For 30 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Luis Obispo County has been doing preventative work through mentorship. Now, they are at risk of losing key funding.
Morro Bay’s Matt Warren recently starred in the reality show "Farmer Wants a Wife," but a decade ago, he found himself becoming a mentor or "Big" for the local non-profit Big Brothers Big Sisters.
“I was thinking to myself, I had a big brother who was my whole world," Warren said. "So [I] wanted to do that for some kid that doesn't have maybe a dad or maybe a brother or just in a tough situation.”
For 30 years, the organization has provided that level of preventative mentorship for up to 20,000 kids through relationships like Warren's and his "Little," Luc.
“When I met him, he was just a kid and now he's an adult. It's making me feel a little old, but I was just really happy I did it and still happy to have that relationship today," Warren said.
But the programs are at risk of losing key funding, according to SLO Bigs Development Director Jane Connely.
“We are really conservative with our money," she explained. "It goes to staff and it goes to programs.”
Connely says the non-profit was already impacted by the large scale cuts to AmeriCorps funding nationwide and could see up to $115,000 of its $700,000 total operating budget slashed through losses of other forms of funding.
“We are running at this level that isn't necessarily sustainable, especially if we continue to not get the grants that we were getting in the past," Connely stated.
Before, Connely said she only had to apply and write proposals for two different grants but now had to write proposals for ten.
As preventative forms of care that non-profits like SLO Bigs and other organizations around the county provide, the federal budget has many of them in limbo, waiting to see what grants they will be able to secure and how much support they’ll need from the community.
“These little investments in people, like the time in people, the money in people, that makes a huge difference," Connely told Warren.
“After I've kind of got involved in this or have over the years realized that there's a lot more kids out there that need help," Warren said.
Connely said that they are currently trying to expand their reach in the northern and southern parts of the county.
The Big Little Benefit, which is their biggest fundraiser of the year, is Friday, May 30, with all the proceeds going to assisting the Big Brothers Big Sisters SLO County programs. For more information, click here.
