While everybody is setting out on their New Year’s Resolution this January to exercise more, eat better, and live healthier lives – all wonderful resolutions – Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County CEO Sandy Morales is hoping that some Madisonians choose to make a resolution to impact the lives of young people and the greater community through the power of mentorship.
“It’s not just what a child gains, but what you gain personally as a volunteer,” Morales tells Madison365, speaking about the power of being a mentor. “We know people are also thinking about how to better their community and how they can make a difference. Why not make a difference in the life of a child by becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister?”
January is National Mentoring Month and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County is celebrating those “Bigs” who are already volunteering as mentors. They are also busy recruiting new volunteers. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County’s mission is to provide children facing adversity with a strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one mentor relationship that change their lives for the better, forever.
“National Mentoring Month is really an opportunity for us to highlight how important mentoring is,” Morales says. “It’s the start of a new year. It’s time for a big resolution.”
BBBS of Dane County already serves more than 600 children in Dane County. However, more than 200 youth in Dane County are waiting to be matched with a Big Brother or Big Sister, and more adults stepping up to volunteer to become “Bigs” could seriously lower that waiting list. BBBS of Dane County is currently ramping up their recruiting efforts to serve even more children in the area. BBBS now has a recruiter on staff who has been strategically getting out in the community and working with Bigs to leverage their networks to recruit more mentors.
“Last year, for the first time in a really long time, we had an increase in the number of kids we were able to serve,” Morales says. “We ended the year serving 642 kids so that represents a 5-percent increase from the previous years. This is the first time we’ve had such a significant increase – 2018 was a big growth year for us and that’s really a representation of the increased resources and organization that we’ve had to support the infrastructure being able to serve more children and really meeting the needs of kids who want a mentor.”
A new, modern look and brand repositioning for BBBS of Dane County unveiled this past fall had a goal of recruiting more diverse volunteers. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County unveiled the new look last October along with more than 270 Big Brother Big Sisters affiliates across the country.
“People have responded really well to the new brand,” Morales says. “We had a giving Tuesday campaign in November where people could get different things – cups, t-shirts, pop sockets – with our new brand. That was really successful. In the next month, we will have a pop-up shop where people can buy stuff. We’ll have our own little store where you can buy things and proceeds will come back to us.”
Morales says that BBBS is really hoping to have another year of growth like 2018 and that will hopefully start out with a big January and February.
“But even with that growth [from 2018], our waitlist still continues to be filled. We have about 200 kids right now that are waiting and about half of them are in the interview process and getting them to a status where they are ready to be matched,” she says. “In order for us to match them, we need a pool of volunteers.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters in Dane County are really in need of men to be mentors, Morales says, and especially men of color.
“I know one of our plans for the near future is working with the [African-American] barbershops around the area and working on a campaign that will allow us to do some outreach to the barbershops in the area to see how we can recruit more men and more men of color,” Morales says. “It’s all part of us being more strategic in how we recruit our Bigs.”
On social media, Dane County residents can get involved by following Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter as the agency will be encouraging followers, during National Mentoring Month, to tag a friend who would be a great Big Brother or Big Sister, using the hashtag #TheBigResolution.
“We’re really trying to build our ambassadorship within our own base. We’re really trying to recognize the Bigs that have just done an outstanding job,” Morales says. “We’re trying to give them more love so they are more inclined to promote BBBS. Really just broadening the awareness of the value not just to a child but the value that it brings to you as a volunteer.”
Dane County residents wanting to get involved with National Mentoring Month by volunteering to mentor as an individual, couple or family, can click here or call (608)661-5437.
