To do its work, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts (BBBSEM) matches youth, “Littles,”with caring adult mentors, “Bigs,”to create transformational one-to-one mentoring relationships.
To recruit Littles, BBBSEM works with City Connects Coordinators in the Boston Public Schools as well as with City Connects Program Managers in Beverly and Salem.
“Many of the Boston Public Schools and some of the Catholic schools have known about us, and they’ve recognized us as a supplemental layer of support,” Aka Denjongpa says. He’s BBBSEM’s Director of Community Engagement & Partnerships.
“But one thing we’ve been asking is how — from an engagement standpoint, a recruitment standpoint, and a relationship standpoint — do we get closer to the people who live and interact with children on a daily basis.”
One answer is City Connects.
“We can set up a table at an event, and maybe 2,000 people will walk by, and we get a couple of those people. But it’s better when we form a trustworthy, reciprocal relationship with a community leader who knows the kids and knows the families and says, Look, Big Brothers Big Sisters is a good organization.”
That’s what City Connects does.
“City Connects has deep organizational relationships with the schools it serves, and with the kids it serves,” Denjongpa adds. “Coordinators are able to refer kids to us and give us insights into how to build strong relationships with these kids. That has two amazing outcomes: it can strengthen the relationships that kids have inside school and strengthen the relationships that kids have outside of school.”
Denjongpa says BBBSEM is seeing more Spanish-speaking youth as well as more kids who don’t want to come to school. Having the insights and context about these kids that a City Connects Coordinator has helps strengthen the mentoring relationship.
“Last year we made 1,000 new matches,” between youth and mentors, “and this year we’re going to make another 1,400 matches.”
Myriam Villalobos, the City Connects Coordinator at Boston’s Maurice J. Tobin School, points to the depth of the connection between mentors and students at her school, saying:
“What has stood out the most about our partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters is the deep commitment and investment we have seen from the mentors working with students, combined with the genuine excitement of our students about being paired with their mentors.”
To achieve these outcomes, BBBSEM has had to recruit during the pandemic.
“It has been challenging, but challenging in a good way, and we’ve added more challenges to our plate that are positive and powerful,” Denjongpa says.
“We are recruiting more men to be mentors, because some families want a father figure. We are recruiting more BIPOC people than we ever have because we realize that race matters and that having similar life experiences matters. It’s challenging, but it’s also exciting to be serving youth better.”
“We are engaging with corporations, with their ERG [Employee Resource Groups], with their DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] groups, and we are saying, you’ve made it to a level that many BIPOC and many immigrant kids and many LGBTQIA+ people are not able to get to. So our call to action is: Consider BBBSEM as a volunteer opportunity to keep the door open for those behind you.
“Some companies are ready for that. They know that Boston has great wealth disparities between African-American and white households. They know you can’t shovel that away. We also have disparities in academic performance between immigrants and communities of color and white communities. So we are being intentional in talking to people about these issues.”
Expanding in communities beyond Greater Boston presents a challenge because there are fewer corporations, large companies, and nonprofits where BBBSEM can find mentors. Nonetheless, Denjongpa has plans to expand into Brockton, Lowell, Revere, and other parts of the North Shore.
“We’re seeing people who are being displaced for economic reasons moving into these areas, and we want to be able to serve their kids.”
Over the past year, the relationship between City Connects and BBBSEM has grown stronger. Denjongpa has been meeting with Sara Davey, Boston’s City Connects Program Manager, as well as with other City Connects staff.
“A lot of credit goes to the City Connects team for being so open to meeting and talking about how to put energy into action,” Denjongpa says, adding, “It’s so easy to look at what’s wrong and intellectualize about it. It’s easy to live in the intellectual, inactive sphere of our brains — which is why it’s so important for us to actually work together and take action.”
It’s action that is paying off for students.
As Villalobos explains:
“We have many students who look forward to the day each week when they meet with their mentor at school. We have worked with charismatic and caring mentors who give more of their time than is required. In some cases, mentors who are college student mentors have even come back to visit their Littles at school after the mentors have graduated and moved away from the Boston area.”
“We have seen families invite their mentors into their family events and routines, and there are mentors who have been able to see their Littles grow up because their relationships have lasted many years. The partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters has had such a meaningful impact on our students and our school community.”
