Grants organizing Big Brothers/Sisters program

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The Big Brothers Big Sisters program — which pairs up adults with youth of the same gender to help mentor and provide positive role models — is coming to Grants.

Interviews and screenings have already been done with seven adult applicants, and several of the community’s youths have been identified and permission acquired from their parents.

The program has already been in Gallup for several months, but no matches for adults and youths have yet been made.

Judith Andreica, a local clinical counselor, said after being in Grants for several years, she saw a need for the program to come to the city because of the youths that were in need of a mentoring program.

Andreica called the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Albuquerque, as well as the Future Foundations Family Center in Grants, and brought the two organizations together.

Sarah Luginbuhl, the program coordinator for McKinley County Big Brothers Big Sisters, said a second person has been hired to begin matching adults with youth.

“I have been here creating awareness in the community for the past several months,” Luginbuhl said.

10 and 10

Kerrie Copelin, with Big Brothers, Big Sisters in Albuquerque, said the Grants expansion needs 10 adults and 10 youth to be able to begin.

So far, seven adults and youth have been identified and screened. Some have been interviewed, but it will be some time, probably not until September, before any matches are made, she said.

“Safety is a major concern,” she said. “We don’t want someone to slip through our screening process and do something to one of the kids.

“In our 40 years in Albuquerque, we have been successful in screening the adults and have never had a problem,” she said.

“We look for adults who can be role models for the child,” Copelin said.

A portion of the program is school-based, she said.
Mentors sometimes meet with the youths at the school, check on them in class and see how they are doing.

Background checks

“To be an adult volunteer for the program, each person has to complete a thorough application, go through a background check that checks law enforcement agencies, criminal records and child molester Web sites. Those individuals who pass that screening then are interviewed by several people, and a decision is made whether the adult volunteer can become a Big Brother or Big Sister, Copelin said.

The Grants program, will be based at the Future Foundations Family Center where staff can supervise the adult and child interactions, Laura Malaj, director of the center, said.

Adults and children will not be alone together in a room at any time, even bathrooms, she said.

The programs in Gallup and Grants both come under the umbrella organization of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Albuquerque. There are several Big Brothers Big Sisters organizations in the state, which have all the counties divided so that each centralized organization is

responsible for those areas.
Information: (505) 285-3542.
On the net: www.bbbsnm.org/