Enrolling Your Child

Give a child the gift of a life-changing friendship that can change their future.

If you are a parent or guardian and are interested in enrolling your child as a "Little" in our one-to-one mentoring programs, please click here first to get more information about our current program enrollment. Then, if your child qualifies, please click here to start the enrollment process.

If an appropriate adult volunteer is available and your child is accepted into the program, the process from acceptance to match will take several months. Volunteers are carefully and thoroughly screened, and matches are made to bring together the needs of the child and the skills, abilities and interests of the adult. Boys are matched to men and girls are matched to women.

Children must be between 7 and 18 years (except in our Children of Incarcerated Parents Program, where the ages of the youth are between 5-15 years old). Both the child and volunteer are asked for a minimum of a one-year commitment and to see each other four hours every other week.
The parent/guardian must meet the volunteer before the child does and must give their approval and consent to the mentoring relationship.

Each match is assigned a professional social worker who works closely with the volunteer, child and parent/guardian throughout the child's participation in the program to provide guidance and support.

Once enrolled in the program, Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City has a variety of support programs and events for our families.