Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh Inc

Our agencys primary programs include Community-Based, Site-Based, and Group Mentoring. In all of our programs we maintain a commitment to program quality. Each match is supported by a staff member helping matches to set and maintain goals as well as track outcomes and provide encouragement and general support when necessary. A. The Community-Based Program is the traditional mentoring model, in which bigs and littles meet for at least four hours each month in community settings. These one-to-one matches often visit restaurants and attend sporting events together and spend time at local libraries, parks, zoos, museums, and other recreational locations.B. The Site-Based Program includes programs that thake place in the schools or in workplaces. School-Based Programs generally occur at the Little's school during lunch time or after school. Bigs and Littles in School-Based Programs engage in structured activities together for one hour at a specified time and place throughout the school year. During the summer, our agency organized events and presents other opportunities for these matches to stay connected. Workplace mentoring is a program where secondary students travel to a specific corporate environment to meet with mentors bi-weekly for traditional mentoring as well as awareness of opportunities in an active work environment. The program is designed to give exposure to the workplace and provide opportunities for career and educational goal setting. In our high school prgram, the mentees and mentors continue to work together, in person and online, through high school graduation. After graduation mentees and mentors have the opportunity to continue receiving professional support through our post-secondary program (PSP). In the PSP, staff and mentors assist mentees as they pursue education in college/university or trade school, enlistment in the military and/or living wage employment.C. The Group Mentoring Program is led by BBBS staff in a school based setting. In this program groups of students will meet during the school day to receive mentoring and ongoing support from a trained BBBS staff mentor. In addition to leading group mentoring sessions staff will also engage in one-to-one mentoring with additional students in the program.