While some children need mentorship more than others, all children can benefit from having an adult mentor.
That's the stance of both the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization and Walker County Schools, and why they recently announced a partnership to work toward every student in the county having a mentor to help guide and educate him or her.
The Big Brothers Big Sisters program has been shown to decrease the risk of its young participants using illegal drugs by nearly 50 percent and the risk of them using alcohol by more than 25 percent.
Emily Barrow, a director with the Greater Chattanooga branch of Big Brothers Big Sisters, said the partnership will start this fall at five schools: Stone Creek Elementary, Cherokee Ridge Elementary, Fairyland Elementary, Rossville Elementary and Rossville Middle School. Both the school system and the organization will work toward expanding and growing further beyond the five schools as the program progresses.
Big Brothers Big Sisters has worked with North Georgia schools and communities before, but this partnership will be more formal, Barrow said.
"Really, this is us casting a vision of what our ultimate goal is," she said. "It's part of what Walker County Schools wants, too. Every child deserves a mentor to both provide a perspective that a parent couldn't and to help echo what parents are telling their children."
According to the County Health Rankings Program, more than 33 percent of children in Walker County live in a single-parent household. In nearby Catoosa County, the number drops slightly to 30 percent. The independent report is produced annually by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and reports on nearly every county in the U.S.
Barrow said she was first contacted by Julie Portwood with Walker County Schools about the partnership.
Mentors through the program, called "Bigs," will routinely meet and interact with their "Little," answering any questions they might have, taking them out somewhere fun and being a friend to them. Barrow said the organization is still coordinating a training for the volunteers, adding that she's attended community meetings and events to recruit people.
"It's not just the child who benefits," Barrow said. "Volunteering through the program and helping a child in need is immensely satisfying."
The Greater Chattanooga branch is celebrating its 60th year of service in the six counties in which it works to identify students who are in need of mentorship and pair them with a "Big," getting referrals from teachers, counselors and principals on the most at-risk students.
Barrow said the organization has looked into similar programs in Catoosa County, but nothing is currently on the horizon.
"We'd love to do what we're doing in Walker County in Catoosa as well," she said.
For more information about the organization or how to volunteer, visit bbbschatt.org.