LIHU‘E — “Start Something!” is the call to action to the community by the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kaua‘i as school children begin to settle in to the new school year. Kaulana Finn, the community director of BBBS of Kaua‘i,
LIHU‘E — “Start Something!” is the call to action to the community by the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kaua‘i as school children begin to settle in to the new school year.
Kaulana Finn, the community director of BBBS of Kaua‘i, said the call to action supports the need to keep Kaua‘i students on track to graduate school.
The donor-supported mentoring organization carefully matches children with volunteer mentors in one-to-one staff-guided, long-term mentoring relationships, states a BBBS release.
The agency provides ongoing support to the volunteers, mentees and mentors throughout the course of each match to keep the mentoring friendship strong.
According to a BBBS youth outcomes report released earlier in the year, statistics show significant improvements for youth during their first year of enrollment in the mentoring program, the improvements demonstrated in educational success as well as avoidance of risky behaviors and socio-emotional competency, such as educational expectations.
Youth progress in these areas is linked to longer term outcomes such as high school graduation, avoidance of juvenile delinquency and college or job readiness.
“The Big Brothers Big Sisters Youth Outcomes Survey is an important tool in our commitment to hold ourselves accountable to the children, families and mentors we serve as well as the donors who support our programs,” says Dennis Brown, president and CEO of BBBS, in the release. “We collect and use data to refine and improve our programs to achieve the greatest success for children enrolled in Big Brothers Big Sisters’ long-term, staff-supported one-to-one mentoring programs.”
Data derived from the BBBS survey indicates 94.5 percent and 96.6 percent of youth maintained an average, or above average score, or indicated improvement in the area of socio-emotional competence for BBBS community-based and its school-based programs, respectively.
The score on maintaining and improving was determined by whether a child scored at or above the mean at baseline and maintained that score at follow-up, or had a higher score at follow-up compared to baseline.
The survey data also showed 88.8 percent and 83.4 percent of youth maintained an average or above average score, or indicated improvement in the area of avoidance of risky behaviors for BBBS community-based and school-based programs, respectively. The proprietary BBBS Youth Outcomes Survey, developed with the support of some of the nation’s leading experts in child development, tracks the nationwide mentoring program’s youth, or “Littles,” attitudes through eight specific measures, including social acceptance, parental trust, scholastic competency, presence of a special adult, educational expectations, attitudes toward risk (including smoking, drinking, drugs, skipping school, hitting, breaking school rules and tardiness for school), truancy and academic achievement.
The Big Brother Big Sisters of Kaua‘i has partnered with guardians, schools, businesses and others in the community to pair children, or “Littles,” with carefully-screened and trained volunteer mentors, or “Bigs.”
Unique to BBBS is that each one of these mentoring relationships is monitored and professionally supported by a case manager focused on creating a healthy bond between the matched individuals.
An affiliate of the nation’s largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, BBBS Hawai‘i mentoring programs have proven positive impact for youth in the areas of academics, socio-emotional and behavioral outcomes, high school graduation rates, avoidance of juvenile delinquency and college or career readiness.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kaua‘i has been in operation since 2007, and on July 1, unified statewide as BBBS Hawai‘i, serving more than 600 children throughout the state.
BBBS of Kaua‘i maintains an office at 4273 Rice Street, Ste. 1, in Lihu‘e and encourages people to visit www.bbbshawaii.org to learn how an individual can positively impact a child’s life.
