There are thousands of children and young people in our city who for one reason or another, find it difficult to cope with what life throws at them. They have few positive adult role models in their life and as a result miss valuable opportunities. What they really need is someone who will take an interest in them, listen to what they have to say and help them come to terms with the world. This is where Big Brothers Big Sisters aims to help re-write stories
“My mentor encourages me to do things I don’t want to – I actually like that!”
They provide mentoring for vulnerable and disadvantaged young people by recruiting volunteers from the community. Each mentor voluntarily invests 1 hour a week into mentoring, some meet in a school setting and others in the community. Mentoring matches can last many years and the consistency of a trusted adult has proved to have significant impact on helping navigate a young person through life.
“He’s always there to ring up and stuff and when I’m angry he cools me down”
Mentors can come alongside and become a ‘significant other’ in the young persons life; help them to stay in school and to channel their strengths into positive endeavours. Put simply, mentors can help children and young people get more out of life and give more to society.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of New Zealand is an affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters International which was founded in the United States in 1904. With a proven track record of over 100 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters is the world’s premier mentoring programme and each year over 280,000 children around the world are helped to reach their potential through professionally supported one-to-one relationships.
Here in New Zealand more than 900 young people each year have a mentor in one of the 15 Big Brothers Big Sisters programmes operating around the country. The Christchurch branch of Big Brothers Big Sisters currently has 130 volunteers. It is a not for profit organisation that has to raise funds to support its programme annually.
Each mentoring match currently costs $1,500 per year to support, which provides:
• recruiting, screening and training new volunteer mentors
• supervision, accountability and support for the mentors, children and parents
• resources for kids to use during mentoring sessions
• regular programme feedback from mentors and kids
• smooth and sustainable management of the programme
Regular Giving program
You can easily make a regular donation by setting up an automatic payment to:
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Christchurch
03 1702 0200781 00
Please put your name in the particulars and use 4000 as a reference number.
Make sure to let Big Brothers Big Sisters know you have set it up so that they can send you a tax receipt at the end of the financial year.
Contact Details
Rachel Hewitt
Assistant Manager
Phone: 03 358 4019
Email: christchurch@bigbrothersbigsisters.org.nz
www.christchurchbigbrothersbigsisters.org.nz
www.facebook.com/bbbschch
