By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — There are plenty of kids that need to be mentored in Kosciusko County.

That’s according to Tammy Smith, who serves as the county’s community development director for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

“Our mission is to create and support mentoring relationships between an at-risk child, who we call the ‘Little,’ with an adult mentor, who we call the ‘Big,'” she said.

Smith began in her role in January. Though Big Brothers Big Sisters has had a presence in the county for 38 years, it’s the first time the organization has had a position like Smith’s locally. She works to recruit adults to be volunteers and raise money for the program.

Smith came into her role previously working in the nonprofit field through Combined Community Services. She’s quite familiar with Big Brothers Big Sisters as she’s been a Big Sister through it.

“I became a Big Sister 10 years ago and just loved the program, I mean seeing firsthand that it really works and it’s fun,” she said.

She’s done the program through both ways it functions locally: School Buddies and Community-Based.

“So I signed up to be a school lunch buddy 10 years ago,” she said. “I signed up to be a lunch buddy for one year, but our relationship developed. Soon after, we wanted to spend more time together, so we transitioned to Community-Based and we established a relationship and here we are 10 years later. And that happens a lot too … most times, the relationships just continue.”

School Buddies allows adults to meet with kids weekly at county elementary schools or people can do the Community-Based version of the program, through which they can meet together elsewhere once or twice a month.

Age requirements for Bigs are 18-80. Littles must be ages 6-13 upon their entry into the program, but may remain in it through age 22 if their Big wants to continue the relationship until then.

Smith notes the program is voluntary.

“We do get a lot of referrals through the school system, but we want to make sure people understand that it’s voluntary,” she said. “So no child is being made to come on the program, no court system is requiring them.”

“And the family (of each child) is really involved. This is something that the parents want to do as well,” Smith added.

Couples are also welcome to meet with children instead of one person. Those meeting with kids in a community setting are welcome to meet with them anywhere they choose.

Smith said 25 kids are waiting right now to be matched up with adults, and there’s more than 20 kids working on joining the program.

“There’s more kids out there,” she added. “The stats for our county show that there’s 4,000 at-risk kids in our county.”

Men are especially needed to volunteer as Bigs, said Smith.

“Seventy percent of the kids waiting are boys, so we definitely need men,” she said.

Smith clarified that at-risk doesn’t mean the children have behavior issues, but that they are facing personal issues like poverty.

“So these are at-risk kids, so we want to provide them with an adult that can show up for them and just be a positive role model in their life,” said Smith. “So it’s really about spending time with a child and having fun with them. These kids are under a lot of stress. So you know this volunteer is not the teacher, not the parent, not the therapist, not the counselor, you’re just there for them to have a good time with them, be there if they need something, just model a positive way of life.”

For Bigs to apply, they first have to put in an inquiry, then fill out an application. That includes providing references and going through a background check. Potential Bigs must also participate in an interview.

“It’s at that point that we’re really getting to know that person, what their likes are, learning about them and their personality,” said Smith. That helps match each Big to the right child. She said the organization also will ask each potential Big if they’d prefer to meet with someone who lives close to where they do.

Adults will also go through training before they start meeting with a child.

“We ask the volunteer for a one-year commitment,” said Smith. “In most cases though the relationship – if they want it to continue – it just continues on, so there’s no re-application process.”

She said Big Brothers Big Sisters staff are there to support Bigs as the relationship begins with less support over time. The organization will also help Bigs find activities to do with Littles that are free.

“The organization sponsors at least one monthly activity that we host that the Community-Based matches can come to,” she said. “There are several businesses around the county that offer price breaks for the matches. They give them discounts or give them stuff for free.”

“Right now we’re really looking to get Big volunteers signed up to start out the next school year, so we’re really looking for School Buddies right now to start off the 2022-23 school year,” said Smith. “The whole vetting process that I talked about can take four to six weeks.”

Adults may apply to be Big Brothers or Big Sisters by visiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana’s website bbbsnei.org. Kosciusko County is one of the counties under Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana’s umbrella.

People may also help the organization by donating to it, which can be done by visiting the above website.

“Any donations from this county … stay in this county,” said Smith. “Donations do go through our main organization, but it’s based on (a donor’s) address. If their address is here, then the money stays right here.”

Locally Big Brothers Big Sisters has two fundraisers. There’s Bowl for Kids’ Sake, which just occurred in April and what is known as the “Big Celebration.”

Smith said the latter is Oct. 11 at Warsaw Community Church, 1855 S. County Farm Road.

“That includes an auction, a plated dinner and fashion show with our matches and kids on the waiting list,” she said.

Smith emphasized how important mentoring kids through Big Brothers Big Sisters is.

“The thing I like to say is spending time with kids, mentoring children, it seems obvious that it has a positive effect on their life, but there’s a lot of data to show that works in really making an impact on their life, higher graduation rates, less risky behavior,” said Smith.

“There’s also a positive ripple effect where the kids will start to do better in school, (have) better family relationships, things like that,” she said.