Your gifts, Mrs. Montgomery’s story

My sister and I were fortunate to be raised by our paternal grandparents for half of our childhood. They provided us with the stability, nurturing, love, food, clothing, shelter and parenting that our parents could not provide full-time. So the issue of grandparents raising grandchildren is near and dear to my heart. They are the silent heroes who valiantly give their time, energy, resources and love beyond all measure to ensure healthy childhood development for grandchildren. 

At Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana, we see grandparents in their 80s and 90s raising multiple children, and many are raising children of all ages from infancy to teens. Although you see weariness in their eyes, their words are always loving and supportive for their grandchildren.

Often the children do not realize the incredible burden their grandparents bear in raising them. More often than not, a grandmother outlives her husband and must continue to raise the children alone.

January was National Mentoring Month and a time to celebrate the value our mentors bring to youth and families. One of our amazing guardians is a great-grandmother, Mrs. Montgomery, who is raising four great-grandchildren. Each child experiences difficulties in school due to learning disabilities and hyper-activity disorders. The parents of the children come and go due to their lives of drug addictions and prostitution. 

Mrs. Montgomery realized that she needed more support and encouragement for her great-grandchildren, so she contacted Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Our 100-year-old mentoring program has withstood the test of time to show that one-to-one, long-term (at least one or more years) mentoring between an adult and a child can show significant outcomes as demonstrated in our alumni research: 42 percent of our Littles will earn a four-year college degree, in spite of growing up in poverty and being first-generation college students. Forty-six percent will have household incomes as adults of $75,000 or higher, thus breaking the cycle of generational poverty. 

Without a doubt, research shows that giving a child a vision of their future through mentoring is what inspires the child to do their best in school, to make wiser, healthier choices about their life, and to get along better with others.

There are no quick-fixes in healthy child development, and it does take a village of a nurturing home environment, caring adult role models beyond the family unit, and quality schools to set our children up for success.

Fortunately, there are thousands of Big Brothers and Big Sisters who volunteer to share their time with children like Mrs. Montgomery’s great-grandchildren.

Professional staff at Big Brothers Big Sisters provides on-going coaching to the guardian, Big, and Little throughout the mentoring match. Oftentimes staff also work with the school teachers to ensure a well-rounded approach in supporting each youth.

Thanks in part to your gifts to United Way, Mrs. Montgomery and other volunteers are providing caring, positive role models for children here in Central Indiana.

It costs $1,900 a year to provide on-going support to each mentoring match. Big Brothers Big Sisters  provides on-going educational opportunities to the children, resources and support to the guardians, and advice to Bigs.

An investment of a few hours of time every month and the financial resources to support a match makes all the difference in the world not only for each child who benefits from having  Big Brother or Big Sister, but also for their guardians who also need the supplemental support mentoring provides to their children.

--Tonja Eagan, CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana

For more information you can contact Tonja Eagan at teagan@bbbsci.org or 317-921-2201 or www.bebigforkids.org

Since 2003*, UWCI has invested more than $6 million helping Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana develop mentors committed to supporting boys and girls grow into the next generation of caring, confident and competent adults. This funding includes a 2-year grant for up to $200,000 from United Way’s Ready to Learn, Ready to Earn program for support of one-to-one Site-based Plus mentoring services to 60 fifth grade students attending targeted Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) elementary schools. Another $25,000 from the Technology Fund provided a new telephone system and computer hardware and software. For the current funding year, the agency’s UWCI Community Fund allocation is $573,731.

* From 1975 until the merger of the local Big Brothers and Big Sisters agencies in 2003, United Way had provided separate funding totaling nearly $10 million.