The world's largest and oldest youth mentoring organisation plans to expand its programme following its west of Ireland success, writes Fiona Tyrrell
Now in its fourth year, the innovative mentoring programme, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ireland, has over 200 matches on its books and plans to roll out the project to the entire country are being finalised.
Founded in the US in 1904, Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) is the oldest and largest youth mentoring organisation in the world, matching children in need of extra support, with adults in one-to-one relationships.
In 2001 the Health Service Executive, Western Area, and Foróige, the National Youth Development Organisation, joined forces with BBBS to bring the mentoring programme to Ireland for the first time.
The pilot programme in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon has gone so well that plans are now afoot to roll it out to the rest of the country next year and the programme is due to be launched in Sligo shortly.
The idea behind the programme is to cultivate a friendship between a volunteer adult and a young person, says BBBS Ireland co-ordinator Mary Lynch. They are matched according to interests, hobbies and personalities. One recent match in Galway was based on a shared passion for Harry Potter books.
It is a one-to-one relationship and is flexible - the matched pair will decide when and where they meet up and what they do. However, at the outset, the volunteer must commit to seeing their little sister or brother once a week for at least a year.
"It is within this friendship that the young person can learn and develop skills in decision-making, communication, assertiveness and taking responsibility," says Lynch.
"It is also an opportunity for a young person to gain support and advice from an adult in a friendly and caring environment."
Lynch says the programme has an excellent track record, with participants gaining confidence and having more positive outlooks on their lives. "It's about building on the positive aspects of the young person and enabling them to have a positive sense of themselves and their future as well as to learn positive values of caring, honesty, respect and social justice. It also helps them develop social competency and planning and decision-making."
These positive skills filter into their lives. Young people who participate in the BBBS programme are likely to have better school attendance, stronger relationships with parents and peers and are less likely to engage in drug use, according to research carried out in the US.
Results from a study based on a sample of almost 1,000 young people across eight US cities, demonstrated that young people who participated in the BBBS programme were also likely to have more positive attitudes towards school and a slightly better academic performance than young people in a control group.
In Ireland, young people aged 10-18 years are generally referred to the BBBS programme via the existing youth services (youth projects, schools, social services, parents or the Garda) and are selected because they are in need of some extra support from an adult outside the family.They may be experiencing difficulty in friendships with peers, school or home situations, Lynch says.
Most matches form good bonds early on and many choose to continue their relationship beyond the first year, she says.
BBBS Ireland welcomes volunteers from all walks of life and from all age brackets and is always looking for new recruits.
"Volunteering as a big brother or sister is a wonderful opportunity to change a young person's life in a simple yet powerful way," says Lynch.
For further information, contact Mary Lynch at: 091 768 666.