Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butte celebrating National Mentoring Month

January is National Mentoring Month and if you want to build a meaningful mentoring relationship with an eager Butte kid, you need look no further than Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Butte.  Right now there are many young ones in Butte who would love to build a relationship with you.

"Our primary focus here is one to one mentoring relationships," explained BBBS-Butte Executive Director Laci Peck Ridder at their Butte office on Front Street.  "We actually run two programs in Butte, we have our school-based program and our community-based program, and we always have wait lists for both," Ridder added.  "With our school-based programs, you go into the schools for an hour a week and you spend time with the kiddo in a school setting and whether you play games, you play basketball or you help with homework, it's on-site in the school.  With our community-based programs you actually leave the site and go out in the community and do things."  Ridder added that there is need in both programs.  "Right now we have 9 waiting "littles" in our community based and 21 waiting in our school based so there is definitely a need for mentors," she said.

And mentoring definitely makes a difference.  According to statistics provided by BBBS, researchers found that after 18 months of spending time with their "bigs", when compared to those children not in the program, matched children were 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs, 27% less likely to start using alcohol and 52% less likely to skip school.

Consider Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Butte during National Mentoring Month.  Stop by their office for details at 515 E. Front Street in the Executive Village, call (406) 782-9644 or visit www.bbbsbutte.org.