Program areas at BBBSLA
Community based mentoring: from july 2022 - june 2023, bbbsla served an estimated 701 children and youth ages 6-18 in the community-based mentoring program, the agency's largest program. In this program, which is administered and operates year-round, children and youth are matched with a professionally screened adult mentor to foster a positive and healthy relationship with the goal of supporting and strengthening the social, emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes of youth in the program. On top of providing ongoing match support and recommendations for outings between mentors and mentees, bbbsla hosted match events and outing opportunities in partnership with community organizations, corporate partners, and general supporters.
School based mentoring: from july 2022 to june 2023, bbbsla served an estimated 69 children and youth in the school based mentoring program. Through this program, and in partnership with schools throughout Los Angeles county, bbbsla brings professionally screened adult mentors into the elementary school setting to provide weekly 1-hour mentoring sessions to elementary students in grades 2-5. There was one active program at 20th street elementary school. An additional component of bbbsla's school-based mentoring program is its high-school bigs program, a unique sub-program. This sub-program allows high school-aged students to volunteer as mentors to elementary students throughout the school year for weekly, 1-hour sessions. All school-based mentoring and high-school bigs sessions are guided by on-site bbbsla staff through a staff-curated, evidence-based curriculum. There were two active programs at mckinley elementary school.
Workplace mentoring: from july 2022 to june 2023, bbbsla served an estimated 165 high-school aged youth in the workplace mentoring program. In the same time frame, bbbsla conducted and administered an estimated total of 10 months of the workplace mentoring program, with a total of 7 program sites and an estimated 140 hours of sessions. Through this program and in partnership with l.a. county schools and corporations, bbbsla brings high-school students from under-resourced high schools into partnering workplace sites twice per month to conduct one-hour group and individual mentoring sessions led by bbbsla staff. Each student is matched with an employee through the partnering corporation over the course of the school year. The sessions offer group learning activities and engagement with the support of the staff-curated and evidence-based curriculum, followed by individual mentoring sessions between match relationships.
Other accomplishments: bbbsla served youth through two additional one-to-one mentoring programs: 1) college pac (preparation, access and completion); and 2) women in entertainment mentoring program. Additionally, graduating bbbsla youth are eligible to apply for and receive scholarships / academic enrichment grants to the college or university of their choice, as they pursue their goals of higher education and beyond.