Best Practices: How Big Brothers Big Sisters Recruits, Enrolls and Sustains Volunteers
with Jennifer Voit, Vice President of Programs and
Melin Ross, Partnership Recruitment Manager for Big Brothers Big Sisters
On your mark…get set…GO!
Project Mentor, a collaborative effort between Columbus City Schools and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio, with Nationwide Foundation as the lead sponsor, launched on July 17, 2007.
Setting a record in a sprint,
Project Mentor surpassed its short term goal, which was to recruit and enroll 1,000 volunteers to mentor Columbus City School students beginning the Fall of 2007!
Project Mentor is in the race for the long run!
Project Mentor's long-term goal is to recruit and enroll 10,000 volunteer mentors over seven years and to sustain the program at that level in the future.
To date: Over 1,100 volunteer mentors are mentoring in 37 Columbus City Schools, and the recruitment campaign for the next 1,000 mentors for 2008-2009 has begun!
Ø Learn how this community-wide effort is progressing.
Ø Learn how an organization has recruited and enrolled more volunteers in four months than it typically enrolls in a whole year!
Ø Learn about best practices for recruiting, enrolling, training and sustaining volunteers.
Ø Learn about hurdles, bumps, bruises and challenges encountered along the way.
Join us May 15!
8:30 to 9:00 Networking
9:00 to 9:15 Business Meeting
9:15 to 11:00 Workshop
YWCA Family Shelter
900 Harvey Court
Columbus, Ohio 43219
For directions, use this Link, and click on Directions to YWCA Family Center.
About Big Brothers Big Sisters
Founded in 1933, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio is a non-profit, youth mentoring agency serving at-risk children and youth. Mentoring over 4,800 youth in 2007, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio serves children and youth ages 5-18 in Franklin, Delaware and Union counties. It is the largest Big Brothers Big Sisters agency in Ohio and the fifth largest agency of over 400 Big Brothers Big Sisters affiliates in the United States. The mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio is to develop quality mentoring relationships inspiring youth to be confident, competent and caring individuals in our community.
Mentoring provides opportunities for adult mentors and at-risk children to form relationships focusing on academic performance, self-esteem, caring attitudes and social competencies. Big Brothers Big Sisters recruits and trains positive adult role models and thoroughly screens potential Bigs and Littles to ensure quality matches.
Profile of Melin Ross and Jennifer Voit
Melin Ross received her B.A. from The Ohio State University in Political Science and History. Prior to joining Big Brothers Big Sisters, Melin's experience included serving as an operations director and sales associate for a real estate firm. As Partnership Recruitment Manager, her responsibilities include recruiting and stewarding partnership relationships and planning, coordinating and executing all partnership recruitment events for the agency.
Jennifer Voit received her B.S. in Human Ecology from The Ohio State University and her M.S. in Human Service Management from Franklin University. Jennifer started with Big Brothers Big Sisters in 1996, and has been with the Central Ohio agency since June 2001. As Vice President of Programs, she is responsible for the creation, implementation, direction, oversight and evaluation of all agency programs.