Changing Perspectives: Chasing Lives (BBBS)

“Changing perspectives. Chasing Lives”(BBBS). Big Brothers Big Sisters, also known as BBBS; is a mentoring program. BBBS form meaningful pairs between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”) in communities across the country. The Bigs and Littles are ages 6-18. Each district is given one supervisor, also known as the Case Manager. The program develops positive relationships within the Bigs, Littles, and the supervisor. Through these positive relationships, the program has many positive psychological impacts. Big Brothers Big Sisters promotes the principles of human behavior, motivation, learning, perception, and emotion; all relating to the individual whilst benefiting our community. The purpose of Big Brothers Big Sisters is

Funded by the Lily Endowment, the Commonwealth Fund, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and an anonymous donor, has a discovery that 18 months of Littles spending time with their Bigs improves the individual’s human behavior in a positive way. Each individual makes better life choices. Statistics has it that children involved in the program as to compared to not in the program, were 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs, 27% less likely to drink alcohol, 52% less likely to skip school, and 33% less likely to hit someone. BBBS focuses on meeting youths’ most basic developmental needs. The program results in many positive outcomes for children in educational success, avoidance of risky behaviors, and increased social/emotional well-being; as of the “Youth Outcome Survey”. Educationally, an individual has higher grades, better capabilities, and a higher desire to graduate from high school and attend college. Socially, the BBBS works to improve each children's’ confidence in acceptance by their peers. Emotionally, the children have greater feelings of self-esteem, more hope and higher aspirations for the

Mentoring helps an individual to become self-aware. When Bigs are mentoring, they learn to use their senses to understand the Littles. Bigs are able to recognize when a child needs professional help by observing when the child seems to be different. Mentoring also impacts the Bigs; they are able to improve there own psychological being, role modeling, and communication. For littles, they are able to percept their Bigs. Littles observe the Bigs actions and make it their own, in good ways. They learn from the Bigs through their own sense organs. Littles also rate their mentors positively. The ability to percept one another, themselves, and the world is strongly impactful for betting the lives of each