Youth Application |  COMMUNITY PROGRAM

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Non-Discrimination Policy
Our participants come to us with a wide range of personal characteristics. We believe that participant eligibility shall be determined without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, immigration status, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or disability. 
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Welcome: Community Program
Welcome to the "Little" online application!

Your child, as a Little, will be matched with a Big who shares similar interests and is nearby.

The role of a Big is to be a friend, coach, and caring adult. We recommend that your child meets with their Big 1-4 times a month for a total of at least 4 hours.

We encourage Bigs and Littles to commit to a year-long relationship, but many matches decide to continue for several years with our support.

We offer structured/sponsored events and encourage free-to-low cost activities. While we share ideas through our social media and monthly newsletter, the activities done with the Big require prior approval from the Parent/Guardian.

All Matches and Parent/Guardians are supported by a team of BBBS Staff, providing a specialist to answer questions, assist with goal setting, offer advice, and suggest meaningful activities for the mentoring relationship.

As a caring and careful organization, we have administrative requirements for our Bigs, including background checks, motor vehicle records, and proof of auto insurance.

The application process takes around 20 minutes and is the first step to enrolling your child as a Little!
B
www.BigsCM.org

Serving Massachusetts Communities In Central Mass & Metrowest Areas
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Youth Information





Enrolling youth must be 8 - 16 years old





Hold CTRL+F to select multiple


Can't find your child's school? Please select: "School Not Listed"






Guardian Information









  • In addition to contacting you regarding the enrollment process, our program requires that parents/guardians are available to communicate with a staff member once a month to provide match support. 

  • Please provide reliable forms of communication.












Type NA if unemployed






Family Information









Physical Address




Emergency Contact
If we can't reach you, who is someone we could call who always knows how to reach you?

This person should not be the same as the listed Parent/Guardian. 










Other Siblings and Relatives in the Program
Please choose this child's relationship to the following people:

































We will make every effort to honor your preferences for your child's mentor. BBBS does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, gender presentation, marital status, sexual orientation, or religion.

Big Brothers Big Sisters and Holy Cross Project Study

Purpose and Background

The purpose of this project is to help Big Brothers Big Sisters learn more about the mentees’ experiences in the program. BBBS partnered with the College of the Holy Cross and Professors Lindsey Caola and Alison Ludden to learn about your child’s thoughts about the BBBS program, their education and career aspirations, perspectives on mental health, substance use, risky behaviors, and family and peer relationships. Information from this project will be used to help BBBS with future plans.


 Procedures

If you let your child participate in the study, we will ask your child to take two surveys about their beliefs, perceptions of mental health, substance use, risky behaviors, and relationships. The first survey will be available in the fall (around October and November), and the second survey will be available in the spring and summer (around May and June). Note these optional surveys are in addition to the surveys your child will complete for BBBS. If your child participates in this research study, they will complete the BBBS surveys with our surveys. If they do not participate in this study, they will complete only the BBBS surveys. 


Place and total time

Each survey will take your child about 15-20 minutes to complete. Children in the school-based program will be invited to complete the survey after school (but not on a day they are scheduled to meet their mentor). Children in the community-based program can complete the survey online at home or in-person at one of BBBS’s community events. Children on the waitlist can complete the survey online at home or in-person at one of BBBS’s waitlist events.  We will not use time dedicated for mentorship to give the surveys, your child will not miss out on this important time.


Risks

We believe there are no known risks associated with this research study; however a possible inconvenience may be the time it takes to complete the study.


Benefits

Being in this study likely won’t have an immediate impact on your child. But we hope that this project will help BBBS learn about their mentees and continue to provide support services that meet the needs of these young people. Matching mentor data to mentee data will help us understand how we can improve mentor training and support to improve BBBS and youth experiences.  We also hope your child will enjoy sharing their opinions with us.


Confidentiality

When researchers (Lindsey and Alison) and our Research Assistants are looking at surveys your child’s name will not be stored with their responses to the questionnaire. Instead they will be assigned an ID number, which will be linked to their data (and any identifying information will be stored separately). We may match your child’s data with survey data from their mentor, we will do so using ID numbers, not participants’ names, which will not be linked directly with survey responses.  If we write up a report or give talks about this research, we will never use names of people who participated as these are confidential as we mentioned. We will only talk about what we learned from all the survey responses put together as a whole. 

Digital copies of parental consent forms and survey data will be stored on password protected computers for five years and then will be permanently deleted.

If your child participates in the study, BBBS will share your child’s demographic information, such as their age, race, and ethnicity, with the Holy Cross researchers. 


Compensation

All families who complete this form will be entered into a raffle to win one of five $50 Amazon gift cards.

Children who complete the survey in-person (after school, at a community BBBS event, or at a waitlist BBBS event) will receive a  $15 Gift Card (to McDonald’s or Dunkin Donuts) and a gift bag to thank them for helping us with this project. Gift bags will include snacks and a small toy. Upon completion of the first survey your child will also be entered into a raffle to win one of five available $50 Amazon gift cards, and children who complete the second survey will receive an additional $15 Gift Card and be entered into a separate raffle for a chance to win one of ten available $50 Amazon gift cards.


Questions

Please take as long as you need to review this information before deciding if you would like your child to participate. If you have questions or concerns about your child’s participation in this study, you should talk to Lindsey Caola (lcaola@holycross.edu) or Alison Ludden (aludden@holycross.edu, 508-793-3898). 

If you have questions about your rights as a participant, you may contact the Holy Cross Institutional Review Board (IRB), which is concerned with the protection of participants in research. You can contact the Chair at hsc-irb@g.holycross.edu.

Your child does not have to participate in this study if you don’t want them to and if they participate, they will know that they can skip any questions in the survey they don’t want to answer or stop participation at any time. If you agree but you or your child later changes your mind, they may also drop out of the study at any time by contacting the principal investigator at lcoala@holycross.edu. 


There are no penalties or consequences if you or your child decides to no longer participate.


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