Mentoring program comes up roses

Kris Hill

Monday, Jan. 1, 2001 | 10:07 a.m.

For more than a year, Tiesha Moore has spent an hour each week hanging out with 10-year-old Deondros at his school.

The youth was connected with Moore, a 23-year-old accountant, in October 1999 through the Friends for Life school-based mentoring program that has been a pilot project in the Las Vegas area through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada.

The program matches an adult volunteer with an elementary school student after the volunteer goes through screening and training. For the next year the pair spend time together at the child's school.

Friends for Life is a less strenuous commitment for a volunteer, Kelly Stidham, special events coordinator, said. In the traditional community-based mentoring program, a big brother or sister will spend three or four hours a week with the child, Stidham said.

Children in the school-based program are usually selected by a counselor or teacher who thinks the student may benefit from participating, Kim Hinckson, match specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters, said.

The program was developed in an effort to draw more volunteers to the organization.

"There is a waiting list of 200 children at any given time," Stidham said.

There are currently 300 matches in the area in the traditional program, and more than 30 in the newer school-based program.

Part of the effort to raise awareness of the need for volunteers will be the kickoff of the school-based program at the national level with a float at the Rose Bowl Parade Jan. 1, in Pasadena, Calif.

The Friends for Life project has been very successful in its early stages in Las Vegas and a handful of other communities that have also been testing the new program, Stidham said. The decision was made a few months ago to implement the program nationally at all 500 locations in the country.

Big Brothers Big Sisters has been a prominent mentoring group in the United States for many years, and studies have shown that children who participate are less likely to become violent, take drugs or drink alcohol, or miss school.

Staff members hope that the impact will grow with the addition of the school-based program, Stidham said.

Moore has seen the success firsthand through her work with Deondros.

Over the past year she has seen him improve in his schoolwork as well as his relationships with his peers and adults.

"At first he was really quiet, but now he's more open and talkative," Moore said.

Moore also makes of point of checking with Deondros' teacher to see how he's doing each week.

She thinks that their relationship gives the boy incentive to do better in school because he knows that she is aware of it, she said.

Deondros' counselor felt he could benefit from the pairing because his parents are no longer in his life, Hinckson said. He lives with his grandparents.

Typically the pair spend their time playing games, doing homework, working in the school's computer lab or whatever else Deondros may want to do.

Moore, a UNLV graduate, has wanted to be a big sister since she was 16. After she finished college she called the organization to volunteer in the community-based program, but a staff member told her about the school-based project and so she chose to volunteer with that program instead.

"I think that I'm blessed . . . and I want to give back," Moore said.

Moore thinks she gets as much from the relationship as Deondros. And she thinks that she looks forward to spending time with her young friend as much as he does.

The interaction with him sets that day of the week apart from the rest, she said.

To volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada call the Las Vegas office at 731-2227 or the Pahrump branch at (775) 751-6163.