the next GYM Program Coordinator. That same year, Lisa moved into GYM’s offices inside the new GHS building with her team, which included current GYM Program Administrator Lisa MacDougald and former GYM Assistant Coordinator Simona Nerney. GYM Assistant Coordinator Sheila Shay is the newest member of the three-person GYM staff.

“It was wonderful to take the helm of a program with such a solid foundation, which still had room for us to put our own mark on it,” says Lisa. “Our award-winning program has been a part of Guilford schools since 2000, and we do our best to provide mentors for any Guilford Public Schools student who would like one. But we didn’t want to rest on our laurels.”

The team dove into deeper research on mentoring that included forming a relationship with the Search Institute. The nonprofit organization collaborates with partners to conduct and apply evidence-based research promoting positive youth development and advancing equity.

“After receiving many emails from the Search Institute about workshops in Minnesota that particularly interested us, one day I called them up to see if they ever ran workshops on the East Coast,” Lisa says. “They let me know that if I could find a location, they would be happy to come to Connecticut. So, Guilford Youth Mentoring found ourselves sponsoring an international conference on positive youth development.”

The team also keeps up with research through the national organization MENTOR, which launched National Mentoring Month in 2002. In a press release announcing January 2024 as National Mentoring Month, MENTOR notes that the month represents “... a time for Americans to celebrate the power of relationships, drive meaningful change, and expand quality mentoring opportunities for the nation’s youth, among other programs.”

In addition to the hardworking GYM staff, Lisa is grateful for the extraordinary support of the all-volunteer GYM advisory board.

“We’ve got a wonderful board with a whole variety of backgrounds and experiences and ideas and expertise. They’re terrific to work with,” says Lisa.

Of course, the GYM success story would not exist without the devotion and dedication of so many community members and organizations that have stepped up to fill mentoring roles through the years, she adds. Many GYM mentors start off with mentees in their elementary school years, staying together with them through high school graduation.

“We have lots of shorter relationships that are just as important, but our record is 13 years together,” Lisa notes.

Prior to COVID, GYM had approximately 165 mentors volunteering throughout Guilford Public Schools.

“As a result of the pandemic, our numbers dropped significantly, but we made over 30 matches last year, and we are well on our way to back to where we want to be,” says Lisa.

Lisa is also a founding member of Guilford DAY (Developmental Assets for Youth), a program that works to create a healthier community for Guilford youth. From 2009 through the fall of 2023, Lisa served as an adult co-chair for Guilford DAY.

While every effort Lisa undertakes to assist Guilford’s youth is meaningful, her experiences in the service of GYM may well be among the most profound.

“Mentors help build assets in kids in all sorts of ways, most importantly by demonstrating that our youth are important and that they matter,” Lisa says. “Mentors help kids dream bigger than they thought possible by being a sounding board, a cheerleader, and most of all, just being there.”

For more information about GYM or to volunteer to become a mentor, visit guilfordmentoring.org.