Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bath Brunswick

In our Site-Based Mentoring Program adult community members, college students or High School-aged Big Brothers and Sisters meet with their Little Brothers and Sisters one day per week on-site at the child's school, or at Bowdoin College. Activities include having lunch, playing board and card games, creating a craft or art project, helping with homework, reading a book together, spending time outdoors and/or having conversations. To administer these programs, in 2023 BBBS partnered with eight area schools and Bowdoin College. Programs are directly supervised by BBBS staff and facilitators at the schools. Volunteers are vetted, trained and supported on-going. Children participating in these programs achieve greater self-confidence, are better able to express feelings, have increased interests and hobbies, have improved academic performance, better classroom behavior and several other positive outcomes! Twenty-eight youth, their families, and a comparable number of volunteers were served by School/Site-Based programs in 2023. The average School-Based Big and Littles match length is 21.5 months, exceeding the national average school-based match-length by over 14%.

The Community-Based Mentoring Program serves youth between ages 6-young adult that are facing adverse childhood experiences and are primarily living in single-parent low-income homes by providing one-to-one mentoring relationships with professionally supported, volunteer Big Brothers and Sisters. Volunteers are screened, trained and vetted by BBBS professional staff and carefully matched with each Little. Bigs and Littles spend time monthly engaging in a variety of healthy activities. Staff provide ongoing monthly support to every volunteer, child and child's family.These relationships help children build resiliency against adversity, grow their self-esteem and aspirations, build connections within the community, learn to better avoid risky behaviors and experience an overall improved life-trajectory for future success. On an annual basis, over 90% of Big and Little matches exceed their one-year match anniversary and many will stay connected for several years with the average match length being 43 months. BBBS/BB match relationships exceed the national average match-length by over 29%. These relationships help children build resiliency against adversity, grow their self-esteem and aspirations, build connections within the community, learn to better avoid risky behaviors and experience an overall improved life-trajectory for future success. In 2023, 110 children, their families, and an equal number of volunteers, were served by the Community-Based Mentoring Program.