Nominator Comments:
Responsiveness to the Community
Our staff TEAM ensured during the pandemic that ALL clients were able to access services and support. Our mission is: Enable life-changing mentoring relationships to ignite the power and potential of young people, however, they went above and beyond to provide ESSENTIAL services such as $40,000 in food support (which was a first), securing funding to ensure ALL Clients and Mentors were able to connect virtually to continue their developmental relationship by accessing over $2,000 in funding support for connectivity. Big Brothers Big Sisters invested $3,000 of their own funds to support connectivity, i.e. tablets, internet access, etc. The TEAM also provided support to ensure the safety of clients and volunteers, i.e. Covid kits, masks, hand sanitizer, crafts and games.
Our frontline TEAM is participating in a national project to develop and respond to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and now has a developed process & tools to determine the outcomes of the importance of developmental relationships in children’s lives, measuring things like bullying, mental health issues, alcohol and drug involvement, etc. All members of our TEAM sit on community committees and have led different groups. Our Exec. Dir. assisted the Pictou County Chamber of commerce with a study of local nonprofits and the economic impact on the community for which she won a community award for.