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By Jenn Markham

“You will seriously change lives —
including your own.” “A program

this good is hard to put into words.”
“Do it, it saves lives.” These three
personal accounts all refer to the same
organization: Big Sisters of BC Lower
Mainland.

Lisa Cloutier, Director of Operations,
supports these testimonials, as she
said that Big Sisters often find that
they get “more out of it than they ever
anticipated,” with many Big Sisters
discovering that mentoring a young girl
gives them the opportunity “to find out a
lot about themselves, to listen, be patient,
to be a kid again.”

With a mission statement
dedicated to “enhancing the confidence,
selfMlesteem and wellbeing of girls
through supportive friendships with
caring women,” the Big Sisters of BC
organization has been carefully pairing
girls between the ages of seven and 17
with a female mentor since 1960. Each
year the organization offers over 600 girls
with a caring, and positively influential
female adult mentor.

Many Little Sisters join because
they need to have that extra person in
their life that encourages and listens to
them. Laura, currently a Douglas College
student, was one of those girls. She joined
the program in 1999 after her dad passed
away when she was only seven. “Times
were pretty hard on my mom” Laura said,
“she needed peace of mind.”

When asked if there was any
particular thing her Big Sister did that

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sticks with her to this day, Laura talked
about camping. “I explained one Friday
night that the thing I missed most of all
was camping with my dad. The next
morning she had brought over a tent and
marshmallows and set up in the living
room.” Laura couldn’t talk enough about
the influence her Big Sister relationship
had on her during that time in her life.

“Tt kept me from thinking negatively and
gave me something to look forward to.”

As it turns out, Laura’s experience
with the program convinced her half-
sister, Dawn, to join in 2000 as a Big
Sister. “I saw the service that it had
done for my little sister” Dawn said, “I
joined to give other kids the hope that
Big Sister’s had given to Laura.” For
Dawn, the fondest memory was making
pottery with her Little Sister because it
was fun and artistic, but it also gave them
something physical to take away from it.
One day her little sister travelled from
Langley to Coquitlam on transit just to see
her. “I knew then what our relationship
meant” Dawn said.
Despite leaving the organization years
ago, both Laura and Dawa still keep their
Big and Little Sister relationships, even if
only on Skype.

It’s not uncommon for Big Sisters
to realize how much they have to offer,
and feel empowered with “an opportunity
to contribute to the development of
tomorrow’s women” Lisa said. She
describes the matching process as
involved and based on interviews,
personality assessments and locations.
Matches and individuals are assigned a
counsellor to make sure their relationship

and friendship is successful. Lisa ensures
that they “provide volunteers with support
and training, you’re never just thrown in.”

The Big Sisters of BC organization
offers three different program options
for mentoring: the Big and Little Sister
Program, the Go Girls! Healthy Bodies,
Healthy Minds Program, and a newer
initiative called the Study Buddy
Program.

By offering educational guidance
and support for only an hour a week,
Study Buddies can teach in a subject
they’re comfortable in, to a young girl
who’s struggling in that area. Courtney
is currently in the Study Buddy program
and joined because of her passion for
teaching. She tutored before, but liked the
structure and organization the program
offered. When asked about her favourite
moments she recalled helping her Little
Sister figure out her graphing calculator,
specifically the tricky fractions. She also
liked when “we studied hard for a test
together and she got an A!” Courtney is
in accounting at university, and her Little
Sister is so close to her in age that she’s
even able to answer general questions
about graduating and her options after.

The organization also offers
training workshops in study skills,
dealing with children with Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome, internet safety,
career launcher workshops, first aid
training, communication skills and stress
management. Some of the workshops
are for the matches to learn together, and
some are for the individuals.

While the personal accounts by
Big and Little Sisters may be evidence

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enough of the organization’s success,
there are also statistics to back them up.
In 1995, a study showed that “just one
year into their match, Little Sisters get
higher grades, have better relationships
with their parents and peers, are 46% less
likely to start using drugs, 27% less likely
to start drinking, 33% less likely to resort
to violence, and 52% less likely to skip
school.”

Big Sisters must be over the age of
19, have a criminal record check and go
through some initial training, but Lisa
added that “You don’t need to be a perfect
person; you just need to have an interest
in wanting to support a young girl.”

Currently, there are 175 girls
currently waiting to be matched with
a volunteer mentor. For women who
are interested, but feel they don’t have
enough time, the Study Buddy program
is ideal because it can be as little as an
hour per week commitment. Other options
are to help out on one of Big Sisters’
committees or at a fundraising event. As it
costs about $2000 to support a mentoring
match for a year the organization holds a
Spring Lunch, a Big Sisters Gala, a Golf
for Good tournament and a Grape Juice
Wine Auction happening this upcoming
May.

Dawn spoke to the issue of time
commitment, saying that “I was a full
time student but once you get a Little
Sister you learn to make time— because
you care.”

If you’re interested, please visit
www bigsisters.bc.ca or call 604-873-
4525 for more information. —

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