This week as children prepare to head back to school, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit issues a call to action to the community to Start Something to keep metro Detroit students on track to graduate.

The donor-supported mentoring organization carefully matches children with volunteer mentors in one-to-one staff-guided long-term mentoring relationships. The agency provides ongoing support to the volunteers, mentees and mentors throughout the course of each match to keep the mentoring friendship going strong. 

Big Brothers Big Sisters’ 2011 Youth Outcomes Report, released earlier this year, shows statistically significant improvements for youth during their first year of enrollment in the mentoring program in educational success as well as avoidance of risky behaviors and socio-emotional competency, such as educational expectations.  Youth progress in these areas is linked to longer-term outcomes, such as high school graduation, avoidance of juvenile delinquency, and college or job readiness.

“The Big Brothers Big Sisters Youth Outcomes Survey is an important tool in our commitment to hold ourselves accountable to the children, families and mentors we serve as well as the donors who support our programs,” said Dara Munson, President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit. “We collect and use data to refine and improve our programs to achieve the greatest success for children enrolled in Big Brothers Big Sisters’ long-term, staff-supported one-to-one mentoring programs.”

The proprietary 2011 Big Brothers Big Sisters Youth Outcomes Report found statistically significant improvement in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit mentees in three areas—educational-related success, avoidance of risky behaviors and socio-emotional competency.

• 82% of youth maintained and/or improved in how sure they were to reach different levels of schooling;

• 76% of youth maintained and/or improved in his/her assessment of their performance in math;

• 73%  of youth indicated improvement in the area of
avoidance of risky behaviors such as alcohol/drug usage, skipping school, hitting or cheating;

• 93% of high school seniors graduated on time.

The proprietary Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Youth Outcomes Survey, developed with the support of some of the nation’s leading experts in child development, tracks the nationwide mentoring program’s “Littles’” attitudes about eight specific measures:

• Social acceptance
• Parental trust
• Scholastic competency
• Presence of a special adult
• Educational expectations
• Attitudes toward risk (including smoking, drinking, drugs, skipping school, hitting, breaking rules in school, and being late for school)
• Truancy
• Grades (academic achievement)

For more than 100 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated under the belief that inherent in every child is the ability to succeed and thrive in life. Donations allow Big Brothers Big Sisters to carefully pair each young person with the right mentor and provide ongoing support and monitoring needed to keep the mentoring match strong so that it can yield the kind of success unique to Big Brothers Big Sisters.  The Big Brothers Big Sisters model is proven to improve mentees' odds for succeeding in school and achieving in life.  Most children served by Big Brothers Big Sisters are in single-parent and low-income families or households where a parent is incarcerated.  As the nation’s largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”).  And for thirty-eight years of service locally in the metropolitan Detroit community, Big Brothers Big Sisters maintains a stellar reputation of recruiting exemplary citizens to share positive experiences with metropolitan Detroit youth.  For more information of how to sign up, call 313-309-0500 or visit our website at www.bbbsdetroit.org.

The Youth Outcomes Survey is a product of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, created at great expense and effort by the many Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and Big Brothers Big Sisters Affiliate contributors.  The Youth Outcome Survey results are based on the proprietary practices implemented by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of America's Service Delivery Model, and are a reflection of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and its Affiliates’ strict adherence to national standards.  Accordingly, while we encourage that these results be shared, they must at all times be attributed to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and are not to be used in connection with the activities of other organizations without the express written permission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Start Something- Be a Friend. Be a Mentor. Just be there!!