Posted on March 6, 2008

print  e-mail

Children and Youth

According to a new report from Public/Private Ventures, while the Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring program successfully reaches students with several risk factors and attracts a diverse group of volunteers, a single year of the BBBS SBM program is not enough to permanently improve participants' academic performance. Funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, Philip Morris USA, and the William T. Grant and Edna McConnell Clark foundations, the report, Making a Difference in Schools: The Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring Impact Study (142 pages, PDF), recommends that volunteers provide at least one school year of mentoring and that programs be built in feeder schools to provide youth with consistency as they move within the education system.