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Our vision is for all children to achieve success in life. We accomplish this by providing children who are facing adversity with strong and long lasting relationships that will change their lives for the better by encouraging and nurturing a childs self esteem by providing healthy role model and mentorship relationships. The Big Brother Big Sister volunteer program helps our Littles gain confidence in themselves, forge healthy relationships with adults and their peers, avoid risky behavior, and perform better in school.

Big Brothers Big Sisters has been impacting childrens lives for over 100 years. We strive to encourage children to realize their true potential by partnering a child with an older role model and mentor. The relationship that is created between an adult volunteer (Bigs) and children (Littles) is a valuable for both parties and will have lasting effects on their lives.

Big Brother Big Sisters staff work carefully to match the children enrolled in our program with caring adult mentors and provides ongoing aid and consultation to the child, the childs family, and the adult volunteer. We also work with local schools and juvenile justice communities to find children who are facing adversity including those living in single parent homes, growing up in poverty, or dealing with parental incarceration. Our Bigs go through an extensive background check and a careful interview process. If they are suitable for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, then the Big will be partnered up with a Little based on their location, personalities, and hobbies. If you are not interested in being a Big but still would like to help, please consider donating money on our website (www.bbbs.org). Donations are important because the entire screening and matching process couldnt be done without them. Finally, Bigs are asked to commit a few hours of their time every month to interact with their Little. What do they do? It all depends on their interests. A Big and Little can spend time playing on the playground afterschool, reading books or making arts and crafts together, or playing a sport. Their interactions together are invaluable regardless of what they do. Having a Big in a childs introduce them to a life-long friend, role model, and mentor.

What We D

The Big Brothers Big Sisters program was and has always been a way for at-risk youth to develop healthy relationships with adult role models. Our 21,000 enrolled Littles are our future and each one deserves a bright, healthy, and happy life. The relationships that develop between a Big and Little have the potential to become life changing for both of them. Even many of our Littles have returned and become a Big themselves! We do what we do because we impact childrens lives and they impact ours. Furthermore, the relationships that our Bigs and Littles developed have been studied by Public/Private Ventures, an independentPhiladelphia-based national research organization, studied the success of these mentorship and role model relations and found that after 18 months of continued interaction (when compared to children who are not enrolled with the BBBS program) the Littles 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 classw 33% less likely to hit someone Gary Walker, the former President of Public/Private Ventures stated, These dramatic findings are very good news, particularly at a time when many people contend that nothing works in reaching teenagers. This program suggests a strategy the country can build on to make a difference, especially for youth in single-parent families.

Why We Do It

Contact Us: Main Tel: (715) - 835 - 0161 Toll Free Tel: (800) - 648 1696 e-mail: info@bbbsnw.org webstie: www.bbbsnw.org