BRUNSWICK

Organization: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bath/Brunswick

Founded: 1981

Address: 85 Maine St., Brunswick

Phone number: (207) 729-7736

Website: www.bbbsbathbrunswick.org

Times Record: What is the mission of your organization?

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bath/Brunswick: Our mission is to provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one to one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever. We partner with parents/guardians, volunteers and others in the community and hold ourselves accountable for each child in our program achieving higher aspirations, greater confidence and better relationships, avoidance of risky behaviors, and educational success.

TR: How do you fulfill that mission?

BBBS: In our community-based program, we are serving children facing adversity, typically from lowincome single-parent homes. The volunteers are 18 years of age or older, and we match them in one-toone friendships. They participate in activities out in the community — anything they’re interested in doing together. That can include cooking a meal together, going to a movie, going ice skating, hiking — whatever is of interest to the child and the adult.

We have a school-based program that takes place an hour, one day a week, during lunch time, recess, or after school. The volunteers are high school students, college students (including a large contingency of volunteers from Bowdoin College) or adult community members. We have 12 school-based programs, and hope to have more as funding and staff permit.

Children enrolled in our programs are facing adversity. Most often they live in single-parent homes of a low to moderate income. They may have low selfesteem, a mild mental health diagnosis such as ADHD or face social or academic challenges. For myriad reasons, families seek the additional support of caring older student and adult role models. Often times a Big Brother or Big Sister can help a child achieve goals and have experiences that may be difficult for their parent or caregiver to provide to them on their own.

TR: What are the biggest challenges your organization faces?

BBBS: One challenge is recruiting enough volunteers to match with the children who are currently waiting for a Big Brother or a Big Sister. At a national level, recruiting male volunteers, specifically, is something all Big Brother Big Sister organizations are facing. There are more boys on our wait list than girls, and there are less men than women who come through our doors to be a volunteer.

The other challenge is funding. Just growing our budget so that it can support more staff to then support and grow the programs.

TR: What is something most people do not know about Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bath/Brunswick?

BBBS: Our vetting process for volunteers is very involved. Volunteers come to us and they have an interview, we run a criminal history background check, we check references, we do a very in-depth process for ensuring a volunteer is a good fit for our program.

There’s also ongoing support for the volunteer, for the child and their family. That support is managed by a case manager/social worker. We do monthly check-ins with all parties involved in the match, and provide support and feedback.

The agency also tries to support opportunities for matches to participate in different activities with us. We look for community partners to help with activities, such as businesses to provide discounted tickets, and opportunities to participate in fun activities.

TR: How can people best support your mission?

BBBS: People can best support our mission by spreading the word and talking about us. I feel everyone knows someone who would be a good volunteer, or knows a business who might be a good sponsor or supporter.