The decision to become a volunteer mentor is a great one and an opportunity that will change the life of a young person for the better.
The initial volunteer requirement is to meet weekly with a young person for a full year.
Because the impact of a mentor is so strong, we want to make sure you understand that core requirement.
A Big Brother or Big Sister is a young person’s ally through the many obstacles that life throws at us during our younger years.
You will contact the Little and their guardian, and arrange for a time to get together on a weekday evening or during the weekend.
Depending on your common interests… maybe you go to the park and throw a baseball, go and volunteer at an animal shelter, or visit the Food Court at the mall and see who can come up with the weirdest lunch.
Your schedule and your Little’s schedule determine when and where you get together, and along the way you’ll talk with your designated Match Support social worker and let us know how things are going.
You will be visiting your Little’s school during the work day throughout the school calendar.
You will go to school and possibly have lunch with your Little, work on assignments, create some arts and crafts, or maybe play some basketball in the gym.
Community-Based Literacy Program
Community-Based Literacy programs are driven by comprehensive, holistic approaches to education in which parents and children learn and grow together. Family Literacy programs address the literacy strengths and needs of the family/community while promoting adults' involvement in children's education, recognizing adults as a powerful influence on children's academic success. Family literacy programs also recognize the reciprocal nature of parent-child relationships. Programs provide both parent-initiated and child-initiated activities to support development of those relationships and to increase the motivation to learn for both parent and child.
Education opportunities of families are improved by integrating early childhood and adult education into unified programs.
Family literacy programs provide services that are of sufficient intensity in terms of hours, and of sufficient duration, to make sustainable changes in a family and that integrate all of the following activities:
Students enroll in a thirty-two week after school and seven-week, all-day enrichment program. Unified by an annual theme, students engage in experiential learning activities, study dance and music from a variety of cultures, and explore the City through immersive field trips, team-building exercises, and health fitness and nutrition activities, that improve their STEAM skills and prevent summer reading loss. By filling this critical void in the communities in which we work, Mission sets our students up for success—the kinds of academic and social achievements that build the self-confidence to support long-term youth development and empowerment.