The funding granted by The Government of British Columbia addresses the needs of at-risk children by helping Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver maintain high program standards, recruit and train urgently needed volunteer mentors, and maintain the quality of our staff Mentoring Coordinators who oversee and monitor mentoring matches.
The mission of BBGV is to support child and youth development through essential Volunteer-led mentoring programs.
Our traditional Big Brothers Program matches adult male Volunteers with boys aged 7-14 who have limited or no contact with a positive male role model in their lives. Big and Little Brothers spend 2-4 hours each week doing low-cost fun activities.
Our innovative Diversity Initiative serves multicultural families in the Big Brothers Program by providing translators to help non-English speaking mothers to communicate with program staff.
Our In-School Mentoring and Teen Mentoring Programs match male and female Volunteers (adults for ISM, high school students for Teen) with elementary school kids. Big and Little Buddies spend 1 hour a week on school grounds engaging in one-to-one age-appropriate activities.
Our Game On! group mentoring program provides youth with support to make informed choices about healthy eating, exercise, and stress management through group discussions.
BBGV addresses the need for positive role models in the lives of children; in Greater Vancouver, 23.7% of families with children are single-parent homes, many female-led. Only 30% of children from single-parent homes see their fathers weekly and 15% never do at all. The average single mother with 2 children falls below the poverty line, and just over 12% of single-parent families receive income assistance. There are 40,000 new immigrants in British Columbia per year, and 60% of K-12 students speak a different language at home.
We are sincerely grateful for the support we have received from The Government of British Columbia. Their funding takes us one step closer to putting a mentor into the life of every child who needs one.