Write Your Congressman to help Big Brothers Big Sisters secure needed Federal Stimulus funds

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It’s you ever needy Brother Paul reaching out to you once again to ask for help.  This is a nationwide effort to secure funding for YOUR organization.  I am working with our 250 Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies today on an appropriation for the stimulus package 4 that is currently being debated in Congress. This is an urgent effort that needs your attention as soon as possible. We are requesting federal funding for our services as donations have really dried up during COVID.

Senator Moran out of Kansas has introduced this appropriation and the bipartisan funding is supported by his counterpart, Senator Shaheen of New Hampshire. We need your immediate action to contact our senators today to support this allocation. Please take a few minutes to email Senators Bennet and Gardner and express your support for this appropriation. Optional add: Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies in La Plata County and face a shortfall of over $100,000 in FY21, and we need help to continue our critical services to the youth in our community.

 Below is a step by step. If you follow these steps, it will take you less than 10 minutes to send this communication.

Step One: click on the link for each of our senators (the remaining steps are the same for each website)

• Republican
• Senator Cory Gardner – https://www.gardner.senate.gov/contact-cory/email-cory
• Congressman – tipton.house.gov/contact-me/email-me
• Democratic
• Senator Michael Bennet – https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/index.cfm/write-to-michael
• Step Two:
• Fill in the boxes with your information
•  Step Three:
• Topic: Education
•  Step Four:
• Subject; cut and paste
• Subject: Phase 4 COVID-19 Stimulus Package
• Step Five:
• Message; cut and paste

[if you wish, write a couple sentences at the top about who you are and why this allocation matters to you personally. SAMPLE: I am a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program in Southwest Colorado. I have been matched with my mentee for 11 years. With my help, he is graduating from Durango High School, a school with nearly 80% free/reduced lunch. You can help support a million youth across the country like my mentee by supporting this allocation.]

 I am writing today to ask for support for inclusion of $250M in the Phase 4 COVID-19 stimulus package for national organizations serving youth in crisis.  This request will be submitted by Sen. Moran to Senate Leadership and it is supported by Senator Shaheen. These funds would be allocated to support vetted and proven organizations currently in partnership with OJJDP who are serving over 10 million of the most significantly disadvantaged youth in our nation:

• 4-H
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
• Boys and Girls Club of America
• Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation
• Friends of the Children
• Institute Educational Leadership
• Leadership Foundations
• National Association of Police Athletic/Activities Leagues
• National Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)
• Sea Research Foundation
• US Soccer Foundation
• Youth Collaboratory, Inc.
• YouthBuild USA

Of a $1 trillion package, we are asking for .00025% to serve over 13% of our nation’s entire youth population to continue to provide the very best of service, support and positive outcomes for youth who already face so many disadvantages and adversity. Conversely, without this funding, the number of youth served will very likely continue to decline as layoffs among these organizations have already begun, and will continue as our fundraising has come to a drastic halt due to COVID.

Today, organizations like ours are doing the very best we can to continue to uphold our missions while also providing additional services such as direct support to help fulfill essential basic needs; virtual and remote educational support; and outreach and access for social services support, but having to do so with less staff.  A critical component that allows us to be effective in doing this is that we already have established trust relationships with over 10 million youth and their families and guardians.  If these OJJDP partner organizations are forced to continue layoffs, even at a 20% rate, this would negatively impact at least 2 million US youth who will not receive this care which is always critical, but even more so as substance and alcohol abuse, physical abuse and neglect, and so many other adversities they face will be left unchecked as many of the mechanisms for mandatory reporters have fallen by the wayside directly due to COVID.

Securing this $250M will allow us to survive the remainder of the year without additional layoffs, while planning for 2021 in a COVID vaccine world where the economy will begin to turn around and we can once again rely upon our private fundraising initiatives as the primary source of support. Our current COVID Phase 4 relief act focuses on youth and jobs. As such, it is our strong belief that this request should be included in Phase 4 as the return on investment is significant as .00025% of Phase 4 funding would be dedicated to provide continued and enhanced services to over 13% of our nation’s youth. Sixteen CENTS per day per youth served by these organizations between August and December is a small amount for efficient, proven and impactful results.

Additional steps: Six

If you can take additional steps, please pick up the phone and make a call, and express your support

• Michael Bennet – 303-455-7600
• Cory Gardner – (202) 224-5941
• Scott Tipton – (202) 225-4761

Folks, I want you to know that we are in decent shape as an organization, mostly as a result of last fall’s public appeal so rest easy.  Concurrently, we are cutting as many expenses as possible to streamline the organization again. We will continue to serve our community, the kids, the families and you. Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedules to help continue our service to the at risk children of BBBS of SWCO!