BIG BROTHERS, LITTLE SISTERS GROUP WILL BE ESTABLISHED IN CAPE

In what is described as a win-win situation, Cape Girardeau County is getting a Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring organization through an affiliation with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater St. Louis.

Officials with the St. Louis organization were in Cape Girardeau Friday to make the announcement of the affiliation official.

The goal is to have an office in Cape Girardeau County up and operating by September and to have 50 to 100 child-adult matches by the end of the year, said Becky James, president and chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater St. Louis. The matches between children and adult volunteers provide children with a positive adult role model.

"By affiliating with the St. Louis organization, we can get services up and running here faster than any other route," said KFVS news anchor Dave Courvoisier, who is a member of a steering committee that has been working for more than a year to bring Big Brothers Big Sisters to Cape Girardeau County.

The Cape Girardeau office will have a local staff, although staff from St. Louis will be available to help if needed, James said. Initially, that staff will consist of a full-time director, perhaps assisted by interns from Southeast Missouri State University, she said. Details are still to be worked out.

As the agency grows locally, so will the staff, James said.

Local operations will be overseen by a local advisory board. Two people from Cape Girardeau County will sit on the board of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater St. Louis, which is in the process of changing its name because of the affiliation.

The name likely will be Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri.

"We are making that adjustment so everyone can see we are trying to be partners," James said.

The announcement was met with enthusiasm by community leaders who attended a luncheon to meet the St. Louis officials.

"We are really excited," said Kathy Denton, assistant director of the Areawide United Way. "Mentoring has been identified as one of the needs of our community."

Cape Girardeau Police Chief Rick Hetzel said research shows mentoring is the most effective way to reach young people today. The Cape Girardeau Police Department sponsors several mentoring programs. He welcomes another.

"You can't have too many mentoring programs for children," Hetzel said.

Mentoring programs for children such as Big Brothers Big Sisters have been found to lessen the risk for problems like substance abuse, teen pregnancy and juvenile delinquency, said Leah Shrum, prevention advocate for the Community 2000 Prevention Support Center and chairman of the Community Caring Council's Children's Issues Committee.

"We've seen the need in this community for a mentoring organization like this for some time," Shrum said. "It just took the spark of the right people to get it started."

That spark happened when Courvoisier, police officer Charlie Herbst and Community Caring Council director Shirley Ramsey got together to talk about bringing Big Brothers Big Sisters to the Cape Girardeau area.

"We had all seen how effective Big Brothers has been around the country in improving grades, building self esteem and helping relationships with adults," Courvoisier said.

The trio began recruiting others in the community to help and working with the national Big Brothers Big Sisters of America in meeting the criteria for forming a chapter here.

The main hurdle, Courvoisier said, was finding a sponsoring agency to share its non-profit status and provide insurance coverage.

It was the national organization that suggested that sponsoring agency be Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater St. Louis, which now serves 3,000 to 4,000 youths and families per year. The national organization has named the St. Louis agency the top chapter in the country for its quality service and management.

"When we went to St. Louis to see the operation, we were knocked out by the management style, the can-do attitude and the quality of their programs," Courvoisier said.

He also likes the way the St. Louis agency has made the group from Cape Girardeau feel like full partners, he said.

James said in the next few weeks she and her staff will be working with the steering committee to develop an operational plan that outlines the programs that will be offered locally, strategies for implementing those programs, a list of what's needed to get an office set up and a time line that will get the agency up and running in Cape Girardeau County by September.

On the top of the list of things to do is to begin volunteer recruitment.

Recruiting volunteers to serve as Big Brothers and Big Sisters to children is a challenge because there are never enough, James said. But if the organization can start building community awareness that should make it easier, she said.

FOR INFORMATION

Those who would like to volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters, who have a child they would like to sign up for the program or who want more information on the organization can call tol-free (888) 361-9450.