Churches provide mentors for Big Brothers Big Sisters program

About four years ago, James Mathews volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), a nonprofit, secular organization that matches adults with children in need of mentors. Mathews, a member of Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hoover, in Birmingham Baptist Association was paired with a boy who had no relationship with his father. They spent time together going to movies and playing games.
   
Mathews also is part of Faithful Friends, a congregationally based mentoring program through BBBS of Greater Birmingham. Churches that participate provide volunteers to spend time with children whose parents are incarcerated.
   
“When you add in faith-based concepts, you’re interacting not only on a social level but a spiritual one, too,” Mathews said. “We show them that when you believe in God and Jesus Christ, He is the starting point. It gives them a basis for hope and shows that, although certain things may happen in their lives, He’s always with them and will love them.”
   
Faithful Friends is a name unique to the Birmingham agency, and the program is based on the national BBBS initiative called Amachi, a west African term meaning “who knows but what God has brought us through this child.”
   
Sue Johnson, executive director of BBBS of Greater Birmingham, said that statistically about 70 percent of children with a parent in prison eventually will follow the parent’s example. She also said the agency has identified more than 5,000 children in the Birmingham area who have a parent in prison.
   
“So many are going to end up in prison when they’re grown — it’s staggering,” Johnson said. “Mentoring children of prisoners is missions work in our own backyard. It’s work that can truly make a difference in the life of a child.”
   
She said that many of the children are referred to the agency by their mothers, who are inmates at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka.
   
“They can’t be there for their children and know they need help and role models,” Johnson said.
   
Hunter Street Baptist has participated as a signature partner since Faithful Friends’ inception three years ago. Signature partners provide at least 10 volunteers each to mentor a child and have a point person from the church to work with the BBBS staff.
   
Spencer Knight, minister of ministries at Hunter Street Baptist, said Mathews spoke with him about wanting to volunteer with children around the same time Johnson approached him about participating in the program. 
   
“We love that we’re getting into the community and making an impact,” Knight said. “It’s been a good fit, and [Big Brothers Big Sisters] is easy to work with. They want to make this a success, and they’re asking churches to demonstrate their faith and make a Christian impact.  It’s a wide open door of opportunity for churches to make a difference in the life of a child like Christ has done in us.”
   
The church’s mentors work both with children in Faithful Friends and children who face circumstances other than having a family member in prison, such as 9-year-old Randilee Hosmer.
   
Hosmer said she enjoys being mentored by Hunter Street Baptist member Joan Sheppard because “we get to do things together.”
  
Volunteers sign up to be a mentor and go through a screening process, background check and interview before being matched with a child. 
   
They do various things with their child at least every other week for four to six hours. According to Johnson, they form lifetime friendships and serve as role models in the process. 
   
Monica Grubbs, executive director of BBBS of the Shoals in northwest Alabama, said she’s hopeful about launching this type of program in her area. 
   
“As a Baptist, I feel that we can change the lives of these children and families forever if we take time to mentor them,” Grubbs said. “Someone will make a difference in their lives — it may be a positive or a negative change but someone will influence them.”
   
For information, contact Johnson at 205-939-5590 or any of the other seven Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies across the state. Search for a local agency on the organization’s Web site, www.bbbs.org