School-Based Mentoring

Our School-Based Mentoring program is built on partnerships between Metro Atlanta corporations and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta (BBBS) with the goal of creating mentoring friendships between corporate volunteers and children attending an elementary or middle school within close proximity of the corporate site. Each of the employee volunteers are allowed by the company to be matched with a youth at one of the aligned schools and to meet with that youth for an hour once per week at the school.

The key attribute of this school-based approach is that the teacher or counselor is much more engaged in the relationship, providing access (with parent’s permission) to the youth’s academic performance. This proximity to the child’s education life (teachers, principals, tests, and report card results) is what gives the mentor the advantage in their educational advocacy for the child. The mentor supplements and reinforces what’s happening in the school in a collaborative effort to develop the desired personal, social, and academic attributes.

In addition to the weekly mentoring sessions at the school, the youth involved in the School-Based program are exposed to group activities such as job shadowing and career day activities on the company’s site.

The School-Based program includes partnerships with local colleges in addition to those with local corporations. Some of our strongest matches involve college student mentors. Many of our participating schools actually partner with more than one company or college. The current partnerships that make up the School-Based program are: