Lending a hand to military children

ON HOMEFRONT: Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean State Executive Director Deborah Saunders and Victor Preciado, bilingual coordinator, discuss a new program for children of military personnel. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT
ON HOMEFRONT: Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean State Executive Director Deborah Saunders and Victor Preciado, bilingual coordinator, discuss a new program for children of military personnel. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean State is expanding mentoring services to include children who have a parent serving in the military. Made possible largely through a grant issued to its national headquarters by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Protection, the Cranston-based nonprofit is depending on corporate and community involvement to keep the program operational in the long-term.
The service is needed. Rhode Island has the nation’s second-highest, per-capita National Guard deployment rate, according to statistics generated by the guard itself. “There are over 5,000 children here in Rhode Island that have a parent in the armed forces,” said Jennifer Krus, BBBSOS school-based coordinator. “We have a great need here. She said their immediate goal is to establish 35 matches for military children and their mentors.
The Ocean State chapter received $122,500 from its national headquarters in January.
“That money will be spent primarily on staffing,” said Deborah Saunders, executive director of the local chapter. “You need staff to recruit both the volunteers and the children. You also have to do match support to make sure that the kids are safe and to ensure the quality of the match.”
The grant will help start the program but the group will still need supplemental help to make it sustainable. Fortunately, local businesses have been generous with their assistance in existing programs.
Julie M. Maguire, senior risk manager vice president at Citizens Bank in Providence, has been volunteering at Big Brothers Big Sisters since 2008. She is also a BBBSOS board member as well as a committee co-chairperson for their annual fundraiser.
“Citizens is an organization that encourages its employees to be part of the communities in which we live and work,” she said.
Amgen in West Greenwich is another active supporter.
“We’ve been supporting [Big Brothers] through our charitable arm, the Amgen Foundation,” said Larry Bernard, senior communications manager. “They applied for grants in 2007 and 2009. In 2007 we gave them $25,000 and in 2009 we gave them $15,000. In addition, last year and this year we helped their fundraising efforts by supporting their annual gala.” Bernard said a military-mentoring program would be a wonderful addition to the services Big Brothers provides.
Big Brothers appreciates all the volunteers it receives but recognizes a need for more, especially male mentors. “We’ve already established some relationships in Rhode Island, such as Operation Military Kids. They’re helping us identify who the children are and how to provide services for them,” Krus said.
Finding the children is not an easy task, according to Pamela Martin, program director of OMK, the Army’s collaborative effort with several charitable organizations to support children affected by deployment. “In Rhode Island, 90 percent of those deployed are in the National Guard and those families think of themselves as civilians. There is no available listing of who is deployed by the guard so there’s a lot of time spent getting the word out,” she said.
Bryant University, Roger Williams University and Salve Regina University also provide invaluable mentoring resources to the local chapter, Krus said. Emphasis will be put on strengthening the relationships with Roger Williams and Salve Regina due to their proximity to Naval Station Newport.
Joseph Petroff, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeastern Connecticut, said his agency not only receives volunteer support from the community and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, but also benefits from corporate grants from companies such as Dominion Nuclear and Chelsea Groton Bank.
“We’ve been running a program with the submarine base as long as I can remember. We match children with shore-duty sailors, about 20 per year,” he said. •

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