Big Brothers and Big Sisters Of Mahaska County Officially Underway
Robbyn Duchow cuts the ribbon officially opening the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Mahaska County.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Things are gearing up for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Mahaska County at their office inside of the Mahaska County YMCA.
Robbyn Duchow was hired to lead the effort, and she opened the door to her office on October 31st, to begin the training needed to help make the program successful.
Johnson County Big Brothers and Big Sisters is the main program that Mahaska will fall under.
Johnson County has been serving kids for 40 years in the BBBS program, and Duchow is busy learning as much as she can from those people who are experienced in the process.
Besides her time working and learning with the Johnson County staff, Duchow has been taking in a lot of training from the national office. “Learning everything there is to know about matching.”
Duchow came to the BBBS program with a background in public health, where she was previously employed by the Iowa Department of Public Health.
“We’re excited about the program. We’re going to start doing matches in January and February. So the end of January we’ll start reaching out to the community,” said Duchow.
The program will be reaching out to adults looking to mentor a young person, and for young people who would like another adult in their life.
“There’s a very strategic process of matching adults and kids, it’s not just we have 5 adults, we have 5 kids. We really look at their interests and what the adults are looking for and what the kids are looking for. We try to match interests, personalities, make sure that those adults are going to be working well with the families, and the families and the littles are working well with that adult,” said Duchow. “There’s a lot of research behind all this. There’s a lot of training to what we are doing; it’s very exciting. I’m very excited about the program.”
Duchow has an office at the Mahaska County YMCA. “I think it’s going to be a great partnership here at the Y. It’s a really good place to grow; we’re grateful for that support.”
Steve Burnett is one of those individuals that got the ball rolling for the BBBS program in Mahaska County.
His early conversations lead to a great amount of interest in the program, which by all accounts fast-tracked in the community.
Burnett said that the interest and funding for the program shows that the community has embraced the idea, which started with a phone call to the national office for BBBS.
The national office then pointed Burnett towards Johnson County, and that conversation started with what could be done in Mahaska County.
“So I think, really, it’s just getting the ball rolling, said Burnett of those early public conversations which generated a lot of interest.
“I don’t know if they’ve decided that we needed it, if they felt it was a void in our community, if our children needed it; I’m not sure what it is, but the funding has been there,” said Burnett. Amy from United Way said it’s one of the only programs she’s ever seen where people have been willingly giving money early on like they have. I think now the onus (responsibility) is on us to deliver a product that is worthy of that trust. I think we’ll do that.”
When asked why Burnett took an interest in BBBS, “I have no idea. I have no background in this whatsoever. I’ve never been associated with BBBS. I just felt like our community needed it.”
“You hear about the concerns for what goes on in our school system. This is the first place we’ve ever moved where we didn’t pick. To your point, our kids are grown, so we didn’t pay attention to the school system when we moved in,” added Burnett.
“You move here, and you hear, oh, we’ve got some behavior issues and things like that. So, how can we fix those things. That’s kind of the way I look at things from a business perspective. You have a problem, what do we need to do to fix it. This won’t be the only answer, but I hope it’s one of the answers to that,” said Burnett.
“It’s great that we’re at this point right now and it’s exciting. The proof is in the pudding when you have some success stories to share when the kids have been mentored,” added Burnett. “It’s not about feeling good that we’re doing something, at least not for me anyway. For me, it’s about what are the results, and so far the results are we’re part of the way there, but we haven’t delivered yet.”
Duchow hadn’t heard of the program before walking into United Way to become a volunteer, but soon got wind of the upcoming position. “I’m also really excited for the programming. I love working with youth.”
Duchow was excited as the Oskaloosa Chamber Diplomats cut the ribbon for the program, making her feel even more of the community. “This is kind of right up my alley, and it’s local, and I get to be a part of my community.”
Duchow is finding the process of learning how BBBS operates and the emphasis put on child safety, “that’s the big thing. They want to make sure they’re putting kids in environments that are safe for them, that are going to be positive impacts in their life, not something detrimental. So just learning the safety aspect of the program and how impactful it has been in a lot of kids lives.”
