A new survey finds the Big Brother/Big Sisters program is making a big impact on the lives of Iowa kids.The survey asked parents and guardians about the child’s performance and attitude before and after getting matched with a volunteer Big Brother or Big Sister. Jamie Lane, spokeswoman for the Central Iowa chapter, says it focused on 21 key areas of a young person’s life and found improvement in all of them. 82-point-3 percent showed improvement in self-confidence, 71-point-3 improved in personal hygiene and appearance, 76-percent have improvement in their ability to make decisions. Lane says the time commitment is pretty small for the Big, but the results for the Little can be huge. Lane says they ask Bigs to spend two hours with the Little twice a month — 48 hours a year — to make a positive change in a young life. The Central Iowa chapter of Big Brothers/Big Sisters covers 29 counties. For more information, surf to “biglink.org”.
