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Kansas Big Brothers/Big Sisters Seeking New Mentors

Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters Serving Sedgwick County
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The Kansas Big Brothers-Big Sisters organization is hoping a new social media campaign will bring in more mentors and money.

In Sedgwick County, there are more than 600 kids waiting to be matched up with an adult mentor. The problem is there are not enough volunteers coming into the program.

To help raise awareness and extra funding at year’s end, Big Brothers Big Sisters launched an online campaign through a giving website.

"We always, always, always have a need for one-to-one mentors, and then the dollars to support to our current matches as well as pulling those kids off the waiting list," says Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters chief development officer Mary Shannon.

She says the group currently serves about 1500 kids ages five to 17 in Sedgwick County. Most live in a single parent household at or below the poverty line. Kansas Big Brother Big Sisters serves 4,000 kids in 93 counties throughout the state.

Shannon says the State of Kansas identified about 50,000 kids who could benefit from one-on-one mentoring. The one-on-one mentorship lasts a minimum of one year.

The visits between mentors and child can be site-based or community-based. For site-based visits, a weekly meeting is set up at a designated location such as the child’s school. Community-based mentoring is flexible.

Shannon says the hope is that a mentor would include their child match in everyday life, such as shopping trips, sports, church or activities at home.

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Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar.

 
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

 

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.