In-School Mentoring

Our Big and Little Buddy matches meet up once-a-week for 1 hour at the mentee’s elementary school. Between you and your mentee’s school liaison, we can flexibly find the best consistent day and time for your meetup weekday during school hours, typically between 10am to 3pm. This program is a commitment for the duration of the school year, with a flexible starting date.

Volunteering with your Little Buddy is all about consistent quality time together. Each session is child-led, based on the mentee’s interests, and may include exploring the playground, cooking in the school kitchen, playing sports, or checking out arts & crafts and board games in our very own ‘Big & Little Activity Bins'.

The children enrolled in our programs benefit in many ways. Mentored youth perform better academically, demonstrate less negative behaviours, and are less likely to suffer from peer pressure related anxiety. Children in mentorship programs tend to build confidence and have better emotional regulation and communication skills, leading to better relationships with their siblings, parents, school, and peers. Additionally, mentored youth are more likely to volunteer as adults.

Our volunteers represent a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and identities, just like the families and youth that we serve. The most important qualities we look for in volunteers are reliability, consistency, dedication, and being respectful of others. No specific prerequisite skills or experience is required.

Before you volunteer, we provide you with an in-depth training session to answer any questions and equip you with all the information you will need. Each match is assigned a Mentoring Coordinator who is there to support your mentoring relationship every step of the way, giving guidance, advice, activity ideas, and support where it is needed to make sure everyone is having a positive experience.

Absolutely! Provided the mentoring relationship works well for everyone involved, and your mentee will still be attending the elementary school, you're welcome to continue past the first year. If the same match doesn’t continue, you can continue volunteering in this program by getting matched with a new mentee in the next school year.