USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C o m mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia-S a n t a Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Se r v i ng t he Fi r st Jud icial Ci rcu it
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 19, No. 44
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
November 13, 2019
1 Section, 10 Pages
BIG SHOES TO FILL
CEO, Paula Shell and her Little Sister Hope
Impact on Education in Northwest Florida Beverly Mayo and her fourth Little Sister, Ra’Niyah sporting glittery cat ears BY DAKOTA PARKS
A
countless number of children grow up in homes with strained family relations, absent, busy or unsteady role models. Some children simply lack an adult mentor that has enough time to devote to their education and future. Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Northwest Florida set out to change that in 1989 by uniting children with mentors, or Big Brothers and Big Sisters. The nonprofit organization was nationally founded nearly 115 years ago, but the local Northwest Florida agency is celebrating its 30-year anniversary this November. The history of the Northwest Florida agency began when Navy Chaplain Valerie “Elery” St. John DeLong was stationed in the region in 1989. At the time there was not a BBBS agency established for her to join and serve as a Big Sister. Through her advocation and assemblage of local community volunteers, a committee of board members was established, funds were raised and the agency opened. The agency serves a five-county area including Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton and Bay Counties. In 2018, the agency served 660 children. This year to date, they have served 560 children with 150 children awaiting matches. CEO, Paula Shell explained the impact of Big Brothers Big Sisters on the community: “That’s 660 children that in the future, long after I’m gone, are going to be making a positive change in our community. Our program is a long-lasting program. It’s not an immediate result that you see right away. The relationships that we foster do not just change individuals, but they change the community as well. We’re here to inspire and ignite the potential that we see in our Littles by showing them a different way.” Both recruitment coordinators and match specialists are the backbone of the one-to-one mentorship program. Mentors, or Bigs, are sought out and recruited by specialists at the agency, or through advertisement of the programs. Littles are introduced to the program through guidance counselors, community programs, teachers at school and their parents or guardians. Programs include in-school matches where Bigs spend time with
their Littles at school eating lunch or studying together and community matches where Bigs take their Littles out in the community for activities. To celebrate its 30-year anniversary, BBBS is throwing a birthday party at the end of November. The agency recently moved into a new facility located on 1320 Creighton Road. BBBS has been in the facility since May 13, but had an official ribbon cutting and open house on September 26. Impact 100 and the Bear Family Foundation were instrumental in the fundraising for their first permanent home location.
Q&A with CEO Paula Shell You’ve been the CEO of Big Brother Big Sister of Northwest Florida since 1997. How did you first get involved with the organization? Before I came to BBBS, I worked at Lakeview Center for about 12 years, and I managed group homes for adolescent boys and girls. Lakeview Center being a mental health facility, it was challenging work. Not just challenging in regard to responsibilities or workload, but also on the heart, too. I worked really hard over there, and it was just time to make a change, so I started looking around for something else. I came across the advertisement for this position in the classifieds section of the newspaper, and I told my friend at the time, “There’s my job. I found it.” And the rest is history. Tell me a little about yourself. What do you do outside of work? Lately it’s been a lot of work and no play. Especially because we’re in
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the middle of a $1.5 million capital campaign for not only the new facility we moved into, but also for expansion of programs and services. I’m a Big Sister myself. I have been matched with my Little, Hope, for about six years, and I just can’t imagine my life without her. So, every week, I go get her and do something with her. She’s being raised by her great-grandfather, and he’s 89 years old, so she doesn’t have a lot of female influences. We are truly like two peas in a pod, so spending time with her is always fun— it never feels like a duty or chore. I also like to go and enjoy the beach when I get the chance and travel with friends. I’m currently training for a half marathon in February. I try to stay active, which is hard with the workload. I saw that you studied criminal justice and psychology at the University of West Florida—how does that background help you with your work at BBBS? It definitely plays a huge role. Right out of college, I worked at Lakeview Center, a mental health facility that encapsulated the entire psychological realm of my studies. Some of those children at the facility were connected to the juvenile justice system. Occasionally, we do have Littles that go down the wrong path, and we’re able to step in and help them, so my education has been instrumental to my work. What is the hardest part of your job and the most fulfilling part of your job? The most fulfilling are the matches and their stories. One of the things in the new facility, in my office, is a wall completely covered with match photos. That was really important
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for me to see the progress along the way—they make me smile. The most rewarding part is seeing the faces of children whose lives have been changed through our work. The most challenging part of my job, I think if you ask any nonprofit executive, is the fundraising. You have to constantly keep that going to maintain what you’re doing and to get to a point where you don’t always feel like you’re climbing up a hill. Can you tell me about “Bigs with Badges” that launched in January 2017? What led to the creation of that initiative and how has it flourished over the years? It’s an initiative that came from our national organization. They actually call it “Bigs in Blue.” It was created to try and reflect positivity between youth and police in large inner cities and urban environments. Our national organization decided that the biggest answer for the interracial divide and tensions was relationship building. Who does it better than anyone? Big Brother Big Sister. They launched a national program called “Bigs in Blue” to get law enforcement to step up and become Big Brothers and Big Sisters to help teach Littles in those communities that law enforcement is not bad—they’re good. We took that and we decided to expand it a little bit and call it “Bigs with Badges” so that we could tap into not only law enforcement, but firefighters, EMS, corrections, really anyone that wears a badge, so we could grow the relationships with them. Currently, we’re sitting with about 15 Bigs with badges from various entities. Now that we have a full-time volunteer recruitment coordinator, we hope to see those numbers go up.
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