After serving 26 years with Mentor RI, with the last ten years as President and CEO, Jo-Ann Schofield is moving on, but she won’t be going all that far.

In a letter to friends of the organization, that matches mentors with students who have been identified as benefiting from a role model, board chair Brendan Ahearn announced Schofield’s last day with Mentor RI is Sept. 22.

“We are excited for this new chapter of Mentor RI as we continue to build on the strong foundation and long legacy of success that has been established by Jo-Ann and our incredible team,” Ahearn writes.

Schofield is joining the Warwick Boys and Girls Clubs in the position of Resource Director. The club’s executive director Lara D’Antuono and Schofield have worked cooperatively for years and as Schofield tells the story of when the two talked about possible candidates for the resource director’s position she thought of making a change.

Citing personal losses in an email, she shared, “I’ve been running on empty for quite some time now.” She said she had been trying to figure out her retirement options when the opportunity with the Boys and Girls Club “fell in my lap.”

“It is one job, instead of the many hats I have been wearing with so many responsibilities. I am content with all that I have accomplished in my 26 years here (yikes!) with 10 as CEO and believe that I am not the leader the organization needs right now,” she writes.

Schofield gave Mentor RI that was born out of the Chamber Education Foundation, statewide visibility as she and former director Arlene McNulty made it a wheelhouse for mentoring programs such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters to share practices and develop training programs.  Mentor RI also became a clearing house for state and federal grants.

In its formative stage, mentoring was one of several programs run by the Education Foundation, a spinoff of the Warwick Chamber of Commerce which later became the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce. Mentor RI evolved into a major program and the eventual owner of a building across the street from City Hall. Mentor sold that building when Coastal Credit Union offered the agency basically free space at its offices on Warwick Avenue. When Harbor One Bank acquired Coastal that lease, which expires in November, was not renewed. Schofield was instrumental in finding and acquiring a new home for the agency on Centerville Road in Warwick.

While playing a statewide role, Mentor RI never lost its local touch and its broad based support as evidenced by its consistent funding from Warwick schools in even the worst of budget years and the community outpouring for its annual Dancing With the Stars of Mentoring event. The show that started off at West Valley Inn 12 years ago and is now held at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet now raises more than $120,000.

Current Chief of Operations, Marc Mainville, will serve as Interim President & CEO.

“I know that this is someone else’s dream job who will step in with the passion, vision, and commitment necessary for Mentor RI to continue to thrive,” Schofield writes.

 Lara D’Antuono, president and executive director of the Warwick Boys and Girls Clubs has worked with Schofield on the Warwick 13, both chaired the coalition of Warwick nonprofits at different times and on the Vote 4 Yes campaign for the $350 million school bond that voters approved last November.

“She has a lot of compassion for kids,” said D’Antuono.  She said she understands Schofield’s desire to focus on one job rather than multiple jobs of an agency director. D’Antuono said she looks forward to having Schofield build relationships with club donors and collaboratively work on taking the club “to the next level.”