September Edition 2004 - New York Nonprofit Press

More documents

Recommendations

Info

12 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz September 2004 AGENCY OF THE MONTH Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC A Hundred Years Young “Mentoring has become one of the ‘in’ buzzwords in social services,” says Allan Luks, Executive Director of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New York City (BBBS). “Bush talked about mentoring in his State of the Union address. Clinton had a giant meeting on mentoring when he was president. Right now, we are ‘in’, but who knows for how long.” That is OK. BBBS has been involved with mentoring since before it was ‘in’. In fact, BBBS established the movement 100 years ago when its founder, Ernest K. Coulter, a clerk in New York Children's Court, called upon a local men’s club to work with the youngsters he saw every day. Over the intervening century, Big Brothers/Big Sisters has become synonymous with mentoring – a brand name like Coca Cola or Xerox which effectively defined this specific form of youth development program. Today, BBBS directly connects 3,000 children from low income, single parent homes with carefully-screened adult companions. It also serves as a vanguard for research and advocacy on mentoring issues as well as providing technical assistance and training for other mentoring programs. “We like to think of ourselves as a ‘training hospital’,” says Luks. The Big Brother/Big Sister service model is remarkably straight forward. “Bigs” commit to spend several hours with their Little Brothers or Sisters at least twice a month for a minimum of one year. The pairs go to ball games and museums, go bowling, spend time at the park, and talk. In the process, the Bigs offer a simple, yet powerful combination of friendship, guidance, support. Every relationship is monitored and supported by a social worker. This relatively straightforward program also has proven to be surprisingly successful. An independent and randomized 1992 national study of the Big Brother/Big Sister movement found that it reduced first time drug use by 46 percent, cut school absenteeism by 52 percent, and lowered violent behavior by 33 percent. And, this sample population was no collection of cream puffs. Over 80 percent of the kids came from impoverished families, and almost all were being raised by a single parent. Approximately 40 percent were from homes with a history of drug or alcohol abuse and nearly 30 percent came from families with a record of domestic violence. In fact, the simpler the form of the relationship, the more valuable is the experience. Another long term study found that those “Bigs” who merely offered friendship and support -- rather than those trying to “straighten kids out” -- were far more likely to gain the trust necessary to create a positive influence. For most of its hundred year history, BBBS has offered its “traditional” program. Parents, typically low-income single moms or dads, learned about Big Brothers/Big Sisters through TV, subway ads or roadside billboards. The parents call and then come in to enroll their kids. Volunteers learn about the program the same way – through a broad-based advertising campaign as well as word of mouth from other volunteers. They attend general orientation meetings which are held regularly and, if still interested, go through an in-depth interview with a BBBS social worker. “It takes about an hour and a half,” says Vidhya R. Kelly, M.S.W., Director of BBBS’ Borough and Special Priority Programs. “It is a full psycho-social. We ask the volunteers everything about their background, their relationship history, their academic history, their family history, how they grew up, their occupation, what they do.” Volunteers who make it through the interview must then provide references. “We ask for three -- at least one from an academic advisor or work supervisor,” says Kelly. “We get a national background check. Then we check the sex offender list. It is expensive at the front end.” Roughly 60% of those who come in for the orientation go on to the interview, says Luks. Then about 60% of those will go on to be accepted. It leaves us about 36% who go on to become Big Brothers or Big Sisters. Most of the falloff results from self selection on the part of volunteers. “Usually it is not our rejection,” says Luks. “They will drop out once they learn about the level of commitment. It is four hours every other week. In a terrible economy when people are worried about losing their jobs or falling behind, that is real. “The biggest thing you worry about is whether the man or woman is going to continue the relationship,” he continues. “These kids all have problems. The last thing you want is for the Big Brother or Big Sister to walk away two months later.” In fact, while BBBS asks volunteers and kids for a one year commitment, the average match currently lasts two years, six months. “We have alumni networks where matches have gone on for 25 and 35 years and they still come back to different events,” says Kelly. The screening also is designed to guard against any risk to the child. “You are always worried about a pedophile,” says Luks, who maintains that BBBS has not experienced any abuse cases during its 100 year history. The pairing of Bigs and Littles is based on a variety of factors and BBBS social workers, typically MSWs, supervise the initial meetings when potential matches are broached to the parents, the Bigs and the Littles. All parties have to agree and a Mentoring Agreement spells out the requirements and responsibilities of the program. Social Workers offer lots of up front support to help the new relationship take root and provide ongoing oversight throughout the life of the match. “For the first several Allan Luks, Executive Director, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New York City months there is involvement by the social worker on a weekly basis,” says Luks. “They call the volunteer, call the kid, call the mother. Then, they may go to monthly contacts.” All volunteers take a mandatory five hour training program on mentoring skills, and BBBS offers lots of other events and services to help support volunteers, kids and parents. “There are agency events where all the matches come together,” says Kelly. “We just had our Annual Picnic with 1,300 people in Central Park. It is a time to meet other matches so the Bigs don’t feel all alone and the kids who have been isolated can see that there are other kids doing this -- that it’s OK and it’s cool. We offer events like that all throughout the year. We also do kids events separately from the Bigs where the social worker will take the kids out by themselves and do things so they can make connections with other kids in program.” BBBS arranges many group trips, helps volunteers identify inexpensive and appropriate activities and even runs groups for parents. Luks joined BBBS 15 years ago and has been building a whole new tradition of innovative programming ever
September 2004 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz 13 AGENCY OF THE MONTH Mentoring New Americans BBBS’ special 9/11 Program brought together Little Brother Daniel Palombo and Big Brother Paul Barbara. Both of their fathers were firefighters who perished on September 11th. since. “In the traditional program, the parents call us and, of course, it is the parents who are most together who call,” says Luks. “We want to take on the kids who are least likely to call us. We want to reach out to kids from the most troubled families, families who themselves do alcohol or drugs or where the parents have been arrested. They are not going to call.” A first step in this new direction was development of the Juvenile Justice Mentoring Project (JJMP) which started in 1992. “It began as a pilot with one police precinct – the 84th– in Brooklyn,” says Luks. “We got the Community Affairs officer and asked them to give our information to parents when kids were arrested. Of course they still never called. Then we got the Precinct to ask parents if it would be OK if we called them. That worked.” Today, JJMP is a City-wide program. “At this point, we get our referrals directly from law enforcement officers and professionals who are working with these youth,” says Andre Pabon, Director of the program. “We collaborate with precincts, judges, probation officers and other social work professionals who refer them specifically for mentoring services.” (See “Juvenile Justice Mentoring Program Reaches Kids Who Need it Most,” page 13.) Since then, BBBS has developed a broad range of similarly targeted programs which reach out to underserved groups of youngsters. In 2001, BBBS began its New Americans program which matches Bigs with children of immigrant families. “It started in Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the nation,” says Kelly, who developed the project. “Right now the matches in this program represent 50 different nations. We were finding that a lot of these kids were feeling really isolated. There were language barriers. They looked different. They sounded different. Their parents were working 24/7 struggling for a better life. The kids just weren’t feeling supported. There were also higher suicide rates in this population.” “She tells people that I am her ‘aunt’ which means that I am an older person who commands respect,” says Maeve Pryce, who actually is a Big Sister to Dan Dan, a 16 year old Chinese girl living in Queens. “It is very unusual to see a Chinese child with a non-Chinese adult so other Asian people always ask her who I am.” The question of her cultural role is just one of the special issues confronting Maeve, Dan Dan and the 90 other ‘Big’/ ‘Little’ matches in the New Americans program offered by Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City. The program began in Queens two and a half years ago in an effort to serve children of immigrant families. Many of these kids struggle with a strong sense of personal and social isolation. “She is an only child and her parents are working 27 hours a day,” says Maeve. “She is not allowed to go anywhere by herself.” These family stresses are then compounded as youngsters try to adapt to an entirely new culture.Vidhya Kelly, Director of Borough and Special Programs for BBBS, recalls her own challenges growing up in a first generation South Asian immigrant family. “I looked different.My parents dressed different. My parents wanted me to have an arranged marriage.” Allowing a stranger into their child’s life is not something which comes naturally to most immigrant families. “Most of these families are very insular,” says Kelly. “They don’t want to go outside to ask for help.You aren’t supposed to tell other people about your problems.” BBBS reaches out to these immigrant families through a network of community-based partners.Among the groups they have worked with are SAYA (South Asian Youth Action), Queens Child Guidance Center which has an Asian Outreach Center and the South Asian Women’s Center. The New Americans program staff is as diverse as the groups it serves. “We have staff from India, Singapore, China, Ecuador,” says Kelly. “We rotate. If we are going to a group that is Indian, I will speak because they will feel closer to me. I know how to greet them. I know their values. Maeve’s social worker, Jennifer Chang, is Chinese. She goes to Chinese organizations and can speak to parents. Senior Program Coordinator Tamanna Vaswani grew up in Singapore and is fluent in Malay, Hindi and Italian, making it easier for her to connect and communicate with other groups” Language barriers are an issue of particular importance for volunteers in the New Americans program. “I have very little contact with Dan Dan’s parents because they don’t speak any English,” says Maeve, who relays messages through Dan Dan. “I always try to be very clear about when I will pick her up, what we will be doing and when I will drop her off so there won’t be any misunderstandings.” BBBS provides its New Americans volunteers with special cultural sensitivity training to help bridge some of these issues. Maeve also had some initial security about whether she could meet the emotional and cultural needs of a 15-year-old Chinese girl new to this country. “Her English was good, but it wasn’t great,” she explains. “The first weekend I went home exhausted. I didn’t know if I could do this. How was I going to translate New York City for this young girl?” Then, Maeve went back to the BBBS basics. She was there simply to be a friend and supporter. “I relaxed. After two or three weeks, she just started to talk and she hasn’t stopped since. She is loving New York and her English is getting better every hour.” Here, too, there is a new focus on outreach and partnerships with other human service providers. “For most of our programs, the families are coming to us,” says Kelly. “This program is different. We have been going out to other social service programs that already work with these populations, whether it is in counseling, recreation or academic activities. We are coming in knowing that there are already some barriers that have been broken down because families are engaging in some kind of services.” (See “Mentoring New Americans”, above.) A similar pilot is BBBS’ Young Mothers program which focuses on the mentoring needs of teens who already find that they themselves are parents. “It is untraditional, but it is great,” says Kelly. “These are kids who, right after school, go home to take care of their kids. Then they are up all night with them. This program is different in that we spend time with the kids but also time with the babies. The volunteers act as kind of an advisor, a resource on dealing with housing, child care, job training and education.” Based in the Bronx, the Young Mothers program currently has 36 matches. BBBS also developed specialized programming for victims of September BBBS’ New Americans Program matched Big Sister Kazumi Ogawa, born in Japan and raised in the US, with Sarina Sherpa, who was born in Nepal and lives in Brooklyn. 11th. “We have one program for kids who lost a parent and one for kids who lived or went to school downtown and saw what happened and, for example, BIG BROTHER BIG SISTER continued on page 14
Page 1: New York Nonprofit Press September
Page 4 and 5: 4 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp
Page 10 and 11: 10 New York Nonprofit Press www.nyn

September Edition 2004 - New York Nonprofit Press

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?