Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butler County, Inc.

We have a vision of a world in which all children realize their full potential, regardless of their circumstances or backgrounds, and we work to make that vision a reality by creating and supporting one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. We aim to provide all Butler County children who face adversity with caring mentors who will encourage them to avoid negative behaviors like skipping school, engaging in delinquency, or abusing drugs or alcohol. Our goal is for every child in our program to graduate from high school with a plan for what comes next, whether that means going to college, learning a trade, starting a career, or enlisting in the military. By giving these children someone who can help them succeed in school and in their relationships now, we help them start on a path that will lead them to even greater success as they grow up. We aim to provide a mentor for every child who comes to us for help so that we can help all children realize their full potential.

In order to realize our vision, we provide mentoring programs for youth that fall under two primary categories: Community Based Mentoring and Site Based Mentoring. Our Community Based Mentoring Programs match children ages 6-14 with caring adult volunteer mentors. The mentor-mentee pairings (matches) get to set their own agendas for each meeting (as long as they abide by all BBBS guidelines), and they usually develop a friendship through doing fun activities, working on homework, working on goals specific to each child's needs, and just hanging out. Our Community Based matches do all sorts of activities, from hiking in the woods, to practicing yoga, to holding scavenger hunts at thrift stores. They also take plenty of time for more laid-back activities like going out to eat or hanging out at their mentors' homes—many of our Little Brothers and Sisters (Littles) say their favorite activity is spending time at their Big Brother or Sister’s (Big’s) home cooking, baking, playing games, walking the dog, watching movies, and similar activities. As they spend time together, each Big develops a strong relationship with his or her Little. It is this relationship, not just the advice a Big gives or any of the ways they help work on goals specific to the child, which truly changes the life of a child.

Our Site Based Mentoring Programs match elementary school age children with volunteer mentors who can be high school students, college students, or older adults. The Bigs meet with their Littles at a specified location (usually a school, but it can also be a church, community center, etc.) where they spend time working on homework together, doing craft activities, playing board games, or playing outside. The volunteers are matched with the same child each week, but the activities take place in a group setting. A Big Brothers Big Sisters staff member supervises each program, brings supplies, and measures and monitors the progress of each match. We currently have 14 site based programs at schools and organizations across the county.

We also offer activities for children who are still waiting to be matched with mentors through our Club of Unmatched Littles (COUL) Program. The kids in this program are invited to participate in activities every other month from September to May and every other week in the summer. These activities give the kids a glimpse of what it will be like to have a Big, and they also allow BBBS staff to get to know them so the Littles can be matched with volunteers who best fit their personalities, needs, and interests.

All of these programs are essential to fulfilling our mission and helping children develop strong relationships with caring mentors who can help them ignite their potential.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is the premier mentoring organization nationally, and our local agency has been a full affiliate of the national organization since our founding in 1968. Throughout our long history, we have acquired a vast set of knowledge about mentoring best practices, and we implement them in all of our mentoring programs. Our tried-and-true mentoring model has been proven effective time and time again because of the careful steps we take to make sure the children we serve stay safe and get as much as possible out of the mentoring relationships we create for them. We start by screening and training volunteers as soon as we recruit them in order to make sure they are a good fit for the program and to prepare them for the responsibility of mentorship. Then, we interview each child and volunteer so we can learn as much as we can about each of them in order to match each child with a mentor who fits his or her needs, personality, and interests. After the relationship has gotten started, one of our professional match support specialists regularly checks in with each child, parent or guardian, and volunteer to make sure each child is making progress on the goals set for him or her and to address any concerns in the relationship before problems arise. Big Brothers Big Sisters created this model over decades of research, and as a full affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, we have access to this model and all the new research the national organization has conducted and will continue to conduct. Combined with our own agency’s 53 years of experience, research, and outcome tracking, our BBBSA affiliation gives us a vast breadth of knowledge of what makes mentoring work. This knowledge of and experience with mentoring makes us highly capable of achieving our vision.

In 2020, we served 305 total children through our Site Based Mentoring and Community Based Mentoring Programs and 102 children through our Club of Unmatched Littles program. Our goal is to increase the total number of children we serve through all these programs to 500 in 2021. Using the POE and COS/YOS, we have also tracked strong positive outcomes for the youth we served in 2020. Among all the children who were matched with a mentor through one of our programs in 2020:

• 100% avoided substance use and contact with Juvenile Court
• Youth demonstrated a 50% increase in protective factors
• 99% improved their self-confidence
• 86% improved their attitude toward school
• 86% improved their academic performance
• 87% demonstrated better relationships with their peers
• Littles in Site Based Mentoring Programs improved in an average of 1.7 subject areas

We aim for our programs to yield even stronger outcomes in these areas by the end of 2021.