AMHERST — Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County will be able to maintain its services following a $25,000 contribution from the Mass Mentoring Partnership.
The partnership, an organization that attempts to empower youth-adult relationships across Massachusetts, recently provided the grant to the Amherst-based agency.
The grant will directly help the dozens of children who are on a waiting list to create mentoring matches at Big Brothers Big Sisters, a program of the Center for Human Development, Jess Daly, program coordinator, said in a statement.
“Big Brothers Big Sisters provides a critical service to our community, and we need continued support and resources in order to provide these services and serve more children,” Daly said.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is one of 32 mentoring programs in the state to receive the matching grant.
Over the last 17 years, the partnership’s investment has supported over 10,000 mentor matches, which helps improve children’s classroom behavior and attitude toward school, increases their self-confidence and gives them more positive attitudes about the future.
During the current two-year grant cycle, Mass Mentoring Partnership is building relationships with legislators to raise awareness of the importance of this funding in the face of state budget cuts, said Marty Martinez, president and CEO of the partnership.
“We had to step up to make sure that more youth do not end up on wait lists like the thousands of young people from Boston to the Berkshires who are already in need,” Martinez said.