{"id":26344,"date":"2020-04-09T18:54:16","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26344"},"modified":"2020-04-09T18:54:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:54:22","slug":"big-brothers-big-sisters-sets-standard-in-virtual-mentoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/big-brothers-big-sisters-sets-standard-in-virtual-mentoring\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Brothers Big Sisters sets standard in virtual mentoring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Children across the country are adjusting to a temporary\nnew normal not being able to get to school, be with their friends, and connect\nwith the positive mentors they might have in the school environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some children who might not have these mentors at\nhome, the transition might be more difficult for them than others, but Big\nBrothers Big Sisters of York continues to provide a lifeline for kids in need\nacross the Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, Big Brothers Big Sisters of York was set to\ntake centre-stage in an online forum of Big Brothers Big Sisters organizations\nacross the country to share the success of their new virtual mentorship\nprogram, one which has been born out of necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spearheaded here in Aurora, the program could prove to be\na model replicated across Canada, not just during this time of crisis, but in\nyears to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the extent of the emergency became clear, Big Brothers\nBig Sisters of York (BBBSY) sprang into action. Knowing the vital relationship\nbetween their \u201cBigs\u201d (adult mentors) and \u201cLittles\u201d (kids in need) would not be\nable to continue face-to-face, the organization knew a solution needed to be\nfound to keep these relationships going wherever possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery one of our mentors said they were not putting this\non hold and there is no way we can back out now,\u201d says Katie Lowes of BBBSY.\n\u201cThey realize that kids need somebody in their corner, somebody they can feel\ncomfortable and safe with and, right now, they need that more than ever. With\neverything else that is different in their lives, the one thing we can maintain\nis consistency in this aspect and giving them that safe space, that sounding\nboard. That has been really successful and really exciting for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shifting their one-on-one mentorship programs online has\nalso helped BBBSY solve challenge they were experiencing before our lives were\nupended by the virus: wait lists for both mentors and mentees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are not in a position to be able to encourage new\nrelationships as we typically go out and throw a ball around [and introduce\npairings], so we were looking at how we can mitigate some of those challenges\nthat so many people were facing, particularly families with young kids at home\nwho are feeling isolated and probably anxious and bored out of their minds,\u201d\nexplains Ms. Lowes. \u201cHow do we support these people right now who really need a\none-on-one opportunity more than ever? Our agency was able to come up really\nquickly with Virtual Mentoring, which will reduce our wait lists. We have a lot\nof kids from across York Region who are waiting for their chance to get their\nBig Brother or Big Sister. For the time being, we have a really cool temporary\nsolution to provide them with somebody they can just get to know over phone\ncalls, text messages, video calls and that kind of thing \u2013 even just playing\nPlayStation together or whatever works for that person. They are going to have\na virtual mentor during this time that can keep them connected; it is going\nbeyond staying connected but getting connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been trying to figure out how to do this for a\nwhile now. We might have a little boy in Keswick and a Big Brother in Vaughan\nand we can\u2019t match them because it is an hour drive and it is just not going to\nwork long-term. This allows us to take geography out of it and bring people\ntogether in a virtual world in a way they may never have had the opportunity to\nbe together before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All mentors coming on board in the new virtual system have\nbeen put through BBBSY\u2019s entire screening process, have undergone training and\nfully understand what it means to be a mentor \u2013 and just what to bring to the\ntable. BBBSY has developed a full program of fun virtual activities Bigs and\nLittles can do together to help forge these vital mentorship bonds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their waiting lists for both categories of clients\ncontinues to grow, so if BBBSY feels this new model will work in the long-term,\nthat will be given due consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, perhaps, be a new standard well beyond York Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur national body is really excited about this kind of work,\u201d says Ms. Lowes. \u201cDuring the first couple of days [of the crisis], we were in the mindset of, \u2018How do we make the most of this? We can\u2019t just wait this out, there are kids who are still waiting or their Big Brother or Big Sister one way or another.\u2019 This has been kind of exciting for us to take the lead and have some innovative ideas I think are going to get utilized across the country. Maybe not every agency will have a need for this, but I think there will be a lot of organizations where this can play a role in their wait lists and I think it is really awesome to be able to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children across the country are adjusting to a temporary new normal not being able to get to school, be with their friends, and connect with the positive mentors they might have in the school environment. For some children who might not have these mentors at home, the transition might be more difficult for them than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/2020-04-09-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6QU","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 21:30:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}