By Lauren Means • Photos Provided by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee
Big Brothers Big Sisters is one of the oldest and largest youth mentoring organizations in the United States. Currently, Big Brothers Big Sisters operates in all 50 states and in 12 countries around the world. Their goal is still to bring caring role models into the lives of children but with changing times and evolving needs of the communities they serve, they have shifted some of their programs.
Each division of Big Brothers Big Sisters develops its own programs to fit the needs of its areas. For Big
Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee (BBBSMT), this included the launch of the LGBTQ Youth Mentoring Enhancement Initiative.
Bryan Currie, the Chief Impact Officer at BBBSMT, says the need for adding more inclusion to the BBBS program was recognized from a couple of different directions. “On one level, our national federation, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, was really making LGBTQ and inclusion an emphasis in our federation across all of our Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies, and they’ve gotten some really nice, nice funding to help us do that,” Currie says.
He explained a team was developed at the national level to help the agencies think through what kind of support would be needed, and what kind of training would be needed to make sure that staff was on board and really equipped to do this kind of work. He says, “They helped us think through how to evaluate some of our policies and practices and just made sure that we had everything that we needed to do this work.”
The BBBSMT agency was approached as one of the first to be part of the initiative and one of the reasons they were chosen was because they had strongly signaled that work within the diversity, equity, and inclusion space was really important to them. “LGBTQ-forward work in particular was something that we were really wanting to pursue. So it began with a conversation with our national federation but that conversation was started because we were having those similar conversations internally also,” Currie notes.
The addition of the LGBTQ Youth Mentoring Enhancement Initiative was overall well received but Curry did acknowledge that, while they experienced a lot of support, they did encounter a little bit of pushback. “You know, whenever an organization does something that is really inclusion forward, there’s almost always pushback. We’d be living in a little bit of a fairytale land if we never heard anybody say anything. And frankly, we wouldn’t be doing the work very well, if you know, if somebody wasn’t getting their tail feathers ruffled just a little bit. Not to say that we want that to happen, but we do recognize that in the world we live in, change can be difficult,” Currie says.
The important thing is that BBBSMT didn’t let a little pushback stop progress. This was also not a process that happened overnight. “When we first started years ago, our emphasis wasn’t so much on building a specific program for LGBTQ young people, as much as it was making all of the programs that we already
have safe and inclusive places for LGBTQ young people,” Currie says.
BBBSMT wanted to be sure that all of the mentors and staff were in a place where they could support any young person should they come out during the mentor relationship. “Our first priority was making sure that our house was in order and that all of our existing programs could be really supportive, positive places for any young person, whether they were out currently or not. So that was our first emphasis,” Currie says of the beginning steps.
With policies and procedures solidified, BBBSMT was now at a point they could responsibly say the LGBTQ population was being served well. That was the point where they started to craft an intentional program specifically for LGBTQ young people.
When they are matching mentors with mentees, they’re looking at more than just their gender and sexual orientation. Currie says “Part of what we tell our young people is that you are lots of things. We’re here for connecting you with an adult who will support your musical interests and your athletic interests and your relationships and your family and just all of the other wonderful uncomplicated things that you have going on.”
If someone specifically requests a mentor who identifies with the LGBTQ population, they will make that happen. That is part of what the Initiative is for and why they have started outreach to the LGBTQ community for volunteers. Currie also said if a mentee no longer felt their current mentor could support their needs, especially if they came out after the relationship was established, they would do everything they could to support the youth.
As for current mentor needs, Currie said they have a real need for volunteers in rural or areas outside of
Metro Nashville. BBBSMT serves Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Sumner, Robertson, Dickson, and Cheatham counties. They’re also seeking mentors who are people of color and specifically men of color. “We have a lot of young African American boys on our waiting list who tell us they want to be matched with a Big who understands them in that kind of racial way. But we don’t have as many African American men on our waiting list so people of color are really needed for us,” explains Currie.
In addition to their current community-based, school-based, and E-mentoring programs, BBBSMT is working on launching a virtual Gender and Sexuality Alliance for young people. “Part of what we noticed is that in our LGBTQ community, we have a group of folks who are, in our language socially or geographically isolated. So we know that in Davidson County there are services for LGBTQ folks, and it’s debatably easier for folks to access those kinds of services within the Nashville area, but you cross the county line and the story changes pretty radically pretty quickly,” says Currie. This new platform will allow youth in more service-isolated areas to get together on an online platform, support each other, and be supported by the BBBSMT staff.
About Big Brothers Big Sisters
The quickest and easiest way to start the process of becoming a mentor with BBBSMT is to visit their website at https://mentorakid.org/become-a-big/ and complete an application. From there, someone will contact you to continue your journey.
