Volunteering

Big Brother tries a new approach

By Sharon Bass

Between the mandatory time commitment and fearing a kid will blow the whistle on you — for something you didn’t even do — volunteers for Big Brothers Big Sisters are hard to come by. That’s nothing new, of course; it’s a perennial problem that keeps many scratching their heads for answers.

One of those answers has recently hit the national scene and is slated to be played out in Portland for the first time next month, says Sam Beal, executive director of Greater Portland BBBS. Called the School-based Mentoring Program, it addresses the two main reasons adults are reticent to take on a troubled or lonely kid as a wee brother or sister.

Instead of spending a minimum of three to five hours every other week with their little charges as BBBS typically requires, school-based mentors only have to commit to one hour a week. Visits are solely conducted at the kid’s school and prohibited elsewhere at any other time, so there is less chance a child might falsely accuse the big sibling of some sort of impropriety. (Beal says that has never happened in Greater Portland.)

“It eliminates a lot of the liability concerns that keep some people from volunteering,” says Beal. “Mentoring is about building self-esteem in kids. By spending time with them, you’re telling them they’re worthwhile.”

The pilot program in Greater Portland is geared to kick off at the Jack Elementary school on the Eastern Prom. Beal says 25 mentors are needed. Volunteers must be at least 18, be able to regularly spend an hour a week with a child right after school gets out, go through a screening process at BBBS, which includes a criminal check and interview, and sit through a two-hour training.

BBBS hopes the new school effort will help it meet its goal to serve one million kids nationwide in five years, says Beal. Currently, its roster has 175,000. Waiting lists everywhere are comprised of nearly all boys. Not only is it more difficult to get male mentors, but most of the kids who sign up with BBBS are boys from single-parent homes headed by mothers, lacking same-sex influence. BBBS will only match boys with men and girls with women.

The pilot project is fairly simple, says Beal. Teachers identify kids they feel could benefit from a mentor and pass their names on to BBBS. Parents are only asked to sign a permission form. Beal says that is a boon to the program, since often the kids most in need of a big sibling don’t get one because parents “won’t or can’t contact us.” Sometimes, he says, it’s due to a language barrier. Other times, there’s a lack of interest or concern for the child.

Beal says he met with officials at the Jack school in late September to firm up the plans for the mentoring program. However, when a Portland School Department official was asked to comment on the program, she said she hadn’t heard anything about it and would not allow any of the Jack school employees who sat in on the meeting with BBBS to comment either. She also said she had questions about whether the program would fit into the city’s guidelines for the school system.

But chances are there’s nothing to fear. As Beal says, “It’s just such a simple thing, and it works.”