Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kamloops suspends mentorship program

Young people waiting to be matched up with a Big Brother or Sister in the Kamloops region will have to wait at least three more months to be connected with a mentor.

The local chapter has just suspended new additions to the well-known program because of a lack of funding. 

"Our first and foremost priority is to ensure that the children that we're serving, the youth that we're serving, are served in an appropriate and safe manner," said executive director Joanne Mason.

"We didn't have the confidence to continue at that rate." 

'Drain on resources'

She said each new match requires around 50 hours of staff time within the first year.

"We have to ensure there's adequate screening done, adequate training being done and appropriate matching and follow-up for the first year," she said.

"It's such a terrific drain on resources."

The change will affect not only young people in Kamloops, but also in the surrounding areas like Merritt and Clearwater.  

Mason was clear to point out that this will not affect any children who are already matched with mentors, nor will it impact group or in-school programs run by the organization.

'Can't cut staff'

Big Brother Big Sisters of Kamloops and District was receiving project-based funding that wrapped up last year and was not renewed. This left the organization with a gap in funding that was not being made up by existing fundraising events and other initiatives like the Renew Crew, which collects and sells used items.

"There are many places where other non-profits are faced with the same kind of shortfalls that we are faced with. We just simply can't cut staff or cut any closer to the bone because we are dealing with children and youth," said Mason.

The Kamloops chapter is not the first to have to suspend services. In Aug. 2016, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary announced it was no longer taking on new volunteers because of a lack of funding.

Volunteer Kamloops connects non-profits with community members who want to donate their time. President Sarah Ladd has seen other organizations in the Kamloops community struggle to raise enough money to run their programs.

"It's sad to hear that an organization that's as well-reputed as Big Brothers Big Sisters is having trouble with funding. It doesn't speak well for the rest of us, the smaller organizations locally and even internationally," she said.

Even within her own organization, Ladd said that there have been fewer places to raise money. 

"Looking at the '80s and '90s we had 10,12 different funding sources and now we have three," said Ladd.

"It gives you are a really good indication of where things are going."

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Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kamloops and District does plan on resuming the one-on-one program in the next three to six months. 

Tough few weeks

Joanne Mason said the next steps will be to meet with the communities the organization serves to find out what exactly each needs.

"We need to ask the community what level of support do they want from us. What can we realistically provide?"

Part of this process will be to address concerns that she's been hearing from people about what this suspension will mean for the community.

"I just am continually finding myself re-stressing the fact that we are not abandoning children. We are not abandoning communities and we need to be here for another 50 years," said Mason.

"It's been a little tough over the last few weeks."

With files from Daybreak Kamloops

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