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Big Brothers Big Sisters guides children, combats ‘epidemic of loneliness’

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Big Brothers Big Sisters guides children, combats 'epidemic of loneliness'

When Towani Clarke met 12-year-old Antoniece, she was struggling with a lifestyle she describes as “on-the-fly,” juggling the daily tasks of her job at Nordstrom to the yoga classes she teaches at home.

Clarke came to Colorado from Zambia four years ago, where she founded an Afro-chic women’s clothing store company. She missed the intergenerational contact that is common in Zambia. Her own children had grown.

JS Season To Share is the annual holiday fundraising campaign for JS and JS Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Grants are awarded to local nonprofits that provide life-changing programs to help low-income children, families and individuals escape poverty and toward stabilization and self-sufficiency. Visit seasontoshare.com for more information.

She met with Antoniece, a high school student from Aurora who lived with her 71-year-old grandmother, every few weeks. Colorados Big brothers big sisters program linked them together as a ‘large’ and a ‘small’.

“The benefit for me is that I really get to stay grounded and learn what’s happening,” said Clarke, 52. Antoniece is “intuitive,” physically robust and loves her grandmother, she said. Last year for Halloween, Antoniece told her, “’I’m going to dress up as grandma.’ ”

Clarke and her husband had attended a Big Brothers Big Sisters party. For 107 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has been pairing adults with children with the goal of “empowering youth through mentorship.” This year the program expanded to mentoring in schools. Officials with Colorado Big Brothers Big Sisters estimate that “one in three children does not have a mentor.” A 2023 The U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation”The warning that social disconnection can be as harmful as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day has increased interest in mentoring as a remedy.

For Antoniece, the challenges include a lack of safe open space to play near the family’s apartment.

She and Clarke have been meeting for a year and a half. They often went to get ice cream. They went for a walk. They went swimming and went to a circus. They listen to music from Beyoncé and the Afrobeat artist Burnaboy.

Antoniece gets good grades at school. She participated in choir, cheerleading, spirit team and basketball.

Last summer, Clarke visited Zambia and promised Antoniece a gift when she returned. Big Brothers Big Sisters emphasizes gifts. Clarke went through the protocols and sought approval from the program director and Antoniece’s grandmother. They knew that Antoniece had tried roller skating a few years ago and that she enjoyed it.

They looked for skates, the old-fashioned kind with four wheels, at Target, Dick’s and finally Walmart, where they found the ideal pair: striking aqua blue wheels with glitter, lavender boots that are adjustable and bright green hooks for the pink ones. laces.

Antoniece put them on. “She turned to me. She said, “Instead of going out for ice cream, can we go to the park and try on my skates?” “They found one with a slippery walkway where she rolled.

Then she forgot her phone, still wearing her skates when Clarke dropped her off at the apartment building.

Clarke found it and drove back to the apartment an hour later to give Antoniece the phone. She still had her skates on.

Big sister Towani Clarke smiles after asking her little sister Antoniece, 12, if she likes the top she holds up while working at Nordstrom in Denver, September 29, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Mohatt/Special to JS)
Big sister Towani Clarke smiles after asking her little sister Antoniece, 12, if she likes the top she holds up while working at Nordstrom in Denver, September 29, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Mohatt/Special to JS)

Her grandmother Patricia Derritt calls the Big Brothers Big Sisters program “a lifesaver” for Antoniece.

“They do different things. Like, they race,” Derritt said. “Antoniece comes home smiling. She sees things that she would not be able to see and enjoy without the program and Towani. If you look at Towani and Antoniece, you would think they are mother and daughter.”

At Big Brothers Big Sisters headquarters, CEO Elycia Cook oversees dozens of combinations of Bigs and Littles.

“One of the best things about our program is that the mentor often gets as much or more out of it than the Little One,” Cook said. “I’ve heard so many mentors say things like, ‘It’s good for my soul,’ ‘It’s changed the way I treat people,’ and even ‘It’s changed the way I vote.’ It gives them the feeling that they are involved in something bigger than themselves.”

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado 7535 E. Hampden Ave., Suite 605, Denver, CO 80231

Started: 918

Employees/volunteers: 36/775

Budget: $4,345,692 (projected total expenditures for fiscal year 2025)

Direct program expenditure: $2,973,014 (fiscal year 2023)

Customers served: 1,550 (2024)

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