Hello everyone my name is Sam Brown and I’m joined here today by president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America artist Stevens welcome to Sage artists Sam pleasure to be here man how you doing yes I’m good I’ve been doing really good I love being out here in
California nice weather you know I love it I love it man what’s up let’s talk yeah um so I just have a few questions for you today so firstly we’re at the conference right now and your last two years as president and CEO of big brothers and big sisters what type of
Growth have you noticed yeah so I’ll tell you it’s been tremendous Sam I mean the first place I always start is with people right so for me when I came on board one of the things that we had a commitment to do is to make sure that we
Were giving our people all across this network opportunities to learn to to be in development to grow in in different ways so we’ve done a lot of work on really really focusing on people development people growth so we introduce a lot of things for people that have professional development
Opportunities more training right within their staff and their support we did the same thing with national staff support as well the other thing in growth is really been around how we focus in on volunteers so we are now implementing a network-wide volunteer experience strategy that’s allowing us now to
Really think about how we bring and attract volunteers into our organization much more effectively to be able to connect with a lot of more Littles right a lot more young people on our waiting list and then finally growth in terms of telling our story right and this entire
Conference has been so embedded around incredible stories and storytelling stories like yours right so how do we Elevate that more so we’re launching this brand campaign that’s going to allow us to tell the story even much more effectively it’s called it takes little to be big so I’m really excited
About it I’m really excited about the future and what we can all do together you know that’s a really smart way to focus Everyone likes to talk about oh growth growth growth on how we’re just growing as a movement but you can’t have movement without the people so focusing
On how each and every individual can grow together and come together to be bigger and Bolder that’s really smart I like how you do that yeah absolutely man so artists I just want to ask you this year’s theme is a bold path to a big future can you describe to me what it
Means to you when you say that yeah big future it’s very simple our vision is that every young person that we serve that they’re empowered right to graduate with a plan for their future and a mentor who then whose impact lasts for a lifetime right every young person in
This country should have access to mentorship right now one in three kids don’t have a positive sustained Mentor in their life we know 30 000 kids just on our way to the list alone don’t have access to mentions that should never be the case right no young person in this
Country should have to wait and Big Brothers Big Sisters has a leadership role to ensure that that type of opportunity for young people in this country happens and it’s made a reality so our goal is to ensure that this idea of a big future is ensuring that young
People have access to the positive relationships that help them Thrive and grow and here’s the power of that when they do not only do they Thrive and grow but the volunteers and the adults that support them and partner with them they grow as well because the impact is
Reciprocal when they grow then young people contribute to communities much more broader so there’s an amplification about how you give back to your community how young people then enter the workforce how they’re much more confident in their their world and changing the world and contributing right that’s what we mean by big futures
Big futures yes the pathway for young people but it’s what happens when young people are on that path because then our communities get stronger right our country gets stronger and then ultimately our world gets stronger I really like what you said there and I agree I’ve seen it firsthand you have to
Be able to walk a path that is sustainable and you have to be able to walk a path that gives you guidance and that’s what this organization is all about is what it’s done for me it’s what it’s done for so many other people around this country and it’s just it’s a
Great thing so my next question for you in your own words artists can you describe the word mentorship I would say mentorship is a basic essential need and desire in life I always told people this mentorship is as essential as the water we drink the
Food we eat the air that we breathe the one essential thing that we’ve done as human beings in connecting with each other since our existence has been mentorship and teaching from one generation to the next to the next to the next that’s how we’ve grown as people that’s how we’ve grown in society
That’s how we’ve grown in our entire Evolution as human beings that we’ve always taught each other mentored each other right from generation to generation and that’s why we are who we are today so if mentorship is that important in that focus in terms of our own human existence just imagine if we
Can be even more intentional to provide that to kids and communities today for me mentorship is the basic essential quality and access that young people that we all need in life to grow to develop and it’s always been there what we have to do as an organization as a
Mention and as a mission is to make sure it’s more intentional make sure it’s more accessible and make sure that it is the type of opportunity that every young person in this country has an opportunity to attain absolutely I Feel Like You cover every ground of it mentorship is necessary like you said
It’s been necessary in the lives of so many of my peers in my own life and so again I want to thank you for giving all of us the opportunity to be mentored well thank you so much for coming and sharing with us today artists that’s
Really about it that we have for you today I appreciate you for your time my brother so greatly it’s a pleasure yes it’s a great man great organization all right thank you this was little big chats thank you so much for watching
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