The 2015 Countdown to Kickoff fundraiser, presented by Columbia Insurance Group, benefits Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Missouri.

By supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Missouri, you are helping children facing adverse experiences gain the skills and support system necessary to become healthy, productive members of our community.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Missouri serves children of single parent families, with an incarcerated parent, in longer term foster care and who are referred to us by school or other agency personnel. Around 450 youth are served yearly in our community, school and site based mentoring programs.

We partner with parents/guardians, volunteers and others in the community and hold ourselves accountable for each child in our program achieving:

• Higher aspirations, greater confidence, and better relationships
• Avoidance of risky behaviors
• Educational success

Locally and nationally, we know that the Big Brothers Big Sisters method of mentoring works in the short and long term:

Short Term- Looking at the impact Big Brothers Big Sisters has in our local community:

• Among our current Littles, there is a 0% drop our rate compared to an overall Columbia Public Schools' rate of 2.1% in 2014, Mexico Public Schools rate of 5.2% and Moberly Public Schools rate of 2.1%.
  
• In the past year, none of our Littles have been referred for crimes to juvenile authorities, compared to Boone County's juvenile referral rate which is around 4.7%, Randolph County's rate which is around 4.8%, and Audrain County's which is around 2.5%.
• 95% of Littles are mostly sure or very sure they will finish high school compared to 75% who said that when they started the program.
• 90% of LIttles are mostly sure or very sure they will go to college compared to 75% who said that at baseline.
  
• Our Littles report a higher prevalence than their peers of believing that underage drinking, illicit and illegal drugs use are not okay.

Long Term - Harris Interactive surveyed adults who has a Big Brother or Big Sisters as a youth and compared them to adults from similar demographics that didn't have a mentor and found that Little Alumni were:

• More likely to have a college degree
• More likely to make more money
• More likely to be involved as a volunteer in their community.

Thank you to our sponsors!