TAHOE/TRUCKEE, Calif. — The Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe has begun a new partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Nevada County and North Lake Tahoe (BBBSNC).

The mentoring initiative of BBBSNC is working to expand its mentoring efforts to enroll more North Lake Tahoe youth and match them with adult mentors. Mentor matches meet weekly at the Clubs with their mentee one-on-one for 60 minutes on a weekday afternoon for a year.

Mentors and members engage in a variety of activities in group settings, such as playing games and sports, doing homework and art projects, and sharing general life experiences.

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Big Brothers Big Sisters will recruit the mentors, conduct screening and background checks, and share their expertise in running mentor programs.

The children will be identified by Boys & Girls Club staff for children who need it most, including those living in single parent homes, growing up in poverty, coping with absent parents or struggling both socially or academically. The Boys & Girls Club will share their facility and activities for the matches.

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Volunteer mentors go through a screening process and the youth are interviewed, so staff can make an accurate match for both. During the youth and mentor interviews, the organization tries to find common hobbies or interests to help make good matches.

After the mentors and youth have had their first meetings, BBBSNC provides match support, where adult volunteers (Bigs) and the children (LIttles) are asked how everything is going with each other, and if there are any suggestions or if they feel safe and comfortable in the program.

BBBSNC will make regular visits to the Club to check in on the matches. Keeping an open dialogue and being an active part of the relationships ensures safety and success of the match.

The mentors and children are limited to meeting at the Boys & Girls Club only. For this mentoring program, they meet once a week at the Club. Each youth has his or her own mentor; they don’t share that mentor with anyone else.

BBBSNC focuses on providing that one-on-one time, because some youth might not be getting it at home for whatever reason, perhaps because of parental demands from other siblings or family dynamics.

For more information about the mentor program and its locations contact Big Brothers Big Sisters at peggy@bigsofnc.org or 530-587-7717.