President John Griffith called the meeting to order promptly at 12:24, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.

Vickery Hall and Lauren Griffith were our greeters today and Lauren introduced the members who brought guests:

Denise Prugh led us in singing Cowboy Joe!

President John Griffith nominated Denise Prugh for leading us in Cowboy Joe!

Liz Becher nominated everyone who helped with the Rotary Foundation Dinner; John Jorgensen (aka Paul Harris), Lori Klatt and Becky Byron (set up); Barry Johnson introducing District Foundation Chair, Dave Simonson introducing our International Panama Project, Lisa Scroggins PE ran the show in President John Griffith’s absence, and Mike McIntosh for posting the dinner online and sending out the invitations to register.

President John Griffith nominated Liz Becher for all of her work on that dinner.

Denise Prugh announced that our annual Christmas Party will be December 16^th and she will have signup sheets and more information next Monday.

Steve Loftin announced that next week we are needed at the Food Bank for our last chance of the year to volunteer right after the meeting.

Lisa Scroggins let us know that on each table is a list of things that Chloe is interested in doing while here in Casper, so if there is something on that list that you would like to do with her or even if there is something you think she would enjoy that is not on the list please call her and invite her to do things with you and your family.

No SOM today.

President-Elect Lisa Scroggins, introduced our speaker today, David Branson, Outreach Coordinator for Greater Wyoming Big Brothers Big Sisters of Casper. David spoke to us about BBBS, they are the oldest evidence-based, professionally managed, one to one, mentoring organization in the U.S. They have been in existence for a little over 100 years and it is their core belief that every child deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential. Across the U.S. and here in WY there is a mentoring gap where 1 in 3 children do not have an adult mentor in their lives. Children have the idea that adults are just automatically in their professions and they do not realize that there is a journey involved to get there. 8.5 million children in the country do not have that mentor to guide them to understand this and reach their full potential. Every child has potential and society has changed where there are many children that do not have these opportunities to develop and grow. They are trying to reach out to as many community groups and adults that they can to get the word out that they are in need of mentors. Research confirms that if they know that they matter by having an adult that cares about them it eliminates a lot of risky behaviors. They are more likely to go to college and later become volunteers to become mentors. He told of a student of his that he mentored, this young man was constantly being sent to the office so they pulled him in and told him he could no longer be in Mr. Branson’s band if he got one more referral to the office, and he loved band so this was very concerning for him as it was the only reason he came to school. So, with this ultimatum, he straightened up. Now he is studying neurosciences and is a neurologist.

He then turned the time over to Amanda Lewellen, the branch manager of the Casper office. Amanda told us about the programs that they currently have. They have Community based mentoring, site-based mentoring, and the progressive youth, a restorative justice-based mentoring program. The Community based program is where they recruit, train, and mobilize community volunteers and pair them with the child based on similar interests, personalities, etc. they get to know the parent, the child, and the volunteer and match them for compatibilities based on 32 points they have which ensure a successful match. They do require at least a one-year commitment from the volunteers and the family but they hope it turns out to be a lifelong mentor relationship. After the matching process, the mentor meets with the child for at least once a week and it caters itself to the flexibility of the mentor’s schedule and creativity. Week by week it is up to the match to do what they want to do. The importance is the consistency in the child’s life, just be there for them. The site-based program lends itself to the comfort level of the parents. It is still about matching the volunteers with the child but it is always the same time and places each week. A new initiative they are working on with the school district is called Lunch Buddies where the volunteer will go have lunch once a week with a child at the school to develop the friendship and consistency in the child’s life. The progressive youth program is a program that they have taken what they know from their other programs and are using it to help the youth that finds themselves in the juvenile justice system. About 15 years ago a juvenile probation officer came to them and said they wanted every juvenile in the system to have a big brother or big sister mentor. They worked with this probation officer and created a program using the things they have learned through the years with the mentoring programs. They created a multi-component program to help give these youths supportive supervision and supportive services to help reintegrate, reconnect and reengage them into their families and the community while still holding them accountable for their actions and helping them to understand the connection between their actions and the consequences of those actions. They provide one on one mentoring, group mentoring and also peer mentoring for these youth. They also provide life skills and social skills building for these youth through classes as well as through real-life training of these skills. The curriculum they use is through a partnership with Strong Families Strong Wyoming. They help them learn how to build relationships as well as help them have meaningful community service opportunities so that they can become reliable volunteers. They also do positive recreation where they help them to find a recreation that they will develop and carry on throughout their life such as swimming, skiing, etc. They also help with their academics with tutoring during the week to help them focus on their schooling. They focus on what their life goals are so that they can keep from going back to those destructive behaviors. Another program that they provide is monthly family engagement events where the entire family can be involved with the program.

They then opened the floor for questions from the group. They stated that there are 43 matches with a waitlist of 22 who need matches, so this is why they are trying to recruit more volunteers. The actual need is even far beyond the 22 who are on the waitlist currently. They hope that the lunch buddies will help a lot. In the progressive youth program, there is currently 71 youth. They have had volunteers that have continued being mentors for many years. They have monthly check-ins to make sure that there are no issues and if there are so that they can address and correct those issues. The matching process takes about 10 hours of work of screening from the staff then 2-3 hours for training and interview for the volunteers. They can also do couples matching if you and your spouse want to do it together and family matching if the whole family wants to be involved.

 

 

President John Griffith concluded the meeting at 1:07, Lisa Scroggins let us know that next week we will be back at the Ramkota and we will hear from Insight Resources International, Jason Nichols. The following week we will be at the Nic learning about what documents you should have ready for your tax preparer. Then December 16^th will be our Christmas Party which will be the last meeting for 2019.

 

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