With a mission to change lives for the better and an understanding of the developmental assets that are essential for young people’s successful growth and development, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Chesapeake (BBBSGC) and Family & Community Partnerships of Kent County (FCPKC) have combined forces. The two organizations are working together to create a team, to be known as, Kent Cares about Kids, whose purpose will be to increase awareness of opportunities for youth development in the community through a resource guide and events.
The goal is to inform parents, caregivers and other community members about the Search Institute’s Developmental Asset Framework, a set of skills, relationships, behaviors and experiences, which help youth overcome and avoid risk factors and grow into successful and thriving adults. The two organizations also expect this new collaborative to serve as a networking group and forum for youth servicing organizations and community members across the county.
The team has already begun to form, with a number of members joining to help the Kent County Learning Center develop their Homework Depot program which provides sites for children to go after school for tutoring and homework help across the county. In December 2014, Family & Community Partnership of Kent County provided Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Chesapeake with grant money to help bring this vision of a taskforce promoting developmental assets across the area, to life.
“While Big Brothers Big Sisters currently uses the Development Assets Framework to train mentors and plan youth programming, this is an excellent opportunity for us to share this education with the public,” said Jessica Mimms, Eastern Shore Director at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Chesapeake. “We’re excited to partner with a like-minded organization like FCPKC to improve the quality of all youth development programming offered in the area.”
As part of the partnership, BBBSGC will organize a forum addressing the top ten concerns facing youth for youth service providers, government leaders, community members, parents and youth. Other events will include a volunteer resource fair and a Kent Cares Family Involvement Event.
For more information on the partnership or to find out how your organization can join the taskforce which meets monthly, please contact Nicole Benner at [email protected].
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