Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver has launched a "30 Men in 30 Days" campaign in hopes of finding more male-identifying volunteers in September, dubbed Big Brothers Big Sisters Month.
The need is greatest in Surrey, where a community mentoring program intake closed more than two years ago, in April 2022.
“There are 30 children in our Surrey Big Brothers Mentoring Program waitpool still waiting to be matched with a Big Brother volunteer mentor," said Rose Higgins, BBGV's director of programs and operations.
The Surrey stats include Delta and White Rock.
"Many 'Littles' have been waiting for more than two years due to the challenges of finding volunteers that commit to the one-year program. On top of that, we have an additional 100 Surrey families waiting to enrol a child in this program in Surrey, but we cannot accept them into our waitpool until we find enough volunteers to meet the current need in the community."
BBGV's goal is to recruit a Community Program mentor every day this month, with applications done on bigbrothersvancouver.com/volunteer/inquire.
“Over the last year we have invested more time and resources into volunteer recruitment and have seen a successful rise of monthly volunteer applications," noted Norman Galimski, who does marketing and communications for the charitable organization.
"We know there are community members out there who willing and able to volunteer, but we simply need to reach them. Our goal is to find those individuals and jump-start our Big Brothers Community Mentoring Program and reopen our Surrey family intake.”
BBGV's youth mentorship programs can be supported with clothing and cash donations.
