Big Brothers Big Sisters Lloydminster is looking for mentors.
Currently there are 39 youth who are waiting to be matched with an adult in our area. September has been proclaimed Big Brothers, Big Sisters Month, and the organization launched their national recruitment campaign Friday. The slogan for the campaign is “imagine who they will become because of you.”
“We find that mentoring helps further [the kids] education, promote healthy lifestyles for them and hopefully help break the cycles of poverty and violence and drugs that they may be a part of,” says Brenda Robinson, the Executive Director for Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Robinson adds that it also helps develop social skills for kids.
“Mentors find they get just as much out of the match as the kids do and they find it helps them build some leadership qualities, practice their interpersonal skills, practice their management skills sometimes with the [kids] that they work with and of course through their volunteer work, their professional network is extended,” says Robinson.
She adds, “studies show people who volunteer are happier and healthier and they’re more satisfied with their own lives because of course they’re giving back as well.”
A recruitment barbecue will be held on September 18, it will run from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and then again from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.
“We’re encouraging the community to come on over and check out the agency and find out what we’re all about,” says Robinson.
Big Brothers Big Sisters says across the country 4, 000 kids are in need of mentors.