Big Brothers Big Sisters of Idaho

It is the mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one mentoring relationships with measurable impact. Our Vision is a successful mentoring relationship for all children who need and want one, contributing to brighter futures, better schools, and stronger communities for all. Most of us can name a person in our lives who invested the time to make us feel special and valued. These mentors contribute to helping others achieve their potential. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a natural mentor in their life. That is why the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization has played an important role for over a hundred years facilitating and guiding mentor relationships. Mentors are often the one person who makes a difference at a critical turning point in a child’s life. To foster these relationships, there are three specific BBBS programs for families to choose from. The program provides an opportunity for a young person, ages 6-18, to spend time exploring a large variety of community activities with an adult mentor 2 -3 times a month. Site-based mentoring also matches one child with one caring adult or teen mentor weekly at an elementary school during the lunch break or after school or at the facility of a recreational program like the YMCA and Boys & Girls Clubs. This type of match allows for meetings within the safety of a supervised program, with the latitude of multiple activity centers and other opportunities. The site-based mentoring allows BBBS to match children whose home life might not be stable enough to be matched in our community program, which involves a higher-level of parent participation. It also allows the professional staff to monitor and support more matches at a central location. On an ongoing basis for the life of the match a BBBS “counselor” supports each relationship on a monthly or quarterly schedule. Support is provided to ensure child safety and quality of the match relationship. As needed, issues are addressed related to communication, meeting frequency, variety of activities and any other topics that will be important to the longevity of the relationship.