VENANGO CO., Pa. — As of July 1, 2018, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Oil Region will officially be known as Youth Connection. Youth Connection will continue to serve youth in Venango, Forest, Clarion and Eastern Crawford Counties as a program of Family Service & Children’s Aid Society of Venango County.

(Pictured: Mentor and mentee spending time outdoors.)

Youth Connection became a program partner of The Mentoring Partnership of Southwest PA, which provides support, training, and technical assistance on various aspects of program development and implementation.

Jessica Walters, Program Director explained, “We are very excited about this new collaborative effort with the Mentoring Partnership and feel this is going to be the best opportunity for our community to provide local youth with a screened, trained, and supervised mentor that they want and need.”

The vision for Youth Connection is “To help youth realize and reach their dreams through the guidance of a professionally supported mentoring relationship”. The goal remains the same: to provide a mentoring program that “connects” youth to a mentor who encourages self-confidence, good behavior, and enthusiastic performance in school.

Walters mentioned that there are many ways for the community to become involved with Youth Connection. One way is to volunteer to become a Mentor; this special mentoring relationship is one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling things a person can ever do.

Mentors have the opportunity to make a connection with a local youth and empower them to achieve success throughout their life. A mentor and their mentee can share activities they already enjoy doing, and enjoy the experiences even more together, all while changing the life of the mentee for the better.

Another way to become involved is to join the Advisory Committee, who are always in need of dedicated community volunteers to help Youth Connection serve more youth and oversee the overall growth and effectiveness of the program.

Interested individuals can also help by donating to Youth Connection, where each contribution stays in the community to help sustain the important work of the program — matching mentors with local youth.

No action is too small to make a connection and change our community, one youth at a time.

For more information about how you can become involved with Youth Connection contact Jessica Walters at 814-676-9940 extension 28 or by email at jwalters@fscas.org.