On the sun-dappled grass at Burlington’s waterfront, 14-year-old Uson Karki dropped a soccer ball and dribbled it. Some 30 feet away, his mentor, Alex Demoly, waited to receive the pass.
“Watch, he’s gonna drill it at me,” Demoly, 25, said.
Uson did. Bouncing the ball off his head, he launched it across the lawn and sent Demoly running.
“How am I supposed to compete with that?” Demoly said with a grin.
The shootaround was a typical afternoon hang for Uson and Demoly, who were paired through King Street Center‘s youth mentoring program 18 months ago. The two go on hikes, discuss their dream cars and have even thrown the first pitches at a Vermont Lake Monsters baseball game.
Uson is lucky to have Demoly in his life, and not only because they share common interests. He’s one of 23 boys with a mentor at King Street, though plenty more have asked for one. At least 11 boys who attend the center’s afterschool program want a mentor. One incoming fourth grader has been waiting two years to find a match; others ask a center staffer daily for updates. Meantime, more than three dozen girls are paired up.
The shortage is affecting the kids who arguably need mentors the most. Compared to girls, male students across the country are more likely to struggle academically and less likely to graduate high school, data show. In the Burlington area, recent spates of gun violence and theft have ensnared boys as young as 14.
Leaders at King Street have tried to make the program more accessible and enticing for would-be mentors. They say the simple intervention can be life-changing for the boys who gain a role model to look up to — and for the mentors themselves.
“You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to care,” said Kate Vetter, the center’s director for philanthropic partnerships and communications. “If you’re someone who remembers how tough growing up can be, or maybe wish someone had been there for you, this is the moment to get involved.”
King Street Center is a 54-year-old nonprofit in the heart of one of Burlington’s poorest and most diverse neighborhoods. Primarily serving kids of color, King Street has its own preschool and afterschool programs and runs a popular lemonade stand at the waterfront.
The center has struggled for years to recruit mentors for boys, and the issue has only become more pressing as the social and academic plight of young men has risen to national prominence. In Vermont, male students are more likely to be chronically absent from school, according to state data. Women are more likely to go to college and, at the University of Vermont, outnumber men by almost a 2-to-1 ratio.
Experts say these outcomes place men and boys at risk for destructive behavior and death — and Vermont isn’t exempt. A rash of Burlington gun violence in 2022 was largely committed by boys and young men, Seven Days reported at the time. Last summer, security camera footage showed a crowd of male teens toting handguns in a Burlington alley. Teenage boys, often masked, have posted videos of themselves stealing cars in Chittenden County as part of the viral “Kia Challenge.”
The trend was highlighted in Gone Guys, a film produced by the Vermont Community Foundation that premiered earlier this month and featured kids from King Street. During a post-movie discussion at Burlington’s Main Street Landing last week, three men featured in the film said they benefited from having a mentor growing up.
“Some of the teachers that I’ve had have been amazing mentors,” said Emmett Jarvis, a recent Montpelier High School graduate. “Finding those people, it’s so valuable.”
Mentoring gives Uson a chance to be a kid. Born in Nepal, he moved to Burlington when he was 4 years old. Because his parents work opposite shifts, he’s often a caretaker for his siblings, ages 3 and 10. But like any teenager, he doesn’t always want to play with them. A few hours a week, he has Demoly.
Sometimes they just talk — about getting good grades or Uson’s impending move to high school this fall. On a recent hike up Mount Philo, they had a not-so-serious debate over whether it would be better to have a lot of friends and no money or be cash rich and friend poor. Demoly made a pitch for friends, but Uson, eager to get his driver’s license and buy a car, was all about the Benjamins.
“Growing up as a guy, you’re less likely to seek out help if you need it.” Alex Demoly
Demoly found King Street soon after moving to Burlington in 2022. An only child, he remembered turning to teachers and coaches for advice and wanted to give back.
“Growing up as a guy, you’re less likely to seek out help if you need it,” Demoly said. With Uson, “I get to watch a young person come up in the world and maybe share some lessons that I’ve learned.”
Uson said he isn’t sure yet what those lessons are, a confession that made Demoly smile. But he likes their hangouts regardless. Without Demoly, he’d probably be sleeping in a lot later, but with his mentor, “I get to do something productive,” Uson said.
Shabnam Nolan, King Street’s executive director, said the program gives kids a sense of belonging that they might otherwise find on the street. Even so, she worries that the city’s booming drug trade could be a draw for youths, especially those from low-income families. Some teens who work the center’s lemonade stand say they spend their earnings on food and clothing for younger siblings.
Mentors can help, Nolan says. If people are concerned about public safety in Burlington, they should “dive in and build a relationship directly, one on one, with a child who is most likely to be targeted,” she said.
King Street mentors are asked to spend between four and eight hours a month with their mentees and commit to meeting for at least a year. After completing a background check, they’re paired with a child with similar interests, cultural identities or life experiences.
The process worked well for Harper Oliver and Giga Abdalla, one of the center’s many female mentoring pairs.
“We got on the phone and just kind of started giggling,” Oliver, 21, recalled of their first conversation. “It feels like we’re just friends.”
Oliver and Giga, 14, have only been paired for a few months, but their chemistry is evident. They love romance novels and true crime television shows. They both have a best friend named Willa. They frequently finish one another’s sentences.
Giga, who had several other mentors before Oliver, chalks up their pairing to fate.
“That’s what brought us together,” she said.
“That’s a good life example,” Oliver agreed. “Everything happens for a reason.”
King Street is making a push for more mentors this year, particularly for boys. Nolan regularly plugs the need for male role models at community meetings and in newsletters. Demoly has been trying to recruit some of his peers, so far to no avail, but a recent infusion of cash could help. In 2023, King Street and other Vermont mentoring organizations successfully lobbied the state for funding to hire staffers who would focus on bringing in more volunteers. Nolan hopes to make a hire before the school year starts.
The center is also making it easier for mentors to come on board. King Street’s “Opportunity Fund” covers the costs of activities for mentoring pairs, such as museum admission fees, ski lift tickets or food. Every month, mentors are invited to a Zoom call with a mental health provider who can help them navigate their mentees’ challenges.
Nolan said would-be mentors often overestimate how much time it takes to make a difference in a kid’s life.
“For an adult, one hour isn’t a lot,” she said, “but for a child who might be looking forward to that one hour, it can be everything.”
Correction, July 31, 2025: An earlier version of this story misnamed Kate Vetter’s position with King Street Center.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Seeking Big Brothers | At Burlington’s King Street Center, recruiting mentors is a challenge”
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2025.
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