Big Brother Big Sister

Merilyn Su'a

Introduction

My case study is on the Big Brother Big Sister (BBBS) organization. The BBBS is an organization where positive role models of our community are matched up with other children to build positive relationships and become influential mentors within their lives. The purpose and motivation of this organization is to “provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.”

Analysis

The sense of direction that BBBS is moving towards is just the overall improvement of society’s youth. Their goal is to provide these children someone within their lives that will steer them towards a better and successful future. They do this by using their one-to-one matches, where they screen parents/guardians or volunteers carefully and pairing them with the right child. The pairing process is an important step in the beginning process of building a strong connection between bigs (big brother/sister) and littles (little brother/sister). When these children are first applied to the big brother big sister programs they are surveyed and surveyed again after a year and a half to see if the program has had any effect on their child’s life. Surveys showed that kids involved in the big brother big sister programs were,

• 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
• 27% less likely to begin using alcohol
• 52% less likely to skip school
• 37% less likely to skip a class
• 33% less likely to hit someone

The BBBS organization has become such a well-known organization that individuals who are of higher and more influential role models throughout our society have spoken up about the importance of the big brother big sister organization. In 2011 the first lady Michelle Obama issued a corporate mentoring challenge, challenging companies to establish partnership or support the Big Brother Big Sister organization. Apart from the help of the first lady there are plenty of other supporters of BBBS, community partners such as volunteers and employees, advocacy partners who spread awareness and the significance of this organization, corporate alliances, foundations, and government partners.

Conclusion

The Big Brother Big Sister organization has 370 agencies across the country and has served 250,000 children. With the BBBS being an opportunity space for mentors to volunteer and children to find a role model it results in a positive impact in both the mentor and mentees life. With these opportunities mentors are not only contributing to their communities, but like a cycle it can improve children who will in the future become an asset to their community and become that positive example within another childs life.