Big Brothers Big Sisters

Mentoring children to support their success.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters program integrates a substantial commitment to community engagement with academic work—while mentoring a local child. Each participant agrees to be matched as a “Big” in a one-to-one mentoring relationship with a local child to provide positive adult interaction and gain mutual friendship and learning. Participants maintain that relationship over at least three semesters, spending significant time with their “Little” each week. The academic work of the course builds a context for the mentoring relationships—exploring relevant issues of youth development, impacts of race and class on social identity, and effective mentoring relationships.

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Contact:

Ellen Correa

Senior Lecturer

ecorrea@umass.edu

Outcomes:

Students will understand and apply theories that explain various elements of the relationships they are building with their mentees.
Students will critically examine their own assumptions and beliefs in order to better understand their interactions with their mentees and their mentees’ families.
Students will build skills for working in a variety of social service settings.

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How To Apply

Who Can Apply?

Open to all students who successfully apply and can make a mentorship commitment for at least three semesters.

Application requirements:

Students must register for the course, SRVCLRNG 292MH – 01, to be involved in the program. For more information and to register for the course contact Ellen Correa, Senior Lecturer, ecorrea@umass.edu

All students will be involved in a youth mentoring activity and will require a CORI screening. Students engaged with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program go through a more extensive process that includes completed application, CORI and National Criminal Record screening, driving records, comprehensive interview and references, etc. Students placed with BBBS must also make a commitment to be a mentor for at least three semesters.

Alternative placements at local after school programs are also available.

More Details

Requirements to complete the program:

Regular class attendance, active participation, completion of all coursewor,k and a satisfactory grade at the end of the semester, as outlined in the syllabus

Weekly meetings with your Little Brother or Sister (3–5 hours per week) when matched.

Regular meetings with your case manager, as needed.

The course that this program is grounded in, Mentoring with Big Brothers Big Sisters Honors Seminar,

is an honors service-learning course that fulfills both the social and behavioral sciences (SB) and the United States social and cultural diversity (U) General Education requirements at UMass. It provides a set of conceptual “lenses” through which students can see the experience of the youth who will be their Little Brothers and Sisters. Students explore the systematic forces that shape their lives and that shape the social environments within which they live. It also brings students directly into the lives of people whose social identities will differ significantly from their own. Students consider, from a theoretical and lived standpoint, how differences in socially defined issues such as race, social class, and ability shape the experience of individuals; students discover in their relationships with their Little Brothers or Sisters how such issues may appear in their lives.

About Big Brothers Big Sisters:

For more than 100 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated 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 (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”), ages 6 through 18, in communities across the country. They develop positive relationships that have a direct and lasting effect on the lives of young people.

Since 1975, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County has been providing one-to-one mentoring relationships to local children in need of positive adult influence and friendship. Supervised by a staff of professional case managers, volunteers spend time weekly with a child for at least one year developing a positive, trusting, and enriching friendship. A special person, such as a “Big Brother” or “Big Sister,” can often be the one factor that can change the destiny of a child’s life, providing the resources and encouragement to become a productive and healthy adult.

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