Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of columns from agencies served by Jackson County United Way.
The vision of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeast Indiana is for all children to achieve success in life.
We share this vision with the community, other service agencies and the Jackson County United Way.
Our agency’s contribution to this shared vision is to provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.
Several factors contribute to Big Brothers Big Sisters’ ability to provide quality mentoring services and many would not be possible without the support of the Jackson County United Way.
The team at United Way truly cares about the agencies they support and the community they impact.
While funding from the United Way campaign helps to keep our doors open and our operations going, their support goes far beyond financial assistance. Coming in as the new director for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeast Indiana in 2014, I relied heavily on United Way staff to navigate the local nonprofit world, make important service and business connections and reach potential community volunteers.
I am impressed with how well the Jackson County United Way brings many of the community service organizations together.
They recognize we all share a common goal to improve Jackson County, that each agency brings its own unique tools to the table, and stress the importance of working together to support the mission of each agency, which in the end, results in a bigger impact to the local community.
We offer three mentoring programs: Community-based matches a caring adult volunteer with a child between the ages of 6 to 14, who meet regularly to participate in a variety of activities; Lunch Buddies which matches individuals from the community with late elementary or middle school-aged students. They meet during the child’s lunch hour once per week for the school year; and High School Bigs which pairs sophomores, juniors and seniors with elementary students, who meet weekly during school hours.
Our volunteers are essential to our programs and our agency. United Way works hard to make sure we have the opportunity to be visible in the community to recruit much needed volunteers and inform others about the services we provide.
We our grateful for the support received by the Jackson County United Way team. Their staff, board and volunteers are often willing to assist partner agencies with project needs, become involved in agency programming by volunteering and support agency fundraisers through participation. They continue to make themselves available when we have questions or concerns about a variety of issues impacting our agency.
United Way emphasizes the importance of quality programming for the community and continues to stress collaboration among agencies, to ensure we are all working together for the good of Jackson County.
As Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeast Indiana strives to reach each child in need of our services, we are thankful to have United Way supporting us as we work to impact the lives of children for the better, forever.
Kate Eder is executive director of
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeast Indiana.