CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Officials with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Central West Virginia are in need of mentors to help contribute to a new statewide initiative announced Monday.
The program called the WV Mentoring Initiative aims to improve the current and future workforce by empowering young children greater self-confidence, academic success as well as exposing them to career opportunities, job training and more.
At a Monday press conference in Charleston, Sara McDowell, executive director for BBBS, told audience members that one in every four children living in West Virginia are living in poverty. Also, she said a growing number of youth are raised in single-family homes or raised by grandparents.
With that, she said the ultimate goal of the program is to get corporate leaders to understand today’s children “are the future workforce.”
“It’s a call to action for businesses, for individuals, for church leaders, for members of the community at large to come forward and say ‘I can give two to four hours of my time each month to make a big difference in the life of a child,'” McDowell said.
“We can prepare them now or we may be seeing the exodus of business from West Virginia later,” she added.
Beth Wolfe, president of the board of directors for BBBS, agreed.
“If we can get businesses to allow for their employees to maybe take a little extra time at lunch one day a week to go into the schools and be a school-based mentor, to go have lunch with their littles in the schools,” Wolfe said.
Another goal includes breaking the generational cycle whether it be of poverty, of homelessness or other problems children currently face.
“If all you see is part-time jobs or no jobs, it’s real easy to fall right into line with that,” McDowell said. “The mentor is really a critical tool in helping us give these children a different perspective.”
Wolfe added the program allows children to see “a world outside the four to six block area that they call home.”
A number of organizations have partnered with BBBS for the initiative including the Charleston Area Alliance, Generation Charleston, the YMCA of Kanawha Valley, the Beckley Area Chamber of Commerce, CreateWV, the Girl Scouts, Goodwill Charleston, the Schoenbaum Center and Modern Woodman.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern West Virginia currently assists more than 150 children ages 6 to 20 to help build and sustain long-lasting relationships.
To get involved in the WV Mentoring Initiative, visit www.biglittlewv.org.