AUBURN – The Child Health Center’s Big Brothers Big Sisters Program has been matching children with volunteers in Oxford, Androscoggin, northern Cumberland and southern Franklin counties since 1991.

During January the Child Health Center will join Maine Mentoring Partnership and the American Association of Big Brothers Big Sisters to recognize the mentoring matches in the area as part of National Mentoring Month.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters Program offers a variety of mentoring partnerships. The programs are structured and help form a trusting relationship that brings young people together with a caring teen or adult who can offer guidance, support and encouragement.

The programs offered include school-based mentoring, traditional community mentoring, mentoring students in transition, mentoring children of prisoners, Teen Impact!, a teen program without walls, and an after-school program for middle school children.

The school-based program offers an older teen or adult the opportunity to spend an hour a week with a child at a local elementary or middle school. The teens and young adults who volunteer in the program are high school and college students as well as adults who work with children on school assignments, play board games or just talk and listen. The adults who volunteer in the program hale from a variety of local organizations, including churches and police departments.

In the community-based mentor program, adults share experiences with their Little Brother or Sister. In winter they may go skiing, sliding or ice fishing, while others may stay indoors watching movies or football games.

The mentoring students in transition, and mentoring children of prisoners programs started in the fall of 2004.

Those who would like to learn more about mentoring should contact Big Brothers Big Sisters at 743-7035 in Oxford County and 782-5437 in Androscoggin, southern Franklin and northern Cumberland counties.

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