The funds will be used to mentor 1,000 additional youth.
Washington DC (KM) A grant from Arnold Ventures totaling $5.6 million has been awarded to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the National Capital Area. CEO Mike Sanzi says the money will go toward mentorship programs for area youth.
He says $2,4 million has been set aside for Frederick and Prince George’s Counties over a four-year period.. “It’s at the perfect threshold for us to get a much better foundation in Frederick County but also have the capacity to grow.” he says. “And that’s the key to touch as many youth that we can in Frederick County. So the reaction’s been really positive. Everyone’s excited.”
The grant is expected to help an additional 1,000 youth, according to Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
Sanzi says the organization assigns a mentor to each young person to act as a big brother or big sister. “That youth gets exclusive attention from someone who cares about them, and wants to treat them as a little brother or little sister so they grow and develop accordingly,” he says.
He says this includes urging the little brother or little sister to stay in school, graduate and go on live a good life; and to stay away from negative influences. These mentors help their little brothers or little sisters deal with the challenges young people face. “Simple as helping them with their homework, helping them with peer pressures, helping them understand a variety of relationships, and, certainly, helping them avoid at-risk behaviors such as teen pregnancy, drug use, alcohol use, getting involved in gangs, juvenile justice system,” he says.
It appears the Big Brothers and Big Sisters mentoring is working. “84 percent of youth are less likely to have contact with juvenile courts. 70 percent are less likely than their peers to initiate drug use. And 64 percent are more likely to achieve higher grades. Now this is all based on youth in our program These are national level statistics that are proven to be true,”: Sanzi says.
Big Brothers and Big Sisters is always in need of mentors. “And we have a lot of volunteers that want to participate, and want to help. So our challenge is just matching them up with the right youth and the right region,” Sanzi says. “But, nevertheless, there’s always the need, especially now we’re entering more robustly into Frederick County. We’re hoping to get a lot of participation, a lot of individuals in the community stepping up and saying ‘I want to help,’ ‘I want to help a child,'” Sanzi says.
For more information, about Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the National Capital Area go online to https://bbbsnca.org.
There was a Big Brothers and Big Sisters chapter in Frederick, but it closed in 2014 due to lack of funding. Sanzi says Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the National Capital Area set up a presence in Frederick County 2019.
By Kevin McManus