NAU VISTA Project: Big Brothers Big Sisters Southern AZ

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Arizona (BBBSSA) creates and supports one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. We create meaningful, long-term relationships between adult volunteers (Bigs) and children (Littles), ages 6 through young adulthood. Youth enrolled in the BBBSSA preventative mentoring programs are improving their scholastic achievement, gaining greater confidence, building better relationships, avoiding risky behaviors, achieving educational and social success, and developing higher aspirations for the future. The AmeriCorps VISTA member's efforts will support the new Mentoring Activity Center to become a transformative space for at-risk children in Pima County by creating programming for the center, seeking feedback from current parents, mentors, staff, youth and community stakeholders. Activities will encourage and enhance the mentoring relationship and provide opportunities for youth to improve academic performance, explore career opportunities, and prepare for educational opportunities after high school.