Guest presenters, Victor Roman and Jonathan Carrier, shared with us their introduction to, and their ongoing association with, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Regina and Area. Beginning with their "little" brother match, 10 and 8 years ago, Victor and Jonathan spoke about how their respective brother relationship has grown over the years. Growth was not restricted to the young person (the mentee), but equally so to them as the "mentor". A growth and development process, such that they have become important components of one another’s lives. As Victor stated so clearly, "We transform young lives by igniting their potential."Big Brothers Big Sisters has been mentoring young people in Regina and Area since 1971, and has been an important part of the healthy development of young people in this community. Established on their foundational VISION - All young people realize their full potential; and, their stated MISSION of - Enable life-changing mentoring relationships to ignite the power and potential of young people - Big Brothers Big Sisters create an environment where life changing dynamics are realized daily in the lives of young people
We learned Big Brothers Big Sisters is a non-profit organization, which focuses on matching children as young as 6, with professionally screened volunteers. These mentors come from all walks of life and have the privilege of sharing the lives of their "mentee" for 2-3 hours each week in a relationship and activity based bonding process. This process takes 2 forms: i) the traditional one on one mentoring approach; and, ii) the school mentoring aspect consisting of one hour a week at the child's school, is a non-academic venture which contributes to the child's social and mental development, focusing on school engagement.
Investing in the lives of children who would be positively impacted by having a Big Brother Big Sister has an important financial benefit for a community. The economical advantage, in this instance mentoring a child through Big Brothers Big Sisters, is that there is a $23.00 return for every $1.00 invested. "Throughout the year hundreds of children and youth reach out to Big Brothers Big Sisters in hopes of being matched with a mentor."
There is currently a multi-year wait for a child to be matched with a mentor. Making a monthly donation is one thing you might consider doing to reduce this wait time. For example:
i) $10/month ($120/annum) covers the cost of introducing a match;
ii) For $25/month ($300/annum) covers the cost of screening one mentor.
For further information check out the Big Brother Big Sister Website at: https://bbbsregina.ca/