Mentorship Program Serves Southern Adirondacks Region Youth
- Category: Featured, Education & Youth Development
The mentorship program offered by Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Southern Adirondacks (BBBSSADK) uses social & emotional assessments and personal interviews to produce longer and stronger relationships between adult volunteer mentors ("Bigs") and young people ("Littles"). Long-lasting mentor relationships have been shown to offer significant benefit to at-risk young people, especially those being raised in single-parent households.
With the help of two Foundation grants, BBBSSADK has been able sustain and grow its community-based and school-based programs in several Southern Adirondacks communities. Children matched through BBBSSADK’s community-based mentorship programs are matched with an adult mentor for fun activities like bowling, cooking demonstrations, or arts & crafts projects. These meetings give “Bigs” and “Littles” the chance to get to know one another while learning something new. In the organization’s school-based mentorship program, high school students meet with younger students on school grounds under the supervision of BBBSSADK staff.