Program areas at BBBSLA
Community based mentoring: from july 2021 - june 2022, bbbsla served an estimated 694 children and youth ages 6-18 in the community-based mentoring program, the agency's largest program. In this program, which is administered and operates year-round, children and youth are matched with a professionally screened adult mentor to foster a positive and healthy relationship with the goal of supporting and strengthening the social, emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes of youth in the program. On top of providing ongoing match support and recommendations for outings between mentors and mentees, bbbsla provided covid-19 resources to families who needed financial support, food & housing aid, educational tools, and mental health services. Bbbsla also hosted the first in-person event for mentors, staff members and youth post-covid at the agency's holiday match party. Community based matches slowly returned to in-person outings this year.
School based mentoring: from july 2021 to june 2022, bbbsla served an estimated 45 children and youth in the school based mentoring program. Due to local, state and national recommendations in response to the covid-19 pandemic and school restrictions for visitors, traditional sessions were suspended during most of the 2021-2022 school year. In late spring 2022, we were able to launch a program at mckinley elementary school. During the time that schools were closed, bbbsla conducted and administered socio-emotional development support to youth and their families as they navigated this challenging time. Bbbsla continued to provide covid-19 resources to families who needed financial support, food & housing aid, educational tools, and mental health services. About the program: through this program and in partnership with schools throughout Los Angeles county, bbbsla brings professionally screened adult mentors into the elementary school setting to provide weekly 1-hour mentoring sessions to elementary students in grades 2-5. An additional component of our school-based mentoring program is our high-school bigs program, a unique sub-program. This sub-program allows high school-aged students to volunteer as mentors to elementary students throughout the school year for weekly, 1-hour sessions. All school-based mentoring and high-school bigs sessions are guided by on-site bbbsla staff through a staff-curated, evidence-based curriculum.
Workplace mentoring: from july 2021 to june 2022, bbbsla served an estimated 272 high-school aged youth in the workplace mentoring program. In the same time frame, bbbsla conducted and administered an estimated total of 10 months of the workplace mentoring program, with a total of 12 program sites and an estimated 240 hours of sessions. Through this program and in partnership with l.a. county schools and corporations, bbbsla brings high-school students from under-resourced high schools into partnering workplace sites twice per month to conduct one-hour group and individual mentoring sessions led by bbbsla staff. Each student is matched with an employee through the partnering corporation over the course of the school year. The sessions offer group learning activities and engagement with the support of the staff-curated and evidence-based curriculum, followed by individual mentoring sessions between match relationships. This year, all sessions were moved to a virtual format to comply with local, state and national recommendations in response to the covid-19 pandemic. In spring 2022, bbbsla was able to host a few in-person sessions and year-end celebrations.
Other accomplishments: bbbsla served youth through two additional one-to-one mentoring programs: 1) college pac (preparation, access and completion); and 2) women in entertainment mentoring program. Additionally, graduating bbbsla youth are eligible to apply for and receive scholarships / academic enrichment grants to the college or university of their choice, as they pursue their goals of higher education and beyond.