Big Brothers Big Sisters Faces Lack of Donations, Mentors to Support Local Children

With more than 500 children waiting for a mentor in Dane County, the gap between available mentors and unpaired children is no new situation, but recent economic hardships have further strained resources used to fill this gap, Development Director of BBBS Christina Beach said.

Following the 2009 economic crisis and a significant decrease in donations to the organization, BBBS, which relies on donations for 80 percent of its funding, was forced to reduce staff and tighten resources, she said.

As a result, the organization’s intensive and costly mentoring enrollment process, which involves background checks, training and interviews between support specialists, family, child and volunteer, could process even fewer matches, Beach said.

And with fewer donations coming in, the average 1,000 dollar cost to make and support a new mentor-child match for the first year, made the process even more difficult to complete.

Despite limited resources, BBBS remains dedicated to its intensive enrollment process, a process that makes about 20 matches per month between adult mentors and six to 13-year-old children typically from low income or single parent families, Program Director Beth Staniforth said. 

At that rate, some children never receive a mentor.

In 2010, 638 children were left without a mentor while BBBS supported 861 mentor-child matches, according to the program’s annual report.

But to ensure quality, long-term relationships that offer the greatest benefit to the child, the arduous process must remain, Staniforth said.

“Our biggest goal is to break the cycle of poverty… being a donation organization, we want to be as transparent as possible and use resources as best we can, so that’s why we look for longer-term matches,” she said.

When making matches, BBBS aims to find the most compatible match for the child and volunteer, Beach explained.

When the matches are compatible, they are more likely to develop and grow into longer relationships that provide a more positive impact on the child’s life, she said.

The matches then focus more on key qualities, factors and interests between the pair and less on a timeline of children signing up for the program, Beach said. So while some children may sign up for the program and be matched within a couple weeks, others may wait months for a perfect match.

Though many children wait for mentors, once matches are made, BBBS has seen success in sustaining longer, more beneficial matches, Staniforth said.

When compared with the 2010 national average of about two years for length of mentor-child matches, BBBS of Dane County averaged about two and a half years, according to their annual report.

As of May 1^st the program has further extended their average to about three years, Staniforth said.

And with the addition of new part-time staff, earnings from fundraisers and continued community support, things are starting to look up for the program, Beach said.

“It does take time to come back from [the economic crisis]. Over the past year, we’ve increased the volunteers we can enroll and children we can support,” she said. “So we are bouncing back.”

Contacts:

Christina Beach

Development Director
cbeach@bbbsmadison.org [1] 
608-661-4377

Beth Staniforth

Program Director
bstaniforth@bbbsmadison.org [2] 
608-661-4393

BBBS of Dane County website 

http://www.bbbs.org/ [3]