Overview of the Organization, Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (Big Brothers Big Sisters or BBBS) is a national nonprofit organization, which “provide[s] children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships [with adult volunteers, with the goal of] chang[ing children’s] lives for the better, forever” (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2016, para. 3). Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is a formal nonprofit organization as it is recognized as an 501(c)(3) organization and incorporated under state law (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2016b). The organization’s distinction as a 501(c)(3) also demonstrates that Big Brothers Big Sisters correctly distributes their

Overall the BBBS youth mentoring program is quite successful and is clearly needed in the community to help those deemed as vulnerable, through interaction between a mentor in a one-to-one setting or group arrangement, in many different ways for a period of 12 months or

According to the 2010 Plan for the Future of the New York City Family Court, the main goal of family court relies on ensuring “the highest standard of justice for each and every litigant who enters the courthouse” (2010). This is done by executing a sequence of processes and by providing different resources to individuals involved in the case. There are three major organizations that serve an important role in Family Court. These organizations ensure justice for individuals entering the family court system by providing a variety of different services. These organizations include the Administration for Children’s Services, the Legal Aid Society and the Panel of 18b Attorneys. Each of the three organizations mentioned, work to ensure the welfare of children and service to families by providing a variety of different services.

In 1904, a New York City Clerk named Ernest Coulter saw fit to form an adult volunteers program, Big Brothers movement to help keep kids out of trouble while demonstrating to be a caring role model into the lives of children through a network of over 400 local agencies. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City was chartered in 1964, started by two big brothers who are still involved in the program today. In 1977, Big Brothers Association and Big Sisters International joined forces and became Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. BBBSKC has been one of the fastest growing BBBS agencies in the countries and was named Agency of the Year in 2010 & 2012 (http://www.bbbskc.org). The impact of the program is about meeting the youths most basic developmental needs. This is done through one-on-one relationship that is built on trust and friendship that could blossom into a future of unlimited potentials in addition, by observing shared everyday activities such as eating out, playing sports or attending sports events, going to movies, sightseeing, or just spending quality time together. This program has an on-going study that indicates very low results when adults actively participates in the lives of the children such as 46% children are less likely to begin using illegal drugs, 27% less likely to begin using alcohol, 52% less likely to skip

Criminologist James Fox of Northeastern University predicts that murders committed by teens will skyrocket as the population of kids 10 and under is higher than population of 21st century teens by 20%. (Stephens) Mentoring is the act of helping out someone that isn't as knowledgeable or experienced in different areas. The goal is to make them leaders. (Patterson)

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches but to reveal to him his own. - Benjamin Disrael This quote is similar to a Chinese Proverb that says “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”(Chinese Proverb). Both essentially say the same thing, and that is, you can only help someone so much until they need to realize they are capable of doing great things on their own. Higher Risk youth benefit from guidance, but once they have figured everything out they can move on alone. These two quotes apply to mentoring because, mentoring is like showing someone the way to life.

Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a countrywide organization of local subdivisions that provide after-school programs for young people. The purpose of BGCA is to provide young people with a safe environment during weekends and after school. As a non-profit organization, Boys and Girls Clubs of America run after-school clubs that serves over 4 million children across 3,400 facilities throughout 50 states and Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The organization also has 150 clubs located on the Native American tribal lands as well as another 400 clubs located in military bases that are spread across the globe. Since its inception, the organization and its predecessors have been tackling juvenile delinquency for more than 100 years. In order to accomplish this objective, BGCA opens the clubs on a daily basis after school and during weekends. These clubs are managed by full-time youth development professionals who are supported by volunteers in the community. Despite of its activities revolving around sports and recreational activities, BGCA provide programs that focus on health and life skills, character and leadership development, computer skills, and arts.

Big brothers Big sisters is a nonprofit organization that helps children that are in need and children that may in the future want to do illegal drugs. Big Brothers Big Sisters helps at-risk children beat the odds. Through the generosity of a variety of funding sources including individual donors, corporations, governmental entities, and foundations we have the resources necessary to carry out our mission, which includes conducting background checks on volunteers to ensure child safety. Donor support also allows us to provide ongoing support for children, families, and volunteers to build and sustain long-lasting relationships, which are key to successful mentoring. Big Brothers Big Sisters is proven by independent research to improve children’s odds for succeeding in school, behaving nonviolently, avoiding drugs and alcohol, and breaking negative cycles. Headquartered in Philadelphia and with nearly 370 agencies across the country, Big Brothers Big Sisters serves a quarter of a million children.

Luckily, Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters is in a great position right now as there are many opportunities that they can undertake. For example, they have a waiting list of over 4,000 children who are wanting to be matched with a Big. If the right mentors can be located throughout the state while continuing to find the resources needed, then the organization has the ability to serve over 10,000 children in Kansas. As over 70 percent of children on the waiting list to receive a Big are male, Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters has the opportunity to target males in the community specifically. Fortunately, many of the counties that are being served in Kansas are in college towns and so many of the students attending college are looking for philanthropic opportunities and will be willing to engage with the organization. There is a huge need for this organization looking ahead.

A growing body of research suggests that natural mentors, that is, caring nonparental adults, such as extended family members, neighbors, teachers, and after school staff, who provide young people with ongoing support and guidance, play an important role in healthy development, particularly during adolescence (DuBois & Silverthorn, 2005b; Hirsch, Deutsch, & DuBois, 2011; Rhodes,Spencer, Keller, Liang, & Noam, 2006; Theokas & Lerner, 2006). Based on these studies we determine that mentors play a vital role in helping youth navigate the uncertainty of the adolescent years. Studies show that youth are less likely to engage in high risk behaviors ranging from use of illicit substances, truancy, and teen pregnancy. Dropout rates were also found to significantly diminish with the presence of a natural or volunteer mentorship. The use of mentoring programs to improve outcomes for at-risk youth has grown steadily in recent years (Rhodes & Roffman 2003). Resilience research has consistently identified the presence of a supportive and caring nonparental adult in the lives of children and youth who succeed despite adversity and hardship (Masten & Garmezy 1985; Werner 1992). Both natural mentors and volunteer mentors can buffer youth from poor outcomes by (1) providing a

Island Girl Power is a local program, taken, and expanded from a national program Girl Power. Its prevention program focuses on offering young ladies a variety of classes, activities in hopes of expanding their goals. It is a safe place where people can volunteer at their leisure and is expanding into the community through volunteers and center willing to offer classes (Blas, 2009). This program is a clubhouse more like and located in Dededo, GU. Their hours of operations are from Monday through Friday 8a.m.-5p.m., and Saturdays 9a.m.-3p.m. This clubhouse offers many activities such as dancing, self-defense, and big sister club, etc. The reason this club focuses on young ladies is that it helps them to gain self pride, become wiser, and make smarter choices in life. Young ladies are usually self conscious about themselves and rebellious than males. They are more vulnerable to the outside world once they step into it. While the two organizations/clubs works in many ways of preventing and interventions juvenile delinquency, here are the clubs/organizations major goals, objectives, and core beliefs of what it can provide for the community as well as juveniles.

The Industrialization of America brought about improved transportation, manufacturing systems, and new job opportunities. The prospect of fortune led to an influx of immigrants, which in 1907 alone saw 1.2 million immigrants enter the United States and settle along the major cities on the East Coast (Chiodo & Meliza, 2014). The growing number of immigrants coming to America led to over crowdedness, and poor living conditions. The unhygienic living conditions and meager health care led to early deaths of working parents, leaving a growing number of orphaned or abandoned children behind.

A sister city organization is a volunteer group of ordinary citizens who, with the support of their local elected officials, form long-term relationships with people and organizations in a city abroad... sister city organizations promote peace through people-to-people relationships. While adults play a primary role in the interactions, the youth are in fact part of a secondary effort. Within the city of Albuquerque there is a magnitude of cultural diversity, but is limited to the knowledge among the youth. The youth should have an idea of the multicultural aspects in Albuquerque before the relationship is extended internationally. ASCF has allowed me to address this specifically as Youth Coordinator. My initiative has been to create a cultural foundation for the youth through cultural experiences and interactions. My goal is to create and establish mutual respect and understanding for surrounding

Tim saw this and became inspired to become a mentor with the Helping Services For Northeast Iowa. In order to be a mentor “The ability and willingness to value the mentee as a person; Develop mutual trust and respect; Maintain confidentiality; Listen both to what is being said and how it is being said; Help the mentee solve his or her problems, rather than give directions; Focus on the mentee’s development and resist the urge to produce a clone.” (University of Washington). Since the start of the Youth Mentoring Services in Northeast Iowa, 1,137 youth have been connected to a role model (“Youth Mentoring Services”). Kids who are mentored have ”significantly more confident in their academic abilities and considerably less likely to display behavioral problems.”(Centre for Addiction and Mental Health). Through the mentoring experience, Tim has learned that the best part is guiding some fun into a child's life while educating them (Egemo). Tim has helped a few children become better human beings through this mentoring

One thing I believe is a necessity in growing up is having a mentor. Having a mentor is, not only, beneficial for the mentee but also the mentor. Being a mentor is a learning experience for everyone participating, it helps people grow as a person and friendships are created when a bond if formed. Some people might think it's a waste of time for a child or that it'll never work out for a troubled delinquent but based on the research I've done, I have proven them wrong. Through-out this paper I will provide the pros and cons of mentoring and how they affect both mentor and mentee. To back up my proposal that mentoring is supporting, I will supply examples to answer the question: Is mentoring really important?