Agency seeking to engage and recruit men as mentors for boys on waiting list
Cape Cod: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cape Cod & the Islands (BBBS) is launching a “30 Guys in 30 Days” campaign to recruit more male mentors on the Cape & Martha’s Vineyard. With 90 youth currently on the waitlist, 63% being boys, the agency is hoping to raise awareness about the need for more men in the community to step up and become a Big Brother.
“Finding male mentors continues to be our number one need,” says JR Mell, Regional Director for BBBS. “For every girl who is referred to our agency, 4 boys are referred. On the volunteer side, for every male volunteer who signs up, 4 female volunteers sign up. We are left with a natural imbalance, and are launching this campaign during the month of March in hopes of matching more boys with a mentor.”
“A little bit of the concern that I had when I signed up was could I make this time commitment?” says current Big Brother Stephan Colella. “BBBS was very clear to me and my Little Brother on what the commitment meant; meeting 2 times a month, for a few hours each time, doing low to no cost activities. It’s very, very manageable, and very rewarding.”
Mell says the response from the community upon announcing this campaign has been great, with many organizations stepping forward to offer their assistance. The Cape & Islands United Way CEO, Barbara Milligan, and The Cape Cod Foundation’s CEO, Kristin O’Malley, will be featured in video clips highlighting the need for male mentors. The Community Leadership Institute of Cape Cod’s group, led by Whitney McNamara, has offered their help to drive support to this campaign by extending BBBS’ reach into their networks to find more potential male volunteers.
Anyone interested in volunteering or learning more can visit the BBBS website: https://www.bbbsmb.org/30-guys-30-days/. Groups or organizations who may want to help BBBS with this campaign may contact JR Mell, Regional Director at jrmell@bbbscci.org or 508-771-5150 x101.
About Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cape Cod & the Islands: BBBS is on a mission to help children in under-resourced families thrive by providing transformational, one-to-one professionally-supported relationships with caring adult mentors. Founded in 1974, and a part of BBBSMB, BBBS is the only volunteer based, one to one, professionally supported mentoring program on the Cape & Islands. BBBS currently serves over 323 kids throughout the Cape & Islands. For more information please visit: www.CapeBigs.org
