Well, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentucky.
Ana has been changing lives and
creating meaningful connections
for children here for years now.
Being a mentor is more important than
ever as we gear up for back to school.
I'm joined by Jennifer Hoffman and
Antoine Terry to tell us all about it.
Guys, good to have you here.
This is the season like I feel like
this is a great time to get involved.
It definitely is.
And with mentorship being so
important in the community today,
we just are looking for those
adults that care about children
that that want to protect our
youth and be that village to help
facilitate their bright futures,
right. And So what is the
process like if you say, yes,
I'm going to find the time,
I'm going to do this because
it matters and to be a mentor,
people may be thinking I don't
want to do it because, you know,
it means this amount of,
you know what I mean?
People think of their time,
but I mean the value in
the trade off is greater.
But what would people anticipate just
from the moment that they connect?
It is about two people,
a young adult and an adult just
twice a month, just a minimum opportunity
to to make a big impact.
I know that Antoine,
he is a big within our program and
there's so many experiences that,
yes, we facilitate that,
that special relationship and that
bond between the mentor and the mentee.
But we also have that ability to
change the life of an adult because
they're looking at it from the
perspective of a young person. And
we go, you know, adults, we're a little
bit stubborn and we try to try to not be
so set in our ways. But I think
that's the beauty of the program.
Yeah. And it's beneficial for both
the adult and and the young person
to just get different perspectives.
How long have you been
a Big Brother? Just over 8 years now.
Oh my goodness. You really,
you went into it, didn't you?
See, that's the message
there is that you think, oh,
I don't know if that's not and then you're
in it and you're like 8 years later,
How have you learned from it And and
you continue to stay in touch with the
young people that you are a mentor to
now. It's been an incredible
opportunity something that I didn't
have when I was young younger.
So the the ability to be able to give
back in my adult years to to Littles
has been has been inspiring that that
do you still keep in touch with
many of of those that you I do
I I do the school to work program
through through my company and some
of them have moved on to university.
So through social media or just do
simple e-mail we we keep in touch.
You wonder too, you know,
when you look to see their success now,
do you think I wonder? Yeah,
I did that, Right.
But do you look at that and think in some
small way did having somebody to talk to?
And you know what I mean? Like,
I think it takes a village with a child,
but you know what I mean?
Like, you were part of that village
that encouraged a young person.
I just think that's that's huge,
you know? And that's exactly,
that's exactly what we're looking for.
Antoine, he's within our
school to work program,
but we have the community base,
we have those young mentors,
we have high school bigs.
So anybody that is looking to just
facilitate that relationship with
a young person and and to be that
village to to send that text, hey,
how are you doing to check up on
a young person just to make sure
that they're on that right path.
That's what we need whether
it's through donations,
whether it's through just people
being able to to facilitate
those relationships with the
young people in our community.
And I know you all were recently
congratulations recognized nationally.
So the national organization
recently honored in the Kentucky Anna
and we, we received the Gold
Standard award and what that is,
is we met certain metrics within the
national department whether it's with
fundraising or whether it's with
keeping our bigs together longer.
We met those national standards
and we were one of 26 out of more
than 230 agencies across the 50
states that won that that award,
which I think right now it's
just it's such a tough time in
general like we're, I don't know,
it just feels like it is coming
back so many years from COVID,
people finding time, finding jobs.
But to create the time and
do what you all are doing,
I feel like that's an enormous
achievement at this point in time,
you know, and I think that that's
the hurdle that we're looking to really
bridge that gap out in the community.
However you want to get involved,
be an advocate, be an ambassador,
be a big for a day.
And that's just a couple of hours
volunteering to see what our program is like.
Because I don't know,
I'm speaking for for bigs in the program,
but that hurdle is the time, right?
And if you think that
it's just a simple text,
it's just a check in.
Sometimes we don't need to spend
time with people and our friends.
But if we know that people care about
what we're doing and at that time
they're there when we need them,
that's what's most important.
And that's what involves mentorship.
All right, still time to get
involved before back to school.
Here you go. Thanks for stopping by.
If you want to be a mentor or get
involved in in a big or small way any
which way you possibly can, just go to
bbbsky.org.