2021

Project Objectives:

Since 2015, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guelph (BBBSG) has been fortunate to receive regular support from the Ontario Wildlife Foundation (OWF) to offer and develop our Environ-Mentoring Program for the benefit of the at-risk youth in our care.

Sadly, some youth face other dangers that seem to them more immediate than environmental concerns. The daily struggle of these marginalized children often includes dealing with poverty, drug abuse, school truancy, teenage pregnancy, and the like. These issues occupy more of the child’s attention, and so they feel that they have no time to devote to global issues such as conservation. This is unfortunate because conservation education can foster a sense of responsibility in children, which helps them develop other useful skills such as leadership, confidence, and communication. These skills in turn help them deal with the other problems that they face in their daily life. The Environ-Mentoring Program is designed to provide environmental and conservation education to at-risk youth who would otherwise not have access to such programming.

Since 2014, our at-risk youth have participated in educational programming that has gotten them in touch with nature, while having fun and learning to cooperate as a group. They have gone snowshoeing, canoeing, and caving; they have studied birds, water habitats, and winter wildlife; and they jointly celebrated Canada’s 150th and Earth Day with a nature beautification event. They have even learned about other environmental projects in Ontario through Nature Crusaders magazines that were gifted to us by OWF (thank you)! The Environ-Mentoring Program has been experiencing such an increasing success since its inception that we have devoted additional resources to its development since 2018, for the benefit of more children to be supported by mentoring through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guelph. We were delighted to maintain this level of service in 2019 through additional educational partnerships in our community and, though our activities have been curtailed somewhat since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have implemented safer remote and online program delivery methods to accommodate physical distancing restrictions. As the provincial vaccination efforts expand and we can begin to examine safely delivering in-person sessions once again, we will be delighted to incorporate the virtual lessons and innovative techniques that we learned during the quarantine into the regular Environ-Mentoring programming schedule to keep our children learning no matter what the weather looks like!

Final Report