Big Brothers Big Sisters of Windsor Essex hopes to secure more funding to keep a successful mentorship program going.
For the last three years, the organization has been using funds provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation to pay for a case worker. This case worker connects youth in West Windsor to mentors in the community.
"Our casework staff is integral to making matches happen. They screen volunteers so that they're safe people to be with kids, they supervise, they train," said Becky Parent, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters Windsor Essex.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation granted Big Brothers Big Sisters $809,000 to support the program in Windsor-West, Chatham-Kent, and Sarnia.
"It's been used specifically for kids in the Windsor West neighbourhood through three different programs. Our in-school mentoring program, our one-to-one community-based match that's the traditional Big Brother Big Sister matches, as well as our teen mentoring program," said Parent.
To keep the program going this year in Windsor, the Toldo Foundation donated $50,000 to the organization.
Parent said they are still looking to secure funding for next year.
"If we lost this position there would be a lot of kids without that support. We can't stress enough that we have a quality assurance and standards program that we have to meet so it's not a question of just shouldering the work onto someone else," said Parent.
Big Brothers Big Sisters Windsor Essex served over 700 youth in the community last year.