May 31, 2024 • 30 mins
Pierce Bush is the CEO of Big Brother Big Sisters Lone Star. They help volunteers mentor kids, guiding them to graduate from high school and form valuable connections in life. They are in need of mentors, especially men because they have far more boys on their waiting list and it’s worth getting involved. Their results are impressive. The “Littles” are exponentially more likely to graduate and get a good job, breaking the cycle of poverty they grew up in. We also talk about the lasting bonds Bigs and Littles form and how so many Littles return to be mentors themselves. Go to www.bbbstx.org/greater-houston to sign up.
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(00:06):
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston'sPublic Affairs show, an iHeartMedia broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that the opinions expressedon this show do not necessarily reflect those
held by this radio station, itsmanagement staff, or any of its advertisers.
My name is Laurent I am theTexan from France, and I dare
say that everybody here at iHeart Houstonis perfectly on board with what we're talking
(00:30):
about today. Because we're talking aboutBig Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston and
Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star.I'm going to have my guests explain the
difference. Pierce Bush is the CEOof Big Brothers, Big Sisters Lone Star.
I just want to say two things, two bits of staffs to get
into this. If you take onehundred names randomly polled from third graders and
(00:54):
HISD, the literacy rate is goingto be just under thirty percent. That
means that just under three out ofone hundred thirty under just under thirty of
those one hundred kids are not goingto be proficient in reading at a third
grade level, and they're going togo into fourth grade where they're not going
to catch up and they're going tobe functionally illiterate at best for the rest
(01:14):
of their lives. And I mean, you can't get a great job,
you can't move up in society unlessyou're at least very functionally illiterate. And
it's one of those things that weknow how to fix. We have figured
out how to teach kids and grownups and even older people how to read.
It's never too late to learn howto read. Very often for grown
ups, what is keeping them thebarrier from learning how to read is shame.
(01:40):
And there is no shame, especiallyif you have the worth all to
admit it and say, hey,I need help. You're going to find
it. Their organizations like Literacy Houstondo it and all kinds of things.
The other bit of information I wantto share right away is that when you're
looking at the results that big brothers, big sisters, lone Star get from
their pupils, they're littles. That'swhat we call the mentories. If you
(02:04):
can get them to graduate, overninety six percent of them are in college
or in a job or an apprenticeshipafter graduating from high school. And this
is something that we know intuitively.If you can parent kids or if you
just surround them with good mentors,good examples of good behavior, especially boys,
then they're going to be successful.My guest is Pierce Bush. He
(02:25):
is the CEO of Big Brothers,Big Sisters Lone Star. Like you said,
you're the one who mentioned this.Everybody knows that intuitively, if we
can mentor children, whether they're teenagerson a bad track or you get them
young when they're still good little kids, but they are lacking a father in
the home, for instance, andthey just need a not a father figure,
(02:47):
but an example of a good manwho behaves honorably towards women, children
and their peers, they will besuccessful. We're a monkey see monkey do
species. It's the most powerful thingwe have gone for us. And basically
kids will just like somebody and imitatetheir behavior, and so all we need
(03:07):
to do is put good behavior infront of them. And that's everything you
do, basically. And Pierce,I want to ask you, there's a
difference between Big Brothers, Big SistersLone Star and Big Brothers Big Sister of
Greater Houston. How does that work? So a number of years ago,
Big Brothers Big Sisters is first ofall, it's a federation nationally, but
not to bore your viewers. It'sa lot of independent five oh one C
(03:30):
three's with separate boards. The Houstonboard merged with the North Texas But the
truth is is that our work isvery local and so Lone Star the agency
that I lead. A CEO isthe technical legal name of our entity,
and it's actually the largest Big BrothersBig Sisters affiliate in the country. It
covers about sixty percent of the stateof Texas and is essentially seven agencies that
(03:54):
merge together. And you know,it's important to note we don't have Austin
and we don't have San Antonio,so we do have some pockets where we
don't have major cities, but wehave West Central Texas, witchdof Falls,
Dallas, Fort Worth in Houston aswell. Do Austin and San Antonio have
Big Brothers set their programs, butthey're independent and they're independent, separate legal
(04:15):
entities. And it's important to notethat I really one of the tenants of
my CEO tenure has been to decentralizeour agency, make sure the work stays
local. It's ultimately local kids withlocal volunteers, supported by local staff and
fueled by local funders, and wehave a very strong regional board here in
Houston that works very closely with mymarket leadership team in Houston. We have
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a staff in Houston of about fiftyemployees that are a new building right yeah,
and the building on Washington Avenue thatwe opened in early twenty eighteen.
Officially, it's really a cool space. Actually, So I want to talk
a little about being a volunteer becausemy experience was really great and one of
the things that impressed me the mostwas when I was into the training.
(05:00):
And by the way, their websiteis BBB S t X dot org.
BBB S t X dot org.If you want to go directly to the
Greater Houston chapter, it's BBB St X dot org front slash Greater dash
Houston front slash. But if yougo to BBB S t X dot org,
you can just clink on a linkand find it. Uh. You
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have you do have a very serioustraining program. I don't want to talk
too much about it, but youalso make a very thorough background check.
You're gonna find out whether or notthese people that are volunteering are good for
kids or not. And that's theweeding out process. You get past that
by giving your information, and onceyou are accepted into the program, you
(05:42):
get training, and that training,I don't want to I want to move
a little bit more onto the uh, the relationship with the little because it's
so it's so nice. But thetraining essentially entails teaching the bigs what to
expect out of the case manager whohelps them match with a little, and
what to do with the little oncethey're mentors, and you put a huge,
(06:05):
huge emphasis on doing things that costlittle to nothing. Go to a
park instead of to a movie's ofcourse they want to go do cool things.
And you are purveyors of free ticketsto astro games, I mean all
the great organizations, the presenting organizationsgive the organization free tickets and you pass
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them on to biggs. So it'ssomething that is going to cost you in
time, although as Pierce and Ihave already mentioned, which you get back
from that time is exponential in goodnessand heart filling. But you really encourage
biggs to form a personable relationship withoutspending money. In other words, spend
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time with them at a park,at a museum that is on Thursday evening.
Most museums are open for free tellus a little bit about that,
because it's a surprising kind of outlook. People think, Oh, I don't
know if I can afford the timeor the expense. No, it's not
expensive. No, big brothers,big sisters, and so many community partners
in this incredibly generous city. Theyarm us. They arm our organization to
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pass through, as you said,lots of opportunities. We believe that when
a volunteer signs up, this shouldn'tcost money. We think that time is
probably the most valuable assets all ofus have as human beings. Yeah,
we're all here for a limited amountof time, and at the end of
the day, you can't go earnmore time. I mean, you could
live healthier I suppose, and tryto live longer, But you get my
point. Time is really valuable,and so we want to arm our volunteers
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with things so it doesn't financially cost. And by the way, we're very
clear too, we have a clearcriteria of what a mentoring relationship is.
This isn't intended to be a SantaClaus. That's not mentoring, right.
Mentoring is about being there for somebodyelse explaining. And by the way,
we don't need perfect people to signup as volunteers. Otherwise there would be
(08:00):
no volunteers, right, So wewant people to share their lived experiences,
to share mistakes that maybe they made. We think that's really valuable if you
can help a kid not make thesame mistakes that maybe you made when you
were yeah, you know, inhigh school or whatever. There's a huge
advantage to that for the young person, to empower that young person to live
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a life where we're achieving the outcomesthat you mentioned earlier. Ninety seven percent
this is National Student clearing House datavarified, meaning third party verified are going
to college, are enrolled in atwo year or four year. We think
that that is all important. Andevery kid has their own path, or
they're employed, or they're enlisted inthe military. We are defending nice that
(08:45):
God give a potential of all thesekids by the simple act of putting a
positive role model mentor into the lifeof their kids. Good time to mention
that you especially are in need ofmale volunteers. There's a great dearth of
male volunteers. A lot of womenget matched with a little boy, for
instance. They don't do the reversefor obvious reasons. That's right, and
(09:07):
it's not the ideal scenario. Butwe do better, we do. We
need men to step up. Yeah, it's uh, you know, it
is amazing to me. We wehave a lot of young boys whose guardians
have raised their hand and are lookingfor a positive male role model and mentor
to step up to the plate.In this city, we probably have about
(09:28):
six hundred boys right now currently onthe waiting list. Yeah that's actually that's
a lot lower than I thought.Well that's good. Yeah, yeah,
it is good. There's a lot. Look, the clear thing is is
this is just kids who have organicallykind of come to us. If we
were to reach out and go furtherand dig into you know, kids that
(09:50):
could use a mentor. We're talkingabout thousands, hundreds of thousands, because
again, every kid, no matterwhat your circumstance is, benefits from mentors.
Every successful person you will meet laterin life has had a mentor that
has helped guide them at some stepof the way. It is part of
the human experience. As you said, well in fatherhood is something that we've
kind of a lot of talk abouttoxic masculinity, which is justified devolved into
(10:16):
anti male rhetoric, and I thinkthat that has hurt the prospect of men
stepping up to the plate. Alot of guys who would maybe have done
this ten years ago are afraid thatthey might be turned down because well,
you know, I got into afew fights when I was in high school.
Yeah, but now if you're asuccessful businessman or successful teacher, that's
(10:39):
behind you, and a lot ofthe kids that you're going to mentor are
kids with the exact same problems,especially boys. I feel like we really
need kind of a short leash touse an expression. Obviously, don't put
your kids on a leash, butwe do need mentor and we need to
(11:01):
have an example of how to behavethat comes from men. Women give a
different kind of useful example. Wecan't discount either the motherhood the fatherhood,
and the father figures and mentors andthe mother figures and mentors. It's kind
of a catastrophic lack of understanding ofwhat makes us human and that whole expression
(11:22):
of it takes a village. Well, it takes a village of men and
women. And I want to sayagain, my experience is a big and
actually I was matched with a difficultchild. He was a child who had
a lot of problems, and Ididn't know this going in, but it
was still a great experience. Ifeel like what we did together was very
helpful to him and it was veryhelpful to me. And most of the
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matches are way easier than what Iexperienced. I know that from talking to
a lot of bigs and from talkingto the people that run the organization.
One of the reasons for this isbecause you mentioned that these kids to you.
Organically, that's because the single momsare sort of they're motivated, and
they're looking for something to fulfill thatrole in their son's life or in their
(12:11):
daughter's life, and so there's asort of a weeding out process. Even
from the side of the kids,you're getting kids that are that probably have
a strong mother figure in their life, and that's a great start. That's
a great foundation. And if youcan introduce a male mentor who is powerful
and sets a good example, Likeyou said, those kids are going to
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graduate from high school, which isthe number one task. That's their job.
You got to graduate from high school. After what you do, whether
you go to college or not.We finally figured out you don't need to
go to a four year college.That's great if that's what you want to
do, but a bunch of professionsthey pay a ton of money and give
fulfilling, prosperous lives, backyards andfamily lives. You only need to go
(12:52):
into an apprenticeship or a two yearschool, two year program and a guy.
There's nothing like a guy telling boythat that's possible. It just goes
right through. Whereas for women,I think that just like a guy is
not going to have the same kindof influence on the little girl. It's
like, how do we lose sightof all of that? And why aren't
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we talking about it more? Itjust kind of blows my mind because it
is one of the most important thingsabout being human. And so you've got
a little who is now prospering onhis own. He's a grown up,
right, Yeah, he is twentyone. We had our first birthday.
We went to a great text Mexplace here locally called Condente, and we
(13:35):
ordered our first legal altogether we shared, which was a pretty big milestone moment.
I've heard of lots of biggs whohave reached that point. Talk about
that and yeah, Jim brought mea beer. That's progress. Jalen is
a is a great kid. Andagain, when I signed out, Lauren,
I never thought I would come workfor the agency. Actually joined our
(13:56):
board in Houston and was asked bya guy named Ron Hadley, who's been
on your show many many years ago, to come join the staff, and
yeah, and it's just amazing itat TRACKS. I believe our program attracts
the best people in this city,full stop. And that includes the families,
the moms, and the in somecases dads who who do sign up
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their kids, who say, mykid could could benefit from a positive role
model somebody you know outside of thehouse, and lots of studies will show
how impactful that third person is outsideof the house and outside of the school.
And that is what Big Brothers BigSisters provides. And we do it
by tapping into this incredible goodwill thatreally does still exist in our communities.
(14:43):
I think about this all the time, Lauren. It's easy in this day
and age to read the headlines andto lose hope. And yet if you
come to our building, you cometo one of our match events, you
will see incredible stories of optimism,of people stepping up to the plate,
not because they have to, butbecause because maybe somebody did it for them
(15:05):
and they want to pay it forward, or maybe they were a child who
had a parent that was incarcerated forexample. That's a lot of our kids,
by the way, and uh,and it's really hard for kids.
And uh and these kids haven't doneanything, as a side note, just
being born into a situation. Andfederal studies will tell you that without some
sort of prevention, those kids aremuch more likely seventy percent chance in some
(15:28):
cases to go to prison without someintervention. And yet you add to mentor
that equation and it totally flips thepotential. It's an antidote. It's an
antidote. And and and again,we need, we need, we have,
we have lots of problems. It'sa great time to be alive,
as a side note, but there'sstill lots of problems. We need people
to live lives to their full potential. It is, it is what has
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made America great and and kids shouldn'tbe left behind in my opinion, and
that's what I love about Big Brothers, Big Sisters is we are arming this
year. We'll have over two thousandpeople in Houston serving his mentors for kids
throughout the course of this calendar year. And those two thousand people are making
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an incredible difference, an incredible difference. They are true points of light,
just bright positive lights, making ita huge difference in the life of one
other individual. And you know whatI love about our program is a final
point on this rant, that's norant. But what I love is I
can't tell you how many former Littleswill go to college and come back,
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or we'll move to a different cityor whatnot. But they come to Houston
and they sign up to become abig themselves and pay it forward. Multiple
of our board members were littles.A guy named Tracy Dietrich, a really
good friend of mine. Never knewhis dad mom enrolled him in the program
when he was seven. He justsigned up for his fifth little brother,
fifth little brother. He's in touchwith all of them. One of his
(16:56):
little brothers works with him at USI. What's the best of our community?
That's right, this program, itruns through this program. You are listening
to Houston PA, Houston's Public AffairsShow. My name is Laurent, my
guest is Pierce Bush. He isthe CEO of Big Brothers, Big Sisters,
Lone Star. They're online at bbB s t X dot org b
(17:18):
b B S t x dot org. That's where you go to find out
where you can sign up for theprogram. Like I said, there's a
background check that's easy. You justfill out your information. They do it
for They do everything for you.Actually, the case managers do yeoman's work.
It's you feel taken care of.These are people you can call at
any time if you have any questions. It's it's a wonderful program. We're
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not gonna have time to talk aboutthat, but there's an entire support system
that is serving you the big tohelp your little and that's actually the easy
part. The hardest part is showingup twice a month for one afternoon for
four hours or so. And whenI say hard, you hear me right,
I'm kidding, it's not difficult atall. In fact, most of
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the bigs that I was in touchwith did what I did. They saw
their littles way more often than that. Sometimes, you know, say,
oh man, I'm gonna miss thisweekend because I'm gonna be out of town.
Let's go have dinner. You know, well, we'll go we'll go
to McDonald's or something like that,you know, just the little stuff that
they love. We'll go to thepark, and have a picnic. It's
even better because that way you canchoose the food anyway. So it's very
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easy to sign up and then there'sa training session and then you're on your
way. You get matched with thelittle you meet, the little you meet
the parent and it's usually one parent, it's usually a mom, and that's
another relationship that is important and fulfilling. So go to bbbst X dot org
to find out more. Pierce.You also have a program which allows people
(18:45):
to mentor directly through schools. Yeah. So in other words, if you
are super busy, maybe you're aparent yourself, you need to spend your
weekends with your kids, you cango volunteer want twice a month at a
school that is conveniently placed next toyour or something that's right. So there's
two primary ways we engage with verybusy corporate folks or people that are working,
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or people that have families. Oneof them is our Mentor two point
oh program. Again, once werealized years ago the positive impact we were
having on kids going and fulfilling postsecondary success meaning going to college, we
partnered with in Houston two high schoolsand with a program called Mentor two point
zero. It is a curriculum basedprogram. It's only like six or seven
(19:33):
in person times throughout the whole schoolyear. It's only during the school year.
And the idea is we match kidswith with fresh or when they're freshmen,
with a mentor, and then thatmentor and the kid through this curriculum,
and again our staff is there tohelp, you know, drive it
forward. They really kind of createa plan for life after high school.
Okay, so talking about college,FAFT SAPs, application, all that kind
(19:57):
of stuff. And then we alsopartner with a few very very awesome companies
in Houston to do it beyond schoolwalls, where yes, twice a month
we will partner with a local school. We will bring kids to the office
place and expose them to the workplace. And you know, it is such
a rewarding program. I have yetto meet a company that participates in that
(20:19):
program. A lot of the oiland gas companies do here. Other companies
do too as well, but wherethey don't say it, this is our
best corporate give back program because theysee it. Even the employees that don't
participate in it see their colleagues participate. It happens in the building and it's
a commitment. Again, we're creatingone to one relationships and it's just awesome.
(20:41):
There's so many companies in Houston.I think we have eight or nine
companies that have partnered with us inthat program, which we call Beyond School
Walls, And that's exactly what itis. We're pulling kids beyond the school
walls into this corporate atmosphere so thatthey too can see themselves one day being
an engineer, one day working asales job. I mean, you name
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it. That exposure, monkey see, monkey do. Like you said,
it opens all kinds of new doorsand allows our children, are young,
our young people, our future tolive lives to their full full potential.
I think that what people don't realizeis that what a college campus looks like
to a lot of these poor kids, and I mean poor economically, is
(21:25):
something that is alien to them.They don't have any idea. I remember
taking my little to the University ofHouston campus just to show him around.
His eyes fell out of his skull. He couldn't believe it's like what,
this park is part of the school. Yeah, and so you can have
lunch on the concourse. Yeah.And this is not the only school.
We went to Rice University too.All these campuses are open to the public,
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and they're more than happy to hosta big Big Brother's Big Sister event.
By the way, it's just theidea that they don't know that it's
out there and even possible is instantlyeradicated by taking them to one of these
places. And that's something that canhave an enormous impact on them. It's
like, well, wait a minute, I want to come here. What
do I do to come here?You graduate from high school. That's it,
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that's it. That's all you haveto do. And that's the kind
of thing the repetition goes in,Well, what if I want to be
a plumber, graduate from high school. That's all you need to do.
It's your job, you know,and I can help you. And like
you said, you talked about oneof the mentors who had a little who
was basically illiterate, and he changedthat. I helped my little do some
homework, and that's something that youcan do if you want to. I'm
(22:30):
terrible at math, doough, soyou know, you can keep that in
mind for the limitations. If you'rea mentor, you don't have to be
perfect. That's right, it's reallyjust about being a decent person in a
decent person and being around them,being there. A quarter of our kids
are in the Amachi program. Whatis that? It's it's a Nigerian word
for who knows? But God?Oh what has what has been brought to
(22:52):
us through this child? And itwas a program started by a former mayor
in Philadelphia maybe twenty or thirty yearsago within the Big Brothers, Big Sisters
network. But again, he realizedthat lots of kids who were impacted by
familial incarceration were growing up and entering, you know, the prison system themselves,
(23:15):
and he thought, you know,this is unfair. We need people
to step up and do something,which is also kind of how Big Brothers,
Big Sisters was started, started byErnest Coulter in New York City.
He was a court clerk. Herealized so many of the kids that were
coming in to your point were growingup in single parent households. And I
know this sounds weird to maybe someof your listeners who come from families where
(23:37):
college was just a given. Yes, right, but the exposure and I
know kids are connected online, butit's not the same when when you show
up like you did and take yourlittle to the University of Houston, just
touching it and seeing it and startingto envision yourself there. It does something
for a person, for a humanbeing, and to have a volunteer there
(24:00):
that just encourages them, that seesthat potential in them that's right and calls
them to it. It matters andeverybody, again, it doesn't matter what
your upbringing is. Everybody's been impactedby a person who has done that at
some step. And the odds areso so more likely that kids will live
to their full potential if more peoplein this amazing diverse city, this carrying
(24:25):
city, stepped up. Like Isaid, we have six six hundred boys
who have raised their hand. Wealso have girls. We do need women
to participate. I can't stress thatenough, but mostly men. We need
men. And to your point,I know that you match women with women,
volunteers with boys because you don't haveenough men to fulfill those matches.
You still do that, right,We do that in a very limited way,
(24:47):
yes, and it's only if somebodya lot of time exactly because the
thing we hate the most is ifyou've been on our wait list and you're
fourteen, you might age out ofour programs. You don't start relationships with
kids other than the mentor two pointzero program and certain select kind of post
secondary programs. We don't start relationshipwith kids that are above the age of
(25:08):
fourteen, mainly because we want thedosage of mentoring, which which through long
term studies has shown to be anindicator of success. So we want longer
term relationships that equals much more positiveoutcomes for our young people and probably for
our volunteers too, is a sidenote, but that's that's the main reason
we don't do it. So occasionallywe will work with the parent who again
(25:30):
I can't stress enough our parents inour program our heroes in my opinion,
and they're case workers too. Arethe case workers exactly the caseworkers, you
know, we are volunteers that areour mentors. But it's one hundred percent,
as you said, professionally supported.And that's and the means professional like
as in really professional. It's easy. They're open to your phone call at
(25:53):
any time. It's a wonderful program, Pierce. What you said about letting
them touch the possible future, forinstance, taking them to a college campus
so that they can see what thecollege life is like and how desirable it
is, and how awesome it couldbe. Something else that is even easier
to do and maybe even more funfor the bigs is to go to one
(26:15):
of the museums on Thursday evening.You pick up your little at school when
they come out, and you goto one of the museums, like the
Children's Museum. They're open for freeon Thursdays. It's one of the best
places to take kids anyway, Butany of the museums will have the same
effect. You don't know what willbe a Rosetta stone for one of these
(26:36):
kids. You take them to theMuseum of Natural Science, maybe they see
a fossil for the first time intheir life and they discover geology and that
that's what they want to do withtheir life. You don't know. Without
mentors, without access to opportunities,a lot of people sort of fall through
the cracks of their potential, ortheir potential false through the cracks. Rather,
(26:56):
it doesn't work as well on unlessyou have a plethora of choices.
And I've been fortunate. My parentsare still together. They're brilliant people,
they're brilliant parents. And I hadall the opportunities. I got to touch
all the Rosetta Stones and basically choosewhat I wanted to do, and then
(27:17):
I accidentally got into radio. Butthe point being that all of these activities
that cost absolutely nothing, no moneyexcept a little gas money because you do
have to drive around in Houston,right, They're an opportunity for this child
to break the cycle of poverty.They might be growing up poor in a
single parent home. But if theygraduate from high school and they go to
(27:40):
an apprenticeship, a two year collegeor a four year college, and they
get a job that allows them toget married and prosper well, they're going
to have kids who are going tohave the opportunities I have, and their
kids are not going to be poor. They're not going to need a program
to learn how to read because theschool system has failed them. It's all
(28:03):
perfectly doable, and all it takesis a little bit of volunteering. And
if you hear the show and you'rethinking to yourself, yeah, I could
do that, but it sounds kindof hard, No, it's not.
Actually, the only requirement they askfor you of you is to show up
twice a month on an afternoon,so you can make it a Saturday afternoon
for instance. You pick up yourlittle, you go to something cool like
(28:23):
we've described, and you do ittwice a month, and you've already fulfilled
the expectations from big brothers big sisters. But what you'll find is that you're
gonna like the little and you're gonnawant to see them more often. And
that's what happens with the vast majorityof the matches, And as Peers has
already described so many times, mostof these relationships are lifelong friendships. And
(28:48):
a lot of them end because thelittle or the big moves out of the
city. That so it's kind ofan artificial ending. Otherwise they stick together
and even then after they've separated bydistance, they can keep in touch.
So go to b B B St X dot org b B B S
t X dot org to find outhow you can volunteer, especially if you're
(29:12):
a guy. Hey, let's stepup. Men, we're the best mentors
for boys. There's a special waythat boys and men talk to each other.
Our relationships, the type of friendshipsthat men grow between each other is
something that is completely unique and absolutelyawesome. And I mean, you know,
(29:33):
you're talking about meeting someone else thatyou can throw a ball with the
potential is endless. If you haveany questions related to Houston, PA,
you can just send me an emailtextin from France at gmail dot com.
Texan from France at gmail dot com, and I want to thank you for
listening and caring about the issues thatput on this show. Folks. My
(29:56):
name is Laurent I am the Texanfrom France and this has been Houston PA,
Houston's public affairs show, Houston Strong.
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston'sPublic Affairs show, an iHeartMedia broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that the opinions expressedon this show do not necessarily reflect those
held by this radio station, itsmanagement staff, or any of its advertisers.
My name is Laurent I am theTexan from France, and I dare
say that everybody here at iHeart Houstonis perfectly on board with what we're talking
(00:30):
about today. Because we're talking aboutBig Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston and
Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star.I'm going to have my guests explain the
difference. Pierce Bush is the CEOof Big Brothers, Big Sisters Lone Star.
I just want to say two things, two bits of staffs to get
into this. If you take onehundred names randomly polled from third graders and
(00:54):
HISD, the literacy rate is goingto be just under thirty percent. That
means that just under three out ofone hundred thirty under just under thirty of
those one hundred kids are not goingto be proficient in reading at a third
grade level, and they're going togo into fourth grade where they're not going
to catch up and they're going tobe functionally illiterate at best for the rest
(01:14):
of their lives. And I mean, you can't get a great job,
you can't move up in society unlessyou're at least very functionally illiterate. And
it's one of those things that weknow how to fix. We have figured
out how to teach kids and grownups and even older people how to read.
It's never too late to learn howto read. Very often for grown
ups, what is keeping them thebarrier from learning how to read is shame.
(01:40):
And there is no shame, especiallyif you have the worth all to
admit it and say, hey,I need help. You're going to find
it. Their organizations like Literacy Houstondo it and all kinds of things.
The other bit of information I wantto share right away is that when you're
looking at the results that big brothers, big sisters, lone Star get from
their pupils, they're littles. That'swhat we call the mentories. If you
(02:04):
can get them to graduate, overninety six percent of them are in college
or in a job or an apprenticeshipafter graduating from high school. And this
is something that we know intuitively.If you can parent kids or if you
just surround them with good mentors,good examples of good behavior, especially boys,
then they're going to be successful.My guest is Pierce Bush. He
(02:25):
is the CEO of Big Brothers,Big Sisters Lone Star. Like you said,
you're the one who mentioned this.Everybody knows that intuitively, if we
can mentor children, whether they're teenagerson a bad track or you get them
young when they're still good little kids, but they are lacking a father in
the home, for instance, andthey just need a not a father figure,
(02:47):
but an example of a good manwho behaves honorably towards women, children
and their peers, they will besuccessful. We're a monkey see monkey do
species. It's the most powerful thingwe have gone for us. And basically
kids will just like somebody and imitatetheir behavior, and so all we need
(03:07):
to do is put good behavior infront of them. And that's everything you
do, basically. And Pierce,I want to ask you, there's a
difference between Big Brothers, Big SistersLone Star and Big Brothers Big Sister of
Greater Houston. How does that work? So a number of years ago,
Big Brothers Big Sisters is first ofall, it's a federation nationally, but
not to bore your viewers. It'sa lot of independent five oh one C
(03:30):
three's with separate boards. The Houstonboard merged with the North Texas But the
truth is is that our work isvery local and so Lone Star the agency
that I lead. A CEO isthe technical legal name of our entity,
and it's actually the largest Big BrothersBig Sisters affiliate in the country. It
covers about sixty percent of the stateof Texas and is essentially seven agencies that
(03:54):
merge together. And you know,it's important to note we don't have Austin
and we don't have San Antonio,so we do have some pockets where we
don't have major cities, but wehave West Central Texas, witchdof Falls,
Dallas, Fort Worth in Houston aswell. Do Austin and San Antonio have
Big Brothers set their programs, butthey're independent and they're independent, separate legal
(04:15):
entities. And it's important to notethat I really one of the tenants of
my CEO tenure has been to decentralizeour agency, make sure the work stays
local. It's ultimately local kids withlocal volunteers, supported by local staff and
fueled by local funders, and wehave a very strong regional board here in
Houston that works very closely with mymarket leadership team in Houston. We have
(04:39):
a staff in Houston of about fiftyemployees that are a new building right yeah,
and the building on Washington Avenue thatwe opened in early twenty eighteen.
Officially, it's really a cool space. Actually, So I want to talk
a little about being a volunteer becausemy experience was really great and one of
the things that impressed me the mostwas when I was into the training.
(05:00):
And by the way, their websiteis BBB S t X dot org.
BBB S t X dot org.If you want to go directly to the
Greater Houston chapter, it's BBB St X dot org front slash Greater dash
Houston front slash. But if yougo to BBB S t X dot org,
you can just clink on a linkand find it. Uh. You
(05:21):
have you do have a very serioustraining program. I don't want to talk
too much about it, but youalso make a very thorough background check.
You're gonna find out whether or notthese people that are volunteering are good for
kids or not. And that's theweeding out process. You get past that
by giving your information, and onceyou are accepted into the program, you
(05:42):
get training, and that training,I don't want to I want to move
a little bit more onto the uh, the relationship with the little because it's
so it's so nice. But thetraining essentially entails teaching the bigs what to
expect out of the case manager whohelps them match with a little, and
what to do with the little oncethey're mentors, and you put a huge,
(06:05):
huge emphasis on doing things that costlittle to nothing. Go to a
park instead of to a movie's ofcourse they want to go do cool things.
And you are purveyors of free ticketsto astro games, I mean all
the great organizations, the presenting organizationsgive the organization free tickets and you pass
(06:26):
them on to biggs. So it'ssomething that is going to cost you in
time, although as Pierce and Ihave already mentioned, which you get back
from that time is exponential in goodnessand heart filling. But you really encourage
biggs to form a personable relationship withoutspending money. In other words, spend
(06:46):
time with them at a park,at a museum that is on Thursday evening.
Most museums are open for free tellus a little bit about that,
because it's a surprising kind of outlook. People think, Oh, I don't
know if I can afford the timeor the expense. No, it's not
expensive. No, big brothers,big sisters, and so many community partners
in this incredibly generous city. Theyarm us. They arm our organization to
(07:11):
pass through, as you said,lots of opportunities. We believe that when
a volunteer signs up, this shouldn'tcost money. We think that time is
probably the most valuable assets all ofus have as human beings. Yeah,
we're all here for a limited amountof time, and at the end of
the day, you can't go earnmore time. I mean, you could
live healthier I suppose, and tryto live longer, But you get my
point. Time is really valuable,and so we want to arm our volunteers
(07:36):
with things so it doesn't financially cost. And by the way, we're very
clear too, we have a clearcriteria of what a mentoring relationship is.
This isn't intended to be a SantaClaus. That's not mentoring, right.
Mentoring is about being there for somebodyelse explaining. And by the way,
we don't need perfect people to signup as volunteers. Otherwise there would be
(08:00):
no volunteers, right, So wewant people to share their lived experiences,
to share mistakes that maybe they made. We think that's really valuable if you
can help a kid not make thesame mistakes that maybe you made when you
were yeah, you know, inhigh school or whatever. There's a huge
advantage to that for the young person, to empower that young person to live
(08:22):
a life where we're achieving the outcomesthat you mentioned earlier. Ninety seven percent
this is National Student clearing House datavarified, meaning third party verified are going
to college, are enrolled in atwo year or four year. We think
that that is all important. Andevery kid has their own path, or
they're employed, or they're enlisted inthe military. We are defending nice that
(08:45):
God give a potential of all thesekids by the simple act of putting a
positive role model mentor into the lifeof their kids. Good time to mention
that you especially are in need ofmale volunteers. There's a great dearth of
male volunteers. A lot of womenget matched with a little boy, for
instance. They don't do the reversefor obvious reasons. That's right, and
(09:07):
it's not the ideal scenario. Butwe do better, we do. We
need men to step up. Yeah, it's uh, you know, it
is amazing to me. We wehave a lot of young boys whose guardians
have raised their hand and are lookingfor a positive male role model and mentor
to step up to the plate.In this city, we probably have about
(09:28):
six hundred boys right now currently onthe waiting list. Yeah that's actually that's
a lot lower than I thought.Well that's good. Yeah, yeah,
it is good. There's a lot. Look, the clear thing is is
this is just kids who have organicallykind of come to us. If we
were to reach out and go furtherand dig into you know, kids that
(09:50):
could use a mentor. We're talkingabout thousands, hundreds of thousands, because
again, every kid, no matterwhat your circumstance is, benefits from mentors.
Every successful person you will meet laterin life has had a mentor that
has helped guide them at some stepof the way. It is part of
the human experience. As you said, well in fatherhood is something that we've
kind of a lot of talk abouttoxic masculinity, which is justified devolved into
(10:16):
anti male rhetoric, and I thinkthat that has hurt the prospect of men
stepping up to the plate. Alot of guys who would maybe have done
this ten years ago are afraid thatthey might be turned down because well,
you know, I got into afew fights when I was in high school.
Yeah, but now if you're asuccessful businessman or successful teacher, that's
(10:39):
behind you, and a lot ofthe kids that you're going to mentor are
kids with the exact same problems,especially boys. I feel like we really
need kind of a short leash touse an expression. Obviously, don't put
your kids on a leash, butwe do need mentor and we need to
(11:01):
have an example of how to behavethat comes from men. Women give a
different kind of useful example. Wecan't discount either the motherhood the fatherhood,
and the father figures and mentors andthe mother figures and mentors. It's kind
of a catastrophic lack of understanding ofwhat makes us human and that whole expression
(11:22):
of it takes a village. Well, it takes a village of men and
women. And I want to sayagain, my experience is a big and
actually I was matched with a difficultchild. He was a child who had
a lot of problems, and Ididn't know this going in, but it
was still a great experience. Ifeel like what we did together was very
helpful to him and it was veryhelpful to me. And most of the
(11:46):
matches are way easier than what Iexperienced. I know that from talking to
a lot of bigs and from talkingto the people that run the organization.
One of the reasons for this isbecause you mentioned that these kids to you.
Organically, that's because the single momsare sort of they're motivated, and
they're looking for something to fulfill thatrole in their son's life or in their
(12:11):
daughter's life, and so there's asort of a weeding out process. Even
from the side of the kids,you're getting kids that are that probably have
a strong mother figure in their life, and that's a great start. That's
a great foundation. And if youcan introduce a male mentor who is powerful
and sets a good example, Likeyou said, those kids are going to
(12:31):
graduate from high school, which isthe number one task. That's their job.
You got to graduate from high school. After what you do, whether
you go to college or not.We finally figured out you don't need to
go to a four year college.That's great if that's what you want to
do, but a bunch of professionsthey pay a ton of money and give
fulfilling, prosperous lives, backyards andfamily lives. You only need to go
(12:52):
into an apprenticeship or a two yearschool, two year program and a guy.
There's nothing like a guy telling boythat that's possible. It just goes
right through. Whereas for women,I think that just like a guy is
not going to have the same kindof influence on the little girl. It's
like, how do we lose sightof all of that? And why aren't
(13:13):
we talking about it more? Itjust kind of blows my mind because it
is one of the most important thingsabout being human. And so you've got
a little who is now prospering onhis own. He's a grown up,
right, Yeah, he is twentyone. We had our first birthday.
We went to a great text Mexplace here locally called Condente, and we
(13:35):
ordered our first legal altogether we shared, which was a pretty big milestone moment.
I've heard of lots of biggs whohave reached that point. Talk about
that and yeah, Jim brought mea beer. That's progress. Jalen is
a is a great kid. Andagain, when I signed out, Lauren,
I never thought I would come workfor the agency. Actually joined our
(13:56):
board in Houston and was asked bya guy named Ron Hadley, who's been
on your show many many years ago, to come join the staff, and
yeah, and it's just amazing itat TRACKS. I believe our program attracts
the best people in this city,full stop. And that includes the families,
the moms, and the in somecases dads who who do sign up
(14:20):
their kids, who say, mykid could could benefit from a positive role
model somebody you know outside of thehouse, and lots of studies will show
how impactful that third person is outsideof the house and outside of the school.
And that is what Big Brothers BigSisters provides. And we do it
by tapping into this incredible goodwill thatreally does still exist in our communities.
(14:43):
I think about this all the time, Lauren. It's easy in this day
and age to read the headlines andto lose hope. And yet if you
come to our building, you cometo one of our match events, you
will see incredible stories of optimism,of people stepping up to the plate,
not because they have to, butbecause because maybe somebody did it for them
(15:05):
and they want to pay it forward, or maybe they were a child who
had a parent that was incarcerated forexample. That's a lot of our kids,
by the way, and uh,and it's really hard for kids.
And uh and these kids haven't doneanything, as a side note, just
being born into a situation. Andfederal studies will tell you that without some
sort of prevention, those kids aremuch more likely seventy percent chance in some
(15:28):
cases to go to prison without someintervention. And yet you add to mentor
that equation and it totally flips thepotential. It's an antidote. It's an
antidote. And and and again,we need, we need, we have,
we have lots of problems. It'sa great time to be alive,
as a side note, but there'sstill lots of problems. We need people
to live lives to their full potential. It is, it is what has
(15:50):
made America great and and kids shouldn'tbe left behind in my opinion, and
that's what I love about Big Brothers, Big Sisters is we are arming this
year. We'll have over two thousandpeople in Houston serving his mentors for kids
throughout the course of this calendar year. And those two thousand people are making
(16:11):
an incredible difference, an incredible difference. They are true points of light,
just bright positive lights, making ita huge difference in the life of one
other individual. And you know whatI love about our program is a final
point on this rant, that's norant. But what I love is I
can't tell you how many former Littleswill go to college and come back,
(16:33):
or we'll move to a different cityor whatnot. But they come to Houston
and they sign up to become abig themselves and pay it forward. Multiple
of our board members were littles.A guy named Tracy Dietrich, a really
good friend of mine. Never knewhis dad mom enrolled him in the program
when he was seven. He justsigned up for his fifth little brother,
fifth little brother. He's in touchwith all of them. One of his
(16:56):
little brothers works with him at USI. What's the best of our community?
That's right, this program, itruns through this program. You are listening
to Houston PA, Houston's Public AffairsShow. My name is Laurent, my
guest is Pierce Bush. He isthe CEO of Big Brothers, Big Sisters,
Lone Star. They're online at bbB s t X dot org b
(17:18):
b B S t x dot org. That's where you go to find out
where you can sign up for theprogram. Like I said, there's a
background check that's easy. You justfill out your information. They do it
for They do everything for you.Actually, the case managers do yeoman's work.
It's you feel taken care of.These are people you can call at
any time if you have any questions. It's it's a wonderful program. We're
(17:41):
not gonna have time to talk aboutthat, but there's an entire support system
that is serving you the big tohelp your little and that's actually the easy
part. The hardest part is showingup twice a month for one afternoon for
four hours or so. And whenI say hard, you hear me right,
I'm kidding, it's not difficult atall. In fact, most of
(18:03):
the bigs that I was in touchwith did what I did. They saw
their littles way more often than that. Sometimes, you know, say,
oh man, I'm gonna miss thisweekend because I'm gonna be out of town.
Let's go have dinner. You know, well, we'll go we'll go
to McDonald's or something like that,you know, just the little stuff that
they love. We'll go to thepark, and have a picnic. It's
even better because that way you canchoose the food anyway. So it's very
(18:23):
easy to sign up and then there'sa training session and then you're on your
way. You get matched with thelittle you meet, the little you meet
the parent and it's usually one parent, it's usually a mom, and that's
another relationship that is important and fulfilling. So go to bbbst X dot org
to find out more. Pierce.You also have a program which allows people
(18:45):
to mentor directly through schools. Yeah. So in other words, if you
are super busy, maybe you're aparent yourself, you need to spend your
weekends with your kids, you cango volunteer want twice a month at a
school that is conveniently placed next toyour or something that's right. So there's
two primary ways we engage with verybusy corporate folks or people that are working,
(19:07):
or people that have families. Oneof them is our Mentor two point
oh program. Again, once werealized years ago the positive impact we were
having on kids going and fulfilling postsecondary success meaning going to college, we
partnered with in Houston two high schoolsand with a program called Mentor two point
zero. It is a curriculum basedprogram. It's only like six or seven
(19:33):
in person times throughout the whole schoolyear. It's only during the school year.
And the idea is we match kidswith with fresh or when they're freshmen,
with a mentor, and then thatmentor and the kid through this curriculum,
and again our staff is there tohelp, you know, drive it
forward. They really kind of createa plan for life after high school.
Okay, so talking about college,FAFT SAPs, application, all that kind
(19:57):
of stuff. And then we alsopartner with a few very very awesome companies
in Houston to do it beyond schoolwalls, where yes, twice a month
we will partner with a local school. We will bring kids to the office
place and expose them to the workplace. And you know, it is such
a rewarding program. I have yetto meet a company that participates in that
(20:19):
program. A lot of the oiland gas companies do here. Other companies
do too as well, but wherethey don't say it, this is our
best corporate give back program because theysee it. Even the employees that don't
participate in it see their colleagues participate. It happens in the building and it's
a commitment. Again, we're creatingone to one relationships and it's just awesome.
(20:41):
There's so many companies in Houston.I think we have eight or nine
companies that have partnered with us inthat program, which we call Beyond School
Walls, And that's exactly what itis. We're pulling kids beyond the school
walls into this corporate atmosphere so thatthey too can see themselves one day being
an engineer, one day working asales job. I mean, you name
(21:03):
it. That exposure, monkey see, monkey do. Like you said,
it opens all kinds of new doorsand allows our children, are young,
our young people, our future tolive lives to their full full potential.
I think that what people don't realizeis that what a college campus looks like
to a lot of these poor kids, and I mean poor economically, is
(21:25):
something that is alien to them.They don't have any idea. I remember
taking my little to the University ofHouston campus just to show him around.
His eyes fell out of his skull. He couldn't believe it's like what,
this park is part of the school. Yeah, and so you can have
lunch on the concourse. Yeah.And this is not the only school.
We went to Rice University too.All these campuses are open to the public,
(21:47):
and they're more than happy to hosta big Big Brother's Big Sister event.
By the way, it's just theidea that they don't know that it's
out there and even possible is instantlyeradicated by taking them to one of these
places. And that's something that canhave an enormous impact on them. It's
like, well, wait a minute, I want to come here. What
do I do to come here?You graduate from high school. That's it,
(22:10):
that's it. That's all you haveto do. And that's the kind
of thing the repetition goes in,Well, what if I want to be
a plumber, graduate from high school. That's all you need to do.
It's your job, you know,and I can help you. And like
you said, you talked about oneof the mentors who had a little who
was basically illiterate, and he changedthat. I helped my little do some
homework, and that's something that youcan do if you want to. I'm
(22:30):
terrible at math, doough, soyou know, you can keep that in
mind for the limitations. If you'rea mentor, you don't have to be
perfect. That's right, it's reallyjust about being a decent person in a
decent person and being around them,being there. A quarter of our kids
are in the Amachi program. Whatis that? It's it's a Nigerian word
for who knows? But God?Oh what has what has been brought to
(22:52):
us through this child? And itwas a program started by a former mayor
in Philadelphia maybe twenty or thirty yearsago within the Big Brothers, Big Sisters
network. But again, he realizedthat lots of kids who were impacted by
familial incarceration were growing up and entering, you know, the prison system themselves,
(23:15):
and he thought, you know,this is unfair. We need people
to step up and do something,which is also kind of how Big Brothers,
Big Sisters was started, started byErnest Coulter in New York City.
He was a court clerk. Herealized so many of the kids that were
coming in to your point were growingup in single parent households. And I
know this sounds weird to maybe someof your listeners who come from families where
(23:37):
college was just a given. Yes, right, but the exposure and I
know kids are connected online, butit's not the same when when you show
up like you did and take yourlittle to the University of Houston, just
touching it and seeing it and startingto envision yourself there. It does something
for a person, for a humanbeing, and to have a volunteer there
(24:00):
that just encourages them, that seesthat potential in them that's right and calls
them to it. It matters andeverybody, again, it doesn't matter what
your upbringing is. Everybody's been impactedby a person who has done that at
some step. And the odds areso so more likely that kids will live
to their full potential if more peoplein this amazing diverse city, this carrying
(24:25):
city, stepped up. Like Isaid, we have six six hundred boys
who have raised their hand. Wealso have girls. We do need women
to participate. I can't stress thatenough, but mostly men. We need
men. And to your point,I know that you match women with women,
volunteers with boys because you don't haveenough men to fulfill those matches.
You still do that, right,We do that in a very limited way,
(24:47):
yes, and it's only if somebodya lot of time exactly because the
thing we hate the most is ifyou've been on our wait list and you're
fourteen, you might age out ofour programs. You don't start relationships with
kids other than the mentor two pointzero program and certain select kind of post
secondary programs. We don't start relationshipwith kids that are above the age of
(25:08):
fourteen, mainly because we want thedosage of mentoring, which which through long
term studies has shown to be anindicator of success. So we want longer
term relationships that equals much more positiveoutcomes for our young people and probably for
our volunteers too, is a sidenote, but that's that's the main reason
we don't do it. So occasionallywe will work with the parent who again
(25:30):
I can't stress enough our parents inour program our heroes in my opinion,
and they're case workers too. Arethe case workers exactly the caseworkers, you
know, we are volunteers that areour mentors. But it's one hundred percent,
as you said, professionally supported.And that's and the means professional like
as in really professional. It's easy. They're open to your phone call at
(25:53):
any time. It's a wonderful program, Pierce. What you said about letting
them touch the possible future, forinstance, taking them to a college campus
so that they can see what thecollege life is like and how desirable it
is, and how awesome it couldbe. Something else that is even easier
to do and maybe even more funfor the bigs is to go to one
(26:15):
of the museums on Thursday evening.You pick up your little at school when
they come out, and you goto one of the museums, like the
Children's Museum. They're open for freeon Thursdays. It's one of the best
places to take kids anyway, Butany of the museums will have the same
effect. You don't know what willbe a Rosetta stone for one of these
(26:36):
kids. You take them to theMuseum of Natural Science, maybe they see
a fossil for the first time intheir life and they discover geology and that
that's what they want to do withtheir life. You don't know. Without
mentors, without access to opportunities,a lot of people sort of fall through
the cracks of their potential, ortheir potential false through the cracks. Rather,
(26:56):
it doesn't work as well on unlessyou have a plethora of choices.
And I've been fortunate. My parentsare still together. They're brilliant people,
they're brilliant parents. And I hadall the opportunities. I got to touch
all the Rosetta Stones and basically choosewhat I wanted to do, and then
(27:17):
I accidentally got into radio. Butthe point being that all of these activities
that cost absolutely nothing, no moneyexcept a little gas money because you do
have to drive around in Houston,right, They're an opportunity for this child
to break the cycle of poverty.They might be growing up poor in a
single parent home. But if theygraduate from high school and they go to
(27:40):
an apprenticeship, a two year collegeor a four year college, and they
get a job that allows them toget married and prosper well, they're going
to have kids who are going tohave the opportunities I have, and their
kids are not going to be poor. They're not going to need a program
to learn how to read because theschool system has failed them. It's all
(28:03):
perfectly doable, and all it takesis a little bit of volunteering. And
if you hear the show and you'rethinking to yourself, yeah, I could
do that, but it sounds kindof hard, No, it's not.
Actually, the only requirement they askfor you of you is to show up
twice a month on an afternoon,so you can make it a Saturday afternoon
for instance. You pick up yourlittle, you go to something cool like
(28:23):
we've described, and you do ittwice a month, and you've already fulfilled
the expectations from big brothers big sisters. But what you'll find is that you're
gonna like the little and you're gonnawant to see them more often. And
that's what happens with the vast majorityof the matches, And as Peers has
already described so many times, mostof these relationships are lifelong friendships. And
(28:48):
a lot of them end because thelittle or the big moves out of the
city. That so it's kind ofan artificial ending. Otherwise they stick together
and even then after they've separated bydistance, they can keep in touch.
So go to b B B St X dot org b B B S
t X dot org to find outhow you can volunteer, especially if you're
(29:12):
a guy. Hey, let's stepup. Men, we're the best mentors
for boys. There's a special waythat boys and men talk to each other.
Our relationships, the type of friendshipsthat men grow between each other is
something that is completely unique and absolutelyawesome. And I mean, you know,
(29:33):
you're talking about meeting someone else thatyou can throw a ball with the
potential is endless. If you haveany questions related to Houston, PA,
you can just send me an emailtextin from France at gmail dot com.
Texan from France at gmail dot com, and I want to thank you for
listening and caring about the issues thatput on this show. Folks. My
(29:56):
name is Laurent I am the Texanfrom France and this has been Houston PA,
Houston's public affairs show, Houston Strong.
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