Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Arizona

The mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Arizona is to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. The vision is that all youth achieve their full potential.

The need for our core mentoring services continues to increase. We are the only mentoring program staffed by professionally-trained case management staff who conduct extensive interviews with prospective volunteer Bigs, as well as the parents of current or prospective Littles (initial ages 6-14) to ensure the best match for a mentor who is both a role model and adult friend. Volunteers also undergo background checks to ensure every consideration for the safety of the Little is pursued. We are incorporating new methods of mentoring to best support youth's contemporary needs. To be responsive to youth needs, we must continue to support our Youth Mentoring Program while finding additional funds to support new programs like Mentor 2.0 that specifically focuses on high school youth, preparing them for careers and college.

We are addressing this challenge by diversifying our revenue streams and increasing the volume of solicitations we pursue from individuals, companies and foundations. We keep our administrative costs low to maximize the amount of funds that support program costs.

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
• Better relationships
• Avoidance of risky behaviors
• Educational success

Approximately 400+youth are participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Arizona community-based and site-based mentoring efforts in 2022. We are always seeking more volunteer Big Brothers, Big Sisters and Big Couples to be matched with a youth.

Testimonials

"No matter how old or young you are, you shouldn't have to have feelings or emotions bundled up on your shoulders, you should be able to have somebody to go to and talk to. When I need somebody to talk to my Big Sister is right by my side." -Little Sister TiAra

"Our first outing feels like it was just yesterday. I have enjoyed being Karston's Big and having fun exploring our city. Karston is like a brother and part of my family." - Big Brother Pablo

"I always have someone with me that I can talk to and rely on when it comes to school and my personal life. (Mark) has helped me really dig deep into what I want to do and given me the opportunity to experience some careers to see if I really want to do it." -Calvin, high school student in our Mentor 2.0 program