Big Brothers Big Sisters reaches out to provide mentors for children of the community.
By Kit Fitzgerald
When Tyson Wirth, a school-based mentoring specialist at Big Brothers Big Sisters, asks kids to rate their relationships with their mentors, he said that he gets such answers as “100” or simply “Awesome.”
“Our long-standing mission has been to match adults and children in one-to-one relationships and make a positive difference in their lives forever,” Wirth said. “Each kid gets something different out of it, each mentor gets something different out of it.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson County has been around for 40 years.
This upcoming weekend, the group will hold its biggest fundraiser of the year, Bowl for the Kid’s Sake.
The organization served around 430 children last year. The average match lasts 28 months and costs $1,000 per year.
“There are always more kids on the waiting list to be matched,” said Daleta Thurness, the group’s executive director. “Our organization receives grants and other things, but it really relies on private donations, so this event is really helpful.”
Bowl for Kid’s Sake not only creates money for the organization, it also raises awareness, recruits volunteers, and connects with businesses and organizations. It funds 150 matches that support 300 people.
Thurness said the organization matches kids ages 6 to 18 with an older mentor. Matches tend to last until around eighth grade, she said, but often when a match is made early on it lasts longer.
She said there are numerous reasons kids sign up for the group, including having single parents, just moving into town, family problems, and academic or social struggles.
“A lot of our young people are facing some level of adversity,” Thurness said. “Having that other caring adult in their life to empower them and spend time with them and listen to them will certainly enable them to reach their full potential.”
The organization benefits mentors just as much as the kids, Wirth said.
“We work really hard to work with the mentors to match them up with the right program for them …” Wirth said. “Also [we work with] with age and personality type and support them once they’re in that match.”
UI student and mentor Monica West said anyone can be a mentor.
“The relationship that you get from this is phenomenal,” she said.
West is also the primary representative for Big Brothers Big Sisters at Iowa, which supports the Johnson County organization. This branch focuses on advertising on campus and setting up events for mentors and kids to go to on campus.
West and Thurness said both the Johnson County and Iowa campus organizations have recently felt the need for more male mentors and more mentors of color.
Some parents of children involved in the group speak only Spanish, West said. It’s difficult to bring a translator, so the Iowa organization has reached out to Spanish clubs and organizations.
West said it is difficult to bring a translator along when meeting families that only speak Spanish. To remedy this, the Iowa organization has reached out to Spanish clubs and organizations to recruit mentors.
“[Big Brothers Big Sisters] can be great for the kids,” Wirth said. “They know that someone cares about them just from showing up each week.”
