Making a Difference in Future Generations

1. Making a Difference in Future Generations

2. Our Community of Need Our community of need (CON) is children who face adversity, including those living in single parent homes, growing up in poverty and coping with parental incarceration. They need a friend to play with, coaches to help them and a chance to have fun. Most disadvantaged children turn to the things that they shouldn't rely on, such as drugs or gangs. They often ditch school. Some of these kids do this because they don't have a mentor, or person to guide them, because their parents or family may not be around or engage in this behavior themselves. Kids of all nationalities can live in low-income neighborhoods.

3. Our Community of Need 10- to 14-year-olds are forming fundamental assumptions about society and their potential role in it. These assumptions are formed through observation of and interactions with adults and the adult world. If caring, concerned adults and role models are available to young people, they will be far more likely to develop into healthy, successful adults themselves (Furstenberg, 1993; Werner and Smith, 1992; Rutter, 1987; Garmezy, 1985). As the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development’s report Great Transitions (1995) argues, the years of early adolescence—ages 10 to 14—are society’s last best shot at preventing social problems. Staying in school can make a difference.

4. Our Community of Response Our community of response (COR) is Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS). They provide one-on-one mentoring for kids that need it the most. Big Brothers Big Sisters helps children achieve success in school, helps them avoid risky behaviors such as getting into fights and trying drugs and alcohol, and helps them improve their self-confidence. Big Brothers Big Sisters seeks to change the lives of children facing adversity between 6 and 18 years of age. The national symbol for BBBS

5. Our Community of Response Here's the proof. National research has shown that positive relationships between Littles and their Bigs have a direct and measurable impact on children’s lives. By participating in these programs, Little Brothers and Sisters are: • more confident in their schoolwork performance • able to get along better with their families • 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs • 27% less likely to begin using alcohol • 52% less likely to skip school. A big brother and little brother bonding over sports.

6. Mentoring, Coaching and Having Fun

7. Our Goals We wanted to help our community of need by donating old or gentley used sports equipment to the program: • We hope to help children who are a disadvantaged youth by gathering at least 100 pieces of sports equipment. • We could make at least 5 children happy by giving them sporting equipment. • We wanted to help raise awareness about this community of need so that in the future, people in our community of response might continue to donate their sporting equipment.

8. Accomplishments Soccer Shin guards: 12 Soccer Balls: 2 Cleats: 8 pairs Basketballs: 3 Footballs: 4 Bats: 7 Baseball Gloves: 5 Baseballs: 5 Baseball Helmets: 3 Playground balls: 1 Hockey Sticks: 4 Lacrosse Equipment: 17

9. Timeline

10. Reflection – Blog Entry #7 The biggest problem that we had was completing assigned projects as a group. From my perspective, this occurred because lack of communication and accountability as well as very busy schedules. We dealt with this by meeting as a team, split up tasks and tried to keep to the new schedule. I learned that one man trash is another mans treasure. If I could change one thing it would be, to try to be more organized as a group.

11. Works Cited BigBrothersBigSisters.org PPV.org (Making a Difference: An Impact Study of Big Brothers Big Sisters)

12. Thank You! Jake Kloepfer, period 6 Donny Perkins, period 5 Christian Novello, period 5 Tom Cravens, period 5