Children do not have the support they need to succeed in school & life. An October 22, 2008 Express-News article publishes the alarming findings of a recent report from the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), a San Antonio-based organization that has tracked school dropout rates for more than 20 years.

• Every 4 minutes a student drops out of a Texas public school
• This year's numbers are no better than the first report released in 1986
• In Bexar County, the 40% attrition rate is higher than the state figures
• 10,363 students in the Class of 2008 left school without a diploma

Children with a Big Brother or Big Sister mentor:

• Learn to make good choices
• Avoid risky behavior
• Graduate from High School

Our research & outcomes truly set us apart.

• A new study just released by Harris Interactive that finds that adults mentored as children in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program are better educated, wealthier & more fulfilled than their peers, suggesting that Big Brothers Big Sisters can break the cycles of poverty.  You can read the Harris Interactive study here.
• In the well-known Public/Private Ventures study, children matched in the BBBS program were found to be 46% less likely to start using drugs; 27% less likely to start drinking; 52% less likely to skip a day of school; 33% less likely to hit someone
• In a central Texas study released in 2005, 87% of children studied who were matched in the BBBS program graduated from HS or got their GED
• In a national study released in 2007, children who were matched with a Big Brother or Big Sister showed improvement in 8 academic areas

We are cost effective:

• It costs $1,000 to support a mentoring relationship for 1year.
• It costs $30,000-$40,000 to incarcerate a juvenile for 1 year.

Big Brothers Big Sisters provides:

• Recruitment, screening, matching, training and supporting participants in one-to-one mentoring relationships
• Community and school based mentoring programs
• Our programs are based on the mentoring model involving the pairing of volunteer mentors (“Bigs”) with at-risk children (“Littles”) and supervising the developing relationship.
• Volunteer mentors help children make good choices, avoid risky behaviors and develop the assets they need to grow up to become contributing, productive, successful adults
• Our program influences and measures the assets that are critical for a child to grow up successfully. These include:
  • The ability to make good decisions
  • A sense of the future
  • An ability to avoid juvenile delinquency , substance abuse, and early pregnancy
  • Better relationships with family, peers and other adults