On December 16, the Boston Foundation announced their quarterly grant distributions, which included a two-year grant totaling $150,000 to Big Sister Association of Greater Boston. The grants continue to emphasize the Foundation’s ongoing commitment to innovation in education and the need for significant change within the Boston Public Schools. The general operating grant was made in recognition of Big Sister’s impact on girls throughout Boston, our research-based practices, and our proven outcomes.
By providing girls with mentors—whether in school or out of school—their attendance improves, class participation improves, and other positive behaviors and outcomes follow. The objectives of our mentoring programs are: 1) to improve participating girls’ confidence, classroom behavior, attendance, attitude, decision-making skills, and ultimately increase their chance to reach their full potential, with positive evaluation results of 70% and higher; 2) to reduce the number of girls on our waitlist, which is currently includes more than 300 girls; 3) to increase the number of mentors of color in our volunteer corps of Big Sisters, which is currently at 29%; 4) to deepen our impact in the Circle of Promise through the expansion of our core programs and innovative models like High School Mentoring Academy and the Bromley-Heath housing initiative, and 5) increase the overall number of girls we serve, with the goal of increasing our service by 5% each year.
Big Sister is proud to be recognized by the Boston Foundation for our contributions to the healthy development of our City’s girls and positive growth of our community.
