Due to some administrative deficiencies with wordpress.com I switched my blog and am self hosting it, now at www.josefbig.com. Visit me there!! Thanks!
Everyday Advocate Meet Up
Awesome!! I just heard back from Big Brother Big Sister on the marketing side. It turns out they like my blog and what I’ve been doing thus far with the social media (twitter, wordpress, flikr, etc.) initiative and they’re going to post my blog link on the BBBS of the Greater Twin Cities blog!!! That’s pretty cool.
Hey Speaking of the BBBS of the Greater Twin Cities I was wondering if there is anyone around that’s interested in getting involved but isn’t sure about the year long commitment or any other issues for that matter. Maybe this will strike your fancy —> I just posted about it, I know, but I found out that April 16th at the University location ( there is a big EVERYDAY ADVOCATE meeting that is taking place… there’s no commitment, probably free food (don’t hold me to that)… it’ll just be a great place to meet new people, see about getting involved, and hang with some great people. Plus I’ll be there so what else do you need??
Let me know if you have any questions about it. I’m in Colorado right now though so I had to sneak away and quick post this when I heard because I wanted to get the word out as soon as possible. My roomies are about to search me out and throw away my computer when they do so I have to go but definitely drop me a comment below if you’re interested and I’ll get you more info.
EveryDay Advocate
There are so many great ways to get invovled with BBBS. I’d like to elaborate on some other options a bit later but I’ve recently been introduced to the idea of an everyday advocate (maybe a good option for people who can’t get directly invovled with a little or people who want to help out with the administrative side). I’m sure you could take this many different ways but since I’m journaling about my experience I want to use this to give back to and advocate for BBBS. I know that when I was looking into the organization I was looking for a first hand experience to get a grip on how it would go. I didn’t really find that. What I did find was stories and news items, but no “from the horses mouth” good day/bad day/beginning to end/what the realtionship was like expereince. I wanted to REALLY know what I was getting in to.
As most non-profits do, BBBS I’m sure relies heavily on their volunteer support group. These are some of the ideas that they had to offer to help out/recruit more participants.
1. Encourage your family, friends and co-workers to volunteer. We can provide you with e-mail templates to send to your friends, family, co-workers and/or community organizations.
2. Post flyers at local businesses or community organizations. Click here to download a tear-off flyer.
3. Give a presentation about BBBS to professional or community groups in which you’re a member.
4. Invite a BBBS representative to give a presentation at your place of business.
5. Hand out “Become a Mentor” business cards to anyone who might be interested in volunteering.
6. Speak at a BBBS Volunteer Orientation.
7. Post an article in your company’s employee newsletter or intranet (BBBS can provide the article).
8. Give your time. In addition to Big Brothers and Sisters, agency volunteers help out with large mailings, office tasks, staff events and share their unique talents.
9. Be an intern. BBBS has internships throughout the agency, including Enrollment and Matching, Match Support, School-based, Development and Marketing and Public Relations.
I’m so excited about this organization bring some great changes to our communities!! Thanks BBBS
The Super Introspective Interview
Just finished my interview at the BBBS headquarters. My interviewer, Sheng Vang, was wonderful! The process and questions were really interesting. I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into the meeting. I was ready to fill out paper work and deal with the administrative side of things (references, ID, SS# etc.) but I never expected that I’d actually learn a little about myself. I knew that the questions were going to be introspective, and trying to dig out the ‘real me’, but I was surprised at how well that was accomplished.
At first I had to explain myself from my perspective, my job and my involvement in the community, why I think I would be a good match, and so on. Then they got a little personal and what my childhood was like, how fun was it, what were my trials and tribulations, had I ever suffered from any sort of abuse (verbal, physical, sexual), what is/was my demeanor and my role with and among my friends and family.
What really got interesting was what sort of child I was looking for… I guess I’m not really looking for a specific ‘type’ of child. Something I’m striving for here is to let go of any of my preconceived notions and treat whatever situations I encounter with maturity and tact. I thought that I would take what comes and mold myself to the situation. I’m always surprised by the professionalism of BBBS and how well prepared they are for unprepared, unsuspecting, but interested ‘bigs’ like me. Some of the questions that really made me stop, pause, and think were
“what if the child came from an abusive house hold?”
-Sure I could deal with that, I don’t think that is really what will define the child…
“What if the child comes from a GLBT household?”
– again yes, I don’t think that defines a child and if that particular couple would want me to mentor their child I would be honored.
“What if the child comes from a single parent household?”
– Yes, I think I would but now I was getting afraid that I may be biting off more than I can chew… not necessarily because I have something against broken households but that I don’t really know how to deal with the possible/likely issues that could potentially be involved. With my limited knowledge in this field, I don’t really know what I would do. But wait, I’m not a counselor, I want to be a friend and mentor so should it matter what sort of house they come from.
“What if they child has behavioral issues”
– This is where I decided to draw the line. I’m fine with being a guardian, an adult, maybe even a disciplinarian at some point but I don’t think that’s is my role. I don’t deal with behavioral issues, mostly because I see everything from the top and not to their depths. I look at the surface and say, ‘well just stop doing what your doing and everything will be okay’ rather than looking at the history and reasoning behind such issues.
Of course this is all talking from major inexperience and lack of a psychology like background. I want this to work out for everyone involved and I don’t really know what my boundaries are as far as what sort of issues I can deal with but I think it’s better to take on a light case before I attempt a complicated one. I’m willing to take on whatever BBBS gives me and feel like whatever ‘little’ I am paired with will be somewhat providential…
I’ll keep you posted…
Who am I basing the decision off of?
Yesterday Toots and I went to the BBBS orientation. She was never going to be invovled in this process, we’ve only been dating a month and half, but we wanted to hang out that night anyway, and I was excited about the orientation, so I asked her to come with. She’s a great sport about the whole ordeal and very supportive. We had a really interesting chat after the orientation, which went well by the way, I’ll write about it later.
I asked her if she would like to be involved with BBBS, not with my little but with the program in general. Without hesitation or a blink of an eye she shot out a’no’. I was kind of taken a back because I had thought that the orientation, although long, was very intriguing. Toots being the heart felt caring woman that she is I thought this would be right up her alley. Before I even had a chance to ask her what brought on that response she carried on with “I have a thirteen year old ‘litte’ myself that I should be spending more time with.” She was referring to her little brother that she sees maybe once or twice a month. Wow that made a lot of sense.
This got me to thinking. Why do I need to join up with this large not for profit organization to have them pair me with a ‘little’ that I could potentially not get along with, he could have a family that tries to take advantage of me, it could be a larger time commitment than I initially thought, etc., etc. The biggest thing is that I don’t want to bite of more than I can chew and leave ‘little’ high and dry, which is probably worse than not doing anything at all. Of course I wouldn’t abandon him, but am I really cut out to do this? Plus, I already have friends that have children in need of a male presence in their life. There are so many ifs invovled here. I needed to get down the real question. Who am I really basing this decision off of?
I can make the time, there’s no question about that. I can see my friends and their children whenever I want, they’re very accessible especially if I make the effort. And I really want to base my decision off of my community. What is going to be the best decision for the whole. The ultimate reason that I’m doing this is I want to get involved, I want to meet other people with similar ideas, I want to know the not for profit horizon better than I currently do, and I want people to learn from my experience and hopefully encourage them to be the catalyst for change in anyway that they see themselves fitting in. All in all, I want to learn how to love better, through patience, understanding, and kindness. I think BBBS is going to be the best fit for what I’m looking for. So I’m basing this decision off of the future little that I will be involved with and I’m basing this decision off of LOVE. I want to jump into the volunteer world but i need to take it one step at a time, and the first one is going to be this kid. How can I serve him the best that I can, be the best role model that I know how to be, and affect my community in the way that I know how? We’ll figure that out along the way I guess, as long as I keep love in my sights.
Toots and I agreed that this would be the best fit. I haven’t had my interview yet, schedualed for the 2nd of March, so it’s coming up, but I can’t really see why this wouldn’t work (how naive is that going to look in 2-3 months ha ha). Still I don’t know what to expect but I’m getting more and more excited as the process goes on.
I think that i’ve been lead to this conclusion slowly but surely and that I’ve found the right place where I can kick my initiative off. BBBS it is. Here I come… well I guess I have to go through the interview first…
Big Brother Big Sister
I have my first interview today with Big Brother Big Sister today. Not exactly sure how the organization works but I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve been thinking of doing something like this for quite some time and think this would be a great way to get my foot in the door for orphanage work/foster care. Not really sure where i want to take this but I’m sure the path will be clear when the time comes. I’m also interested in heading up social media campaigns for organizations like this. I think it would be pretty cool to document/blog/vlog/flikr my way through this whole affair and it starts tonight so here goes!!
I was initially thinking that why do I need to go through an organization to do this and instead help out a friend in need who has a kid. I do however want to understand more fully from the ground level up how these organizations run. I think this is the best way to go. I guess I’ll know a little bit better after tonight. If anyone has any experience in this realm I’d love to hear your responses.
