Big Brothers Big Sisters operates under the belief that inherent in every child is the ability to succeed and thrive in life. As the nation’s largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers and children. Last year, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio supported approximately 6,000 mentoring relationships, making it the third largest Big Brothers Big Sisters agency in the country! One of the agency’s special programs, Amachi Ohio, matches volunteers with some of the most at-risk children in our community, those who have an incarcerated parent. For all of its matches, the agency provides a system of ongoing evaluation and support which is proven by independent studies to help families by improving the odds that children will perform better in school and avoid violence and illegal activities, and have stronger relationships with their parents and others.

Volunteer Opportunity

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio matches children who could benefit from the friendship of a mentor with a caring volunteer from the community.

• In the community-based mentoring program, individual volunteers—or couples/families—are matched with a child. They get together at least twice a month for simple activities like taking a walk, baking cookies, or watching sports. Together, they develop a friendship that helps the child become a confident, competent and caring individual in the community. Big Brothers Big Sisters stays involved through the entire match relationship and provides ongoing coaching and support.
• In the school-based mentoring program, volunteers go to a nearby school for about an hour at the same time each week to mentor a child on a one-to-one basis. Their time together is spent on activities designed to help build the relationship and support the student’s character development and academic success. Big Brothers Big Sisters provides ongoing support, training and coaching. Project Mentor, the agency’s collaboration with Columbus City Schools, is its largest school-based mentoring program.

This volunteer opportunity is available to...

Individuals: Yes
Couples and Families: Yes. In the community-based program, a couple/family may be matched to mentor a child together. They will each complete an individual interview and training prior to being matched.
Groups: There are no group mentoring opportunities; all mentoring opportunities are for individuals or couples/families. However, a group can get involved by becoming a Project Mentor Volunteer Partner, and recruiting individual members to each mentor a student on a one-to-one basis at the same Project Mentor school program. Each volunteer from the group will complete an individual application, screening and training process before being matched with a student.

This volunteer opportunity requires...

References: Yes
Background check: Yes
Training: Yes (provided by agency and The Mentoring Center of Central Ohio)
Ongoing commitment: Yes
Specific time frames: Community-based volunteer Big Brothers and Big Sisters must commit to meet with their Little at least twice a month. School-based (Project Mentor) volunteers must commit to spend about an hour at the same time each week with their student at school.

This volunteer opportunity is located at...

Various locations

If interested in this volunteer opportunity...

If interested in community-based mentoring volunteer opportunities, please visit… http://www.bbbscolumbus.org/v_process2.html

If interested in Project Mentor volunteer opportunities, please visit… http://www.projectmentorcolumbus.org/get-started.php

PLEASE NOTE: Project Mentor matches are only made early in the school year, in order to maximize the match’s opportunity to meet before summer recess.

 

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