Community-Based Mentoring is the traditional Big Brothers Big Sisters relationship. It happens after school or on the weekend. It’s all about an adult volunteer (over 18) and a young person spending one-to-one time together doing things they both enjoy, for 1-3 hours, once a week.
Most outings take place in the community, at a library, a park, the beach or at other free facilities. Children are matched when they are between the ages of 6-10, and once they are matched, they can stay on the programme until they’re 18.

The mentor picks the child up from their home and drops them home afterwards. The mentor arranges times with the parent/caregiver.

About half of our community based matches meet over the weekend and the other half in the early evening of a weekday, after school.

School-Based Mentoring takes place on site at a local primary school, often in the library, staff room or out in the playground. Common activities are board games, lego, baking, sports and crafts.

School-Based Mentoring is ideal for people who like the set routine and structure of a school setting. Mentors go to the school once a week and take the young person out of class for an hour. Typically it is the same time each week.

Most schools prefer it to be either late morning or in the afternoon so that it is outside of the young person’s core subjects. Most school based mentors are retired or are employed at a workplace where they can take an extended break during the day, in many cases with the support of their employer. It is also common for mentoring matches to start in school and to later extend into community-based mentoring. This only happens if the mentor, child and parent/caregiver want this to occur. 

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Taranaki employ a team of 7 professionals who cover majority of the Taranaki region.

We pride ourselves in our experience in making great matches that are long lasting and that significantly impact young lives.

Our governance board is here to support the team on the ground.

They volunteer their time and skills to ensure the programme meets national standards and regulations.