"I am not sure if she knows this, but my Big Sister has helped me be much more considerate of others. She always sees the good in people."

Where does my money go?

A volunteer match takes professional support to succeed.

Your donation pays for the staff to manage our mentoring programs, who:

• Provide the crucial lifeline of regular, ongoing support, which nurtures a quality relationship between a volunteer and a child
• Maximize child safety
• Provide mentor training and orientation
• Recruit volunteers
• Interview potential "Bigs"
• Run criminal background checks on a volunteer
• Thoroughly check volunteer references
• Interview families and children
• Make matches
• Coordinate community- and site-based programs
• Provide ongoing site-based activities

Your donation and our volunteers mean fewer kids in trouble in our thirteen service counties. Your support of BBBS returns many times the investment. In fact, a recent study shows that kids in Big Brothers Big Sisters programs return more than $4,096 a year in direct cost benefits to the community.

More Kids with a "Big" means:

• Fewer of our communities' kids using drugs
• Fewer of our communities' kids in gangs
• Fewer of our communities ‘kids drinking and driving
• Fewer of our communities ‘kids dropping out of school

More Kids with a "Big" means:

• More of our communities' kids graduating High School
• More of our communities' kids who get along better with their families and friends
• More of our communities' kids making positive life choices
• More of our communities' kids who do better in school

You can make an impact today. Donate Now.

The proposed 2008 State Budget allocates $216,000 per child per year to lock a kid up. To give a kid a mentor and provide the professional support necessary to ensure a quality mentoring relationship in our program only costs $2,600 per child - for three years.

That's a bargain, and it's only going to get better. The costs of incarcerating a child are going up. We continuously strive for greater effectiveness - and our costs are going down.

At Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana, we're committed to efficiency. We use volunteers and partner institutions to leverage the efforts of our professional staff - and stretch your dollar further. That's why we can do so much with so little.

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