New Mentorship Program Provides Opportunities For Youth In The Southland
New Mentorship Program Provides Opportunities For Youth In The Southland
By Tia Carol Jones
The Big Brothers Big Sisters Chicago Southland and NabrU have launched a mentorship program with a mission to empower young people. Young people who participate in the program will receive one-on-one mentorship. The goal of the Dolton Neighborhood Program is to foster personal growth, academic success, and leadership development.
“At NabrU, we believe in transforming lives from within the community,” Terrence Horn, President of NabrU, said in a release. “This partnership with BBBS will allow us to provide our young leaders with the resources and relationships they need to excel.”
The NabrU Male Mentoring Organization was founded in 2016, with the goal to train the next generation of leaders. Big Brothers Big Sisters Chicago Southland was established in 2023 as an entity of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Metropolitan Chicago.
The Dolton Neighborhood Program is fueled by Big Brothers Big Sisters Chicago Southland and supported by NabrU Male Mentoring Organization. The program is open to all youth ages 8-19.
The mentoring program will be held in the Commissioner’s Building at the Dolton Park District. The program lasts for 90 minutes every other Thursday, with part of the time for one-on-one mentoring and the other part of the time is spent doing a group activity.
Timothy Williams, Government Relation Director for NabrU, and Brenda Boyd, Southland Regional Director for Big Brothers Big Sisters, said the organizations share a common goal for the mentoring program. Williams knows the value of having mentors because of the way mentors helped shaped him growing up.
“We collectively just have been intentional about forging those relationships with the youth in our neighborhoods so that we can provide those opportunities and examples as well,” Williams said.
In addition to mentoring young people, NabrU also hosts annual toy drives, turkey giveaways and a brotherhood circle talk aimed to shatter the stigma around mental health, as well as an annual Father’s Day cook-off. Williams said partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters is the perfect way to expand their reach and support more young people. He said the program will be really special for the young people in the Southland.
Boyd said the program will create a space in the community and it will be part of the community, so parents won’t have to travel outside the community to receive the resources necessary to help their children. She said the young people in the program will also be exposed to different experiences. They have partnered with the Chicago sports teams, museums, zoos, Botanical Gardens and Broadway in Chicago.
“We can open doors for some of these kids that never leave four blocks so they can be exposed to some of these experiences. In doing that, we feel like we are not only supporting the mentoring relationship, but also supporting their academic success,” Boyd said.
Boyd wants the program to be a catalyst for young people to have hope, while bringing the community together to make the partnership work.
They are collectively recruiting more mentors and adults to participate. The next meeting is January 16th at the Commissioner’s Building at the Dolton Park District, located at 721 Engle St.
For more information about NabrU, visit www.nabru.net. For more information about Big Brothers Big Sisters Southland Chicago, visit www.bbbschgo.org, or call 708-914-2064.
