[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 182 (Thursday, November 16, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S17179]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     PUBLIC/PRIVATE VENTURES' STUDY

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I would like to bring to my colleagues 
attention the exciting results of a 5-year study that public/private 
ventures released today. As a national board member of Big Brothers/Big 
Sisters of America, it brings me great pleasure to share with you the 
news of public/private ventures' study of the Big Bothers/Big Sisters 
Program--the first ever to assess the impact of youth of any major 
mentoring program.
  At last we have scientifically reliable evidence that proves what we 
have known intuitively for years--mentoring programs can positively 
affect young people.
  As many of my colleagues know, Big Brothers/Big Sisters is a 
federated movement of over 500 affiliated agencies located in all 50 
States. The Big Brothers/Big Sisters movement began in 1904 to provide 
one-to-one services to boys and girls in need of additional adult 
support and guidance. While the environment in which today's youth 
operate is vastly different than that of 90 years ago, basic core 
services of Big Brothers/Big Sisters remains the same--to provide 
responsible, consistent adult role models to children at risk. The need 
for additional adult support and guidance for our Nation's youth has 
never been greater, however, than at this time. Currently 38 percent of 
all of America's children live without their fathers. The Big Brothers/
Big Sisters Program presently supervises about 75,000 youth-adult 
matches, but as the public/private ventures report proves an expansion 
of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program would have a positive effect on 
our Nation's youth.
  The public/private ventures study concludes that young teenagers, who 
meet regularly with their Big Brother or Sister, are less involved with 
drugs and alcohol, do better in school and have better relationships 
with their parents and peers than do youth not in the program. In fact, 
public/private ventures found that ``Littles'' who met their ``Bigs'' 
regularly were: 46 percent less likely than their peers to start using 
illegal drugs and 27 percent less likely to start drinking; 52 percent 
less likely than their peers to skip a day of school and 37 percent 
less likely to skip a class; more trusting of their parents or 
guardians, less likely to lie to them, and felt more supported and less 
criticized by their peers and friends.
  Most of the 959 youth in the research sample were between the ages of 
10 to 14, nearly 60 percent were members of a minority group, more than 
60 percent were boys and most were poor or near poor. Many lived in 
families with histories of substance abuse and/or domestic violence. 
They are representative of our Nation's youth placed at-risk. Keeping 
this in mind, it is evident that the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program 
suggests a strategy that the country can build upon to make a 
difference--especially for youth in single-parent families.
  And since mentoring programs work through the efforts of volunteers, 
only modest funds are necessary to have far-reaching impact. The Big 
Brothers/Big Sisters Program is an innovative and effective program 
with the potential of having a substantial positive impact on our 
Nation's youth with a small investment. That is why I was pleased to 
include the Character Development Act [CDA] as one of 18 bills in a 
legislative package which I have called the Project for American 
Renewal. The Character Development Act will link public schools with 
local mentoring organizations to give more children the chance to reap 
the benefits of a one-to-one relationship. The Character Development 
Act is based on a small, innovative, Federal program known as the 
Juvenile Mentoring Program [JUMP]. JUMP is a competitive grant program 
which allows local, nonprofit social service and education agencies to 
apply cooperatively and directly for grants from the Department of 
Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. These 
grants are used to establish mentoring services utilizing law 
enforcement officials and other responsible individuals as mentors.
  As we, as policymakers, begin to look at mentoring, we need to keep 
in mind another telling conclusion of the study. The benefits of 
mentoring do not occur automatically. If programs are supported by the 
kind of thorough screening of volunteers, careful matching and 
extensive supervision required by Big Brothers/Big Sisters, they can be 
expected to produce similar results. In programs that lack the 
established infrastructure of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program, the 
one-to-one relationship evaporates too soon to positively affect the 
youth.
  While the study's most dramatic findings are the degree to which 
participation in Big Brothers/Big Sisters prevents a young person from 
starting to use drugs and alcohol, the authors also noted the fact that 
Big Brothers/Big sisters participation produces an unusually broad 
range of outcomes for youth--improved school behavior and performance 
and better relationships with friends and family. The Big Brothers/Big 
Sisters Program results in improvements in attitudes, performance, and 
behavior--with ``littles'' one-third less likely than their peers to 
report hitting someone.
  I encourage my colleagues to join me in commending Big Brothers/Big 
Sisters for their continued commitment to our Nation's youth and 
recommend to my colleagues that they visit a local affiliate in their 
State so that they may see for themselves that mentoring can and does 
indeed work.

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