LITTLE ROCK — Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is in dire need of more male mentors who are members of minority groups, the head of the national organization said Thursday in Little Rock.
Karen Mathis, the chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, said in a speech at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service that recruiting more black and Hispanic male mentors is one of the organization’s “big pushes.”
Of the 244,487 children served nationally in 2009, 45 percent were male and 54 percent were black or Hispanic, according to Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Of the corresponding mentors, just 35 percent were male and 24 percent were black or Hispanic.
“[Our children] are our most important asset. And yet, our youth are facing broader, deeper and more complex problems than they ever have,” Mathis said.
“If we don’t mobilize to get boots on the ground to help our children, we have no one to blame when this great nation of ours goes into a descent and never comes back.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters is the nation’s largest donor based volunteer network of mentors for children. The national organization works with about 380 affiliates in all 50 states.
The majority of the children who participate come from single-parent homes where the family either lives in poverty or a parent is in jail.
The organization recruits mentors to participate in a community-based program where a “Big” spends time with a “Little” a couple of times a month. In another program, the matches meet once a week at school.
The organization works to match children with mentors of the same sex.
Arkansas has Big Brothers Big Sisters programs based out of Little Rock, Conway and Springdale.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas serves more than 700 children. The group has community-based and school-based programs throughout Pulaski County, along with school-based programs in Benton and Pine Bluff.
Christel Cater, vice president of marketing and recruitment for the central Arkansas affiliate, said Thursday that there are about 100 children on the group’s waiting list. Among those, about 80 are black boys.
However, only about 11 percent of the agency’s male mentors are black.
As a result, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas often matches black children with white mentors.
She said the agency values diversity and that cross-cultural matches offer “great learning opportunities” for children, but parents of black boys routinely request to match their children with mentors of the same race.
“They just feel like their kids are going to relate well to that mentor. They are going to be comfortable, be able to discuss things and maybe relate better to a mentor who grew up with some of the same issues they have,” Cater said.
Mathis joined Big Brothers Big Sisters last fall. Previously, she served as the president of the American Bar Association and practiced law for 34 years.
Mathis said the national mentoring program has a proven track record of making a difference in children’s lives.
A national study from the early 1990s found that after 18 months in the program, children were 52 percent less likely than peers to skip school, 46 percent less likely to start using drugs, and 33 percent less likely to hit someone.
The children also were more confident in their schoolwork and got along better with their families.
Kathy Lewison’s sons Kristopher and Tyler spent years in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas program.
Lewison said Thursday that she raised her boys alone, working three jobs at a time to keep the family afloat.
Having a male role model around - someone to “vent to,” Lewison said - helped her boys immensely.
Now grown, Kristopher is an FBI agent and Tyler is a West Point graduate who flew Black Hawk helicopters in Iraq. Tyler’s mentor is now godfather to his child.
“I just can’t applaud this program enough,” Lewison said. “They just took two children who didn’t have a chance and changed their lives.”
More information about the program is available at www.bbbsca.org or (501) 374-6661.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 04/09/2010