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Release Date: October 19, 2011 City of San Antonio Communications Office: 207-7234 City continues its mentor participation in Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas Mayor Julián Castro, City Council Members Rey Saldaña, Diego Bernal, and Ivy Taylor, City Manager Sheryl Sculley and City executives are just some of the newest "Bigs" (mentors) to "Littles" (mentees) for Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas. Throughout this school year, they will mentor 8th graders from Wheatley Middle School from the San Antonio Independent School District. The program helps students to develop one-on-one relationships with business professionals and introduces them to various career possibilities. "Thousands of San Antonians spoke loudly for education during the first phase of SA 2020," Mayor Castro said. "We heard it loud and clear at City Hall where we're leading by example by doubling the number of mentors available to local students." The Big Brothers Big Sisters 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, and better relationships with family, peers and other adults. Through relationships with "Corporate Bigs," Littles experience what it means to work for a corporation and the educational requirements needed to achieve this professional success. "There is no better investment in our community than the time we can spend mentoring our youth," said City Manager Sculley. "I am proud of our organization's participation in this inspirational program. It's a valuable opportunity for everyone involved as a mentor." The City has doubled its participation in the workplace mentoring program - a version of Big Brothers Big Sisters' blue-ribbon mentoring program. Through this partnership, the students will meet with City mentors at work on a monthly basis for an hour during the school day. City mentors include representatives from the Mayor's office, City Council Member's offices, City Manager’s office, Convention and Visitor's Bureau, Communications and Public Affairs Department, Development Services Department, Economic Development Department, Human Services Department, Police Department, and Public Works Department. The City's involvement with the workplace mentoring program started with the Mayor's Office through the Mentoring Matters Program at Rackspace in 2009. That program, now called InspireU, has increased to 15 businesses and entities. The Mayor's Office and City of San Antonio started their own workplace mentoring group in 2010. About Big Brothers Big Sisters: The purpose of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas program is to provide the support children need to make good choices, avoid risky behaviors and to develop the assets they need to grow up to become healthy, contributing, productive adults. During these challenging economic times children are more at risk than ever before of living in poverty, being abused, joining gangs, dropping out of school, engaging in substance abuse, juvenile delinquency and incarceration, and early pregnancy. Research consistently shows that Big Brothers Big Sisters can help stop these destructive cycles for children who are mentored through the program. For more information, visit www.bigmentor.org or call 225-6322. |
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