Big Brothers Big Sisters in need of volunteers

Jan. 8—Since the advent of COVID, Big Brothers Big Sisters has been seeing a dearth of volunteers.

Executive Director Kay Crites said they can now set up the program at any school in Ector County ISD. They started at Blackshear Elementary School.

Locally, Big Brothers Big Sisters matches volunteers with children age 6 through college graduation to mentor them. January is National Mentoring Month.

"We already had a waiting list of children and now we're really struggling. ... If we have a parent who wants to enroll their child in the school program at a specific school, we'll contact the school and see if they're OK with it and if they are we'll try to find a volunteer for any school," Crites said.

A bright spot is that the Boys and Girls Clubs have been working with Big Brothers Big Sisters, so high school students and some adults are meeting with their Little Brother or Little Sister at the Boys and Girls Club in their after school care program, Crites said.

"There are a lot of children in that program that we could enroll, but why if we don't have anybody to match with them," she added.

Volunteers have to be at least 15 years old and a sophomore and be able to pass a background check.

"We have volunteers on into their 80s," Crites said.

She added that their numbers in Midland are higher because they have been there since 1975. They started in Odessa in 2018. There were 11 matches in Odessa and 87 in Midland for a total of 98 in the Basin.

"But that's five years and we had 11 matches last year. For a city of the size of Odessa to only be able to match 11 children who desperately need someone to listen to them and give them that little extra support, I know Odessa can do better," Crites said.

"Our numbers are way down in Midland as well and I know Midland can do better than that. We used to routinely serve 150," she added.

They found out quickly during COVID that face to face is the best method of recruiting volunteers, so they are trying to find and get out to more community events to meet people.

"There have been a few more community events that we've been able to attend. We used to have companies that would invite us to talk to their employees, or we would ask them if we could and they would allow us to do that. That is basically not happening any longer, so we're trying to get that going again. That all stopped because of concerns over COVID," Crites said.

The most common reason they hear for people not volunteering is that they don't have time.

"This is an hour a week or every other week. If it's important to them, they'll make time. I just have to find a way to make it important to them," Crites said.

She said when she's on the Next Door app people are complaining about the behavior of children in their neighborhood and she has said why not help out, but when they ask people who call Big Brothers Big Sisters how they heard about the nonprofit, they never mention Next Door.

These children are dealing with a lot.

"They've been through COVID. There's all these threats being made at school. There's just a lot of pressure on them and if they just have somebody to talk to who can help them make better decisions, who can be a sounding board and a supporter for them, studies have shown that it makes a huge difference in their behavior," Crites said.

"We do surveys that show improvement, or lack of improvement, but I've never really seen a child who went backwards after being enrolled in our program. We track how they're doing on their attitude toward school, their attendance in school, their grades in school, their relationships with peers and other adults; 29 different areas that we track by conducting surveys with the parents, with teachers, with the Big and with the child him or herself, so we can show the improvement that these children make once they have a Big Brother or Big Sister in their lives," Crites said.

She added that national studies have shown children with mentors are more likely to continue their education; less likely to get caught up in drug and alcohol abuse; and less likely to get caught up in the criminal justice system.

"Almost a quarter of our children have at least one parent in prison, which means they are seven times more likely to end up in prison themselves unless something interrupts that cycle," Crites said. "The Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (at the federal level) has said that mentoring is one of the most effective ways to interrupt that cycle."

"Sometimes parents are doing everything they can. They just need a little extra help. Sometimes they're working two to three jobs in this economy to try and keep food on the table and bills paid and they don't have as much time as they'd like to spend with their kids. A lot of them are single-parent families for various reasons — divorce, death, incarceration — so we have kids who span the whole realm of socioeconomic (status) and issues; they may have ADHD or something, but just having someone there who will prioritize them, who lets them know that I'm important enough that someone will do this and spend time with me gives them a huge boost in confidence," she added.

The increase in self-confidence is one of the biggest areas of improvement Big Brothers Big Sisters sees in the children.

"That is absolutely crucial when it comes to dealing with peer pressure for drug and alcohol abuse," Crites said.

The program mentors people age 6 through 21 or college graduation.

"Obviously they won't be able to meet in person as often, maybe during breaks, but they can either text or Skype or have a Zoom call and stay connected," she said.

Committee member Austin Anderson of Odessa is also a Big Brother. He started volunteering at the beginning of the school year.

Encouraged by his uncle, Anderson decided to give his time to Big Brothers Big Sisters. His uncle rolled off the committee and Anderson took his spot.

"Then I kind of felt a calling to, if I was going to serve on the committee, I probably needed to also participate in what we're pushing for, so I decided to go ahead and join as well. It's been a great decision. My Little has really brought a lot of joy into my life in just the sense that I know we're trying to provide a solid foundation in their lives, somebody they can look up to, somebody they can talk to that they may not have had otherwise, or just a Big Brother or Big Sister figure in their life," Anderson said.

Like Crites, Anderson said the need is out there.

"If you want to make an impact on our future and the citizens and the people of our community for a time to come, you have to start at the core," Anderson said.

He spends an hour to an hour and a half a week with his Little.

"It's a commitment. I don't want to say that it's not a commitment, but it really, really makes an impact on these kids and to me that's what's worth it," Anderson said.

He added that he and fellow Bigs get to go see the Littles.

"We get to go see these kids. We get to spend time with them. We get to make an impact on them," Anderson said.

He added that he gets more out of it than his Little does.

"That's ... something we talk about throughout the whole process was the whole thing is providing a role model and really making an impact on their life, but I guarantee you it might have a bigger impact on our life," Anderson said.

Krysta Hadlock, also a committee member, said everyone in the community has something to offer to future generations.

"We are excited to help make those connections. We will be engaging in as many face-to-face discussions as possible to remind our great community of the valuable gifts they have to share. We hope to partner with companies, churches, other nonprofits, and schools to help get the word out about our great program. At no cost or commitment, we will come speak to your company or group and share the word about the amazing kids we hope to help in 2023. All we ask is for a little of your time. We have amazing children waiting to be matched with a Big Brother or Big Sister, and I know our community has what it takes to step up and make a difference in these children's lives," Hadlock said in an email.