News and articles

March 14, 2014

San Luis Obispo, Calif. — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) awarded a grant of $10,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters to support the agency's School Based Mentoring program at Nipomo Elementary in Nipomo. The program pairs high school and college students with elementary students whose parents often work long hours and intentionally promotes asset development in both the mentors and younger students.

Of participating elementary students during the 2012-2013 school year, 70% improved their feelings of social acceptance, 89% improved their academic confidence, 67% improved their grades in at least two school subject areas, and 53% increased their confidence they will finish college. Of participating High School Students during the 2012-2013 school year, 50% have improved their feelings of social acceptance, 50% have improved their academic confidence, and 60% have improved their attitudes toward risk.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Executive Director, Anna Boyd Bucy said "We are delighted that PG&E so generously promotes asset development in the most vulnerable children in our community."

For more than 100 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated under the belief that inherent in every child is the ability to succeed and thrive in life. Most children they serve are in single-parent and low-income families or households where a parent is incarcerated. As a part of the nation's largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, they make meaningful, monitored friendships between adult volunteers and children. Funding provides for a system of ongoing evaluation and support that is proven by independent studies to help families by improving the odds that participating children will perform better in school, avoid violence and illegal activities, and have stronger relationships with their parents and others. For more information on volunteering or contributing to Big Brothers Big Sisters, call 781-3226, or log onto www.slobigs.org.