Big Brothers Big Sisters seeking mentors in the Miami Valley; How you can help

DAYTON — Schools are out for the summer for most around the Miami Valley, which means kids lose that teacher or counselor that they leaned on all year.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is looking for people to be that person for those kids.

“You heard that saying about it takes a village to raise a child and I think that’s very true. I think mentors become a very integral part of that village,” said Maura Whisenhunt, Mad River Local Schools Recovery Therapist.

Whisenhunt has been working with kids for the past 18 years and she’s noticed more kids are struggling with their mental health.

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“I do feel that there has been an increase in dysregulation in anxiety and a lot of those other mental health needs,” Whisenhunt said.

Whisenhunt said some kids are lucky enough to have a lifelong mentor while others aren’t as lucky.

“Those are the ones that we worry about that there really aren’t enough mentors around to kind of connect with them,” she said. “It affects them in a way that they don’t always feel seen and heard.”

Christopher Mackey is the community impact and engagement manager with Big Brothers Big Sisters Miami Valley and is also a mentor himself.

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He told News Center 7 they have four kids who have been waiting almost two years to be matched with a mentor.

“We are really working over the summer over, the summer months in addition to matching bigs and littles getting kids off of our waitlist,” he said.

He talked about a conversation he had recently with a kid he has been mentoring for the past seven years.

“He mentioned that other than his family, I’m one of the only people that he can really talk to about things in his life,”

He said following the pandemic he saw a rise in mental health issues in kids and having a mentor can change that.

“One of the things that Big Brothers Big Sisters national data has shown is that youth with a mentor are 86 percent less likely to have depressive symptoms as a result of having a mentor,” Mackey said.

Whisenhunt stressed that a lot of the kids she works with just want someone to be there for them consistently.

For more information, you can visit Big Brothers Big Sisters Miami Valley’s website.

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