Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada (BBBSC) is a nationwide charitable organization with local members that provide essential, community-based social services. Primarily serving children and youth ages 7 to 16 years old, Big Brothers Big Sisters matches youth (mentees) based on mutual experiences and shared interests with trained volunteer adult mentors in 1 to 1 or group mentoring programs. Mentoring programs are based on the science of building positive developmental relationships using a framework that empowers children and youth facing adversities.
Declines in volunteerism following the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the rise in mental health needs among youth has created a perfect storm for youth-serving organizations. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada saw waitlists for young people to be paired with mentors rise significantly, and addressing that challenge became a major priority for them.
Services are provided to the child/family at no cost, so there is high demand. To increase the organization’s capacity to serve more youth, our partnership supports 9 Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies across 5 provinces in Canada through the Enhancing Access to Mentorship Initiative. This initiative supports agencies to take a variety of steps to reduce waitlists, with a focus on reducing wait times for youth who identify as racialized, are involved with the child welfare system, identify as belonging to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and/or reside in under-resourced rural and remote areas. Mentorship equals resilience. Many of these youth want and would most benefit from mentorship from adults with shared lived experience.
Making those matches takes dedicated, intentional effort. Mentored youth develop life-long skills to achieve their full potential. Volunteer mentors experience positive outcomes from the relationship, too. In addition to providing funding to agencies to build out those mentor pipelines, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada brings the agencies together to share best practices and learnings, which will also be shared with agencies nationwide.