March 8, 2025 • 13 mins
Some big changes have been happening behind the scenes at two of Boston's best-known mentoring organizations, and you may not have even noticed. That's exactly how they planned it! Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts and the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston have merged in hopes of helping more kids around the region reach their full potential. Big Sister Association President and CEO Annissa Essaibi-George and Big Brothers Big Sisters President and CEO Mark O'Donnell share details about the merger with Nichole and talk about what this means for mentoring access around Eastern Massachusetts.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each and every week right here, we come together and
talk about all the topics important to you and the
place where you live. It is always good to be
back with you. I'm Nicole Davis. There are some great
organizations around Greater Boston working with our kids to mentor
them and help them get set up for success. You're
probably familiar with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts.
(00:31):
Each and every year they work with almost four thousand
kids in our neck of the woods to connect them
with mentors known as biggs, who then dedicate their time
to guiding these kids through their formative years. Now, also
in Greater Boston, you may know about the work that
the Big Sister Association does. They provide peer mentorship in schools,
they do group mentoring, all this working to provide a
(00:51):
special community for girls and gender neutral kids. Well, now
their powers are combined. The two organizations have come together
in hopes of getting young people more tools to develop confidence, strength,
and a sense of self. Let's talk about it now.
Anissa Sibey George is the President and CEO of Big
Sister Association of Greater Boston. Mark o'donald's been here with
us before. If you listen to the show, you know
(01:13):
the name. He is the president and CEO of Big
Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern mass Mark Anissa, thank you
both for the time. Mark. You know we'll start with you.
You've been here before, but in case people haven't heard,
tell us a little bit more about the work you're
doing at Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
We started nineteen forty nine, early on serving just boys
in Boston, twelve boys in Boston, and then it grew
over the time to expand his territories upwards of all
the way up to the New Hampshire border, all the
way down to the Cave from the Islands, and we
serve about a little over four thousand kids, have split
evenly between boys and girls. And so it's in the
(01:52):
same kind of mission is we believe that every kid
has an opportunity. What's lacking a lot of times in
their life is that person who's there, that person to
talk to, that person to mentor them, that person to
be a friend. And so we've learned a long time
ago that the secret sauce everyone makes it more complicated
than it is. The secret sauce is putting someone in
(02:13):
someone's life to be their champion.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
And Denissa, of course, Big Sister Association of Greater Boston
you've got a pretty deep history as well, around for
quite some time. Tell us a bit about your work
and what you do.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So, Big Sister was founded in nineteen fifty one to
serve the girls primarily of Boston and Cambridge initially, and
then grew to serve girls across the Greater Boston region.
Over these last seventy two seventy three years, we have
been very much focused on empowering girls and young women.
(02:45):
We have a hashtag called you Know that says ignite
their passion, and we work tirelessly every day to make
sure that the girls and young women and female identifying
littles and bigs have opportunities to to be their full
selves and reach that full potential.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Both organizations do a great job at that and have
been for so long. So then I guess the question is, Anissa,
why merge? Why if you're doing great work separately, why
come together?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well the question became why not? Really? When I think
about our co affiliate Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern
mass and the work that they're doing in a much
larger region and their ability to serve so many kids,
including girls. We took a look last year and reached
out to Eastern mass and had a conversation about the
(03:34):
why not. We do believe that together the two organizations
are so much more stronger because of the individual things
that we bring to the table. Certainly a Big Sister,
we have a particular expertise in some of the programming
that we've been able to roll out to the girls
and the young women that we serve, and in partnership
(03:55):
with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern mass we're able
now to expand that reach, to expand and grow that
programming and serve more girls and young women through the programming,
and do it, you know, in partnership and collaboration with
the boys and the young men that are part of
(04:16):
this larger organization at Eastern Mass.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Sure, strengthened numbers is a good thing. Resources and numbers
is a good thing. What does the structure look like?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
You know, First and foremost what happened is guardians and
families have one place to go to, right and so
what we wanted to make sure is if you had
a daughter in Big Sisters program and her brother or
cousin wanted to sign up. That that family could just
call up the same person I'm working with and say
my son would like to be matched as well. And
(04:47):
so we just wanted to make sure first and foremost
that the organization streamline our ability to serve our community. Right,
So we wanted to make sure. So what happens is
we just came under one roof, we came together. There
was a lot of redundancy in just kind of software
and printers and all those things space, and so we
just wanted to make sure we became the most efficient organization.
(05:09):
And now what we're doing also, all the matches have
stayed collective, matches have stayed together. They are all under
you know, the same kind of program leadership it's always
have with both staff and so it's really just been
this great, uh, just kind of infusion of organizations. Now
(05:29):
what we're learning is what are the great programs, especially
you know, the girl intentional programs that Big Sister was
doing that now we weren't doing on the Cave in
the Islands, or we weren't doing in New Bedford. What
can we learn and grow and take to a larger audience.
So we're in that. First get the nuts and bolts down,
which I think we've done well. Make sure that there's
(05:50):
no disruption. One of the first things we set to
us our boards as well as a Nissa and I.
No one could lose their big because of this, and
so that is first and foremost. If you have a match,
if you've been matched for three years, you don't want
to ever get a phone call saying because of the administration,
because right you know you're going to lose your person.
So we wanted to make sure that was first and foremost,
(06:12):
and we streamlined that. And right now we're just working
together to say, how do we now take the superpower
and take it to a larger audience.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Well, that's good to know. And again, Anissa, you know
mentors and mentees they're not losing any services here. There's
no major change at this point. But what are you
looking at coming down the pike here when it comes
to those potential changes. Do you have anything that you've
already kind of hashed out at this.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Point, Well, you know, through this process of partnership and merger,
you know the technical legal term, certainly there's been sort
of the business side of that work. There. You know,
our legal team, Marx Legal team, making sure that you
know the process is done well, done right. And you know,
the merging of two pretty large and obviously old legacy
(06:57):
organizations takes a lot of work. But you know, from
day one, Mark and I and our teams have always said,
what's best for the youth that we serve. How do
we do this so that it is least disruptive, And
you know, to Mark's point around the streamlining, that it's
seamless that kids in particular don't even realize that there
(07:18):
has been this shift, and we're both very proud that
it has not had an impact on the kids in particular.
Obviously the adults know that there's certain negotiations happening around,
you know, programs moving over, who's leading those programs, how
are they being delivered, How are we now when we
think about the future, looking to expand some of those
(07:38):
really exciting things. I'm proud as now the former leader
of Big Sister, that our New Girls Network, for example,
is continuing under the leadership of Mark and his team
and some of the Big Sister team that's migrated over
to Big Brothers. Big sisters. That's really exciting to me
because it is again an opportunity for us to grow
(08:02):
beyond what was a much smaller geographical area to a
larger one, as Mark mentioned, from the New Hampshire border
all the way through to the Cape and the Islands,
and you know a little bit, you know, it's just
a bigger area to both serve more kids, more boys
and girls that want to be a part of our programs,
to tap into more adult mentors. We're always always looking
(08:23):
for big brothers and big sisters now as part of
our collective work.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
But then also.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Through a lot of our other programming, reached to new
partners to make sure that we have strong, engaged partnerships,
whether it's with our donors and our supporters, certainly our
volunteers that step up, step up every day, but also
thinking about some of the college partnerships that we've both had,
(08:49):
but Marx had an incredible one with Boston College for example,
So how do we make sure that more and more
kids get to participate in that program, and how do
we take what's happening there, for example, and roll it
or to some other campuses. Because we are a bigger
and stronger organization. It opens some of those doors for us.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We want to make sure over the course of not
just the next year, for the next five to ten,
the next seventy plus years, that the Big Sister Association
Greater Boston, that that legacy lives on forever. We want
to make sure that the programs grow, that the number
of girls being served grow, And no matter if you're
a male volunteer, female volunteer, there's about thirty thousand plus
(09:28):
kids that if we were to really market to youth
but sign up for this program and we're only serving
collectively about four thousand kids forty five hundred. So yes,
there's a call for volunteers. But I want to make
sure that when we come together and we grow, hopefully
the thirty thousand kids, someday that people will know that
it's Eastern mass But there's also a cape in the
(09:49):
Islands branch. There's also the legacy of Big Sister Associates
a Greater Boston. So one of the main things in
the future we want to make sure is people feel
at home in this organization for a part of the
organization they want to be part of.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
When it comes to mentors, I've been doing this Public
Affairs Show for about five six years now, and I
feel like every time I'm talking either to you, Mark
or about anybody doing volunteer work with kids, there are
never enough mentors. Is that still the case?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It is? And I think that's one of the misnomers
about Sometimes people will say, oh, there's a focus on boys, right,
And the reason there's a focus on boys is because
I think female identifying volunteers are just nicer, so they
volunteer a lot more, and so it's actually four to one, wow,
And so there is a need, especially for male volunteers.
(10:39):
And so there is this really big push for volunteers,
especially male volunteers. But at the end of the day,
we are all doing kind of the same work to
get out there, especially when you get into the population
like Lowell or New Bedford or Brockton where there's a
lot more kids than professionals. And so we get to
a place where, especially the out areas of Boston, there's
(11:02):
a real need for people to step up with volunteer.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
If anybody is hearing this and saying, all right, I
want to be nice regardless of our identify, and I
want to get involved and bring in a little into
my life. How can they do that?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
At first say, it's not so much about being nice.
I think what I've seen in the last two and
a half years from all of our volunteers, however they
identify and want to engage with us, is that there's
this we talk about in lots of different career fields,
this imposter syndrome that volunteers or potential volunteers don't see
that they have something special to offer a young person,
(11:38):
when in fact, all they need to be able to
offer a young person is their time. That is truly
the greatest gift that we can give someone. And we
don't need fancy job, we don't need fancy degree, we
don't need some sort of you know, big you know,
extraordinary experience to be able to impart or to share
(11:59):
with a young person. A volunteer, a big brother, a
big sister simply needs some time in which to engage
with a young person. So the credentials, that's what it is.
So it you know, check check us out online. Both
of our websites are still very very much active because
Big Sister has had such great brand awareness and organizational awareness,
(12:23):
we're keeping that going just in case. That's the portal
that volunteers come to find us at a Big Sister
dot org. I think people like to hear me say
it with my Boston accent, but you know, you can
check out big Sister dot org and follow the links
to continue to volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters of
Eastern Mouse or check out the Big Brothers Big Sisters
(12:44):
of Eastern Mass website emassbigs dot org.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Emassbigs dot org. That is correct. Well, this is exciting news.
I'm hoping for the best for the merger. Obviously that's
already happened. I mean, this is great news for our
local kids. Mark A, Nissa, thank you so much for
your time and all the best as we move forward
into this new chapter for you both. Have a safe
and healthy weekend. Please join me again next week for
(13:07):
another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ
News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each and every week right here, we come together and
talk about all the topics important to you and the
place where you live. It is always good to be
back with you. I'm Nicole Davis. There are some great
organizations around Greater Boston working with our kids to mentor
them and help them get set up for success. You're
probably familiar with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts.
(00:31):
Each and every year they work with almost four thousand
kids in our neck of the woods to connect them
with mentors known as biggs, who then dedicate their time
to guiding these kids through their formative years. Now, also
in Greater Boston, you may know about the work that
the Big Sister Association does. They provide peer mentorship in schools,
they do group mentoring, all this working to provide a
(00:51):
special community for girls and gender neutral kids. Well, now
their powers are combined. The two organizations have come together
in hopes of getting young people more tools to develop confidence, strength,
and a sense of self. Let's talk about it now.
Anissa Sibey George is the President and CEO of Big
Sister Association of Greater Boston. Mark o'donald's been here with
us before. If you listen to the show, you know
(01:13):
the name. He is the president and CEO of Big
Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern mass Mark Anissa, thank you
both for the time. Mark. You know we'll start with you.
You've been here before, but in case people haven't heard,
tell us a little bit more about the work you're
doing at Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
We started nineteen forty nine, early on serving just boys
in Boston, twelve boys in Boston, and then it grew
over the time to expand his territories upwards of all
the way up to the New Hampshire border, all the
way down to the Cave from the Islands, and we
serve about a little over four thousand kids, have split
evenly between boys and girls. And so it's in the
(01:52):
same kind of mission is we believe that every kid
has an opportunity. What's lacking a lot of times in
their life is that person who's there, that person to
talk to, that person to mentor them, that person to
be a friend. And so we've learned a long time
ago that the secret sauce everyone makes it more complicated
than it is. The secret sauce is putting someone in
(02:13):
someone's life to be their champion.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
And Denissa, of course, Big Sister Association of Greater Boston
you've got a pretty deep history as well, around for
quite some time. Tell us a bit about your work
and what you do.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So, Big Sister was founded in nineteen fifty one to
serve the girls primarily of Boston and Cambridge initially, and
then grew to serve girls across the Greater Boston region.
Over these last seventy two seventy three years, we have
been very much focused on empowering girls and young women.
(02:45):
We have a hashtag called you Know that says ignite
their passion, and we work tirelessly every day to make
sure that the girls and young women and female identifying
littles and bigs have opportunities to to be their full
selves and reach that full potential.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Both organizations do a great job at that and have
been for so long. So then I guess the question is, Anissa,
why merge? Why if you're doing great work separately, why
come together?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well the question became why not? Really? When I think
about our co affiliate Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern
mass and the work that they're doing in a much
larger region and their ability to serve so many kids,
including girls. We took a look last year and reached
out to Eastern mass and had a conversation about the
(03:34):
why not. We do believe that together the two organizations
are so much more stronger because of the individual things
that we bring to the table. Certainly a Big Sister,
we have a particular expertise in some of the programming
that we've been able to roll out to the girls
and the young women that we serve, and in partnership
(03:55):
with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern mass we're able
now to expand that reach, to expand and grow that
programming and serve more girls and young women through the programming,
and do it, you know, in partnership and collaboration with
the boys and the young men that are part of
(04:16):
this larger organization at Eastern Mass.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Sure, strengthened numbers is a good thing. Resources and numbers
is a good thing. What does the structure look like?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
You know, First and foremost what happened is guardians and
families have one place to go to, right and so
what we wanted to make sure is if you had
a daughter in Big Sisters program and her brother or
cousin wanted to sign up. That that family could just
call up the same person I'm working with and say
my son would like to be matched as well. And
(04:47):
so we just wanted to make sure first and foremost
that the organization streamline our ability to serve our community. Right,
So we wanted to make sure. So what happens is
we just came under one roof, we came together. There
was a lot of redundancy in just kind of software
and printers and all those things space, and so we
just wanted to make sure we became the most efficient organization.
(05:09):
And now what we're doing also, all the matches have
stayed collective, matches have stayed together. They are all under
you know, the same kind of program leadership it's always
have with both staff and so it's really just been
this great, uh, just kind of infusion of organizations. Now
(05:29):
what we're learning is what are the great programs, especially
you know, the girl intentional programs that Big Sister was
doing that now we weren't doing on the Cave in
the Islands, or we weren't doing in New Bedford. What
can we learn and grow and take to a larger audience.
So we're in that. First get the nuts and bolts down,
which I think we've done well. Make sure that there's
(05:50):
no disruption. One of the first things we set to
us our boards as well as a Nissa and I.
No one could lose their big because of this, and
so that is first and foremost. If you have a match,
if you've been matched for three years, you don't want
to ever get a phone call saying because of the administration,
because right you know you're going to lose your person.
So we wanted to make sure that was first and foremost,
(06:12):
and we streamlined that. And right now we're just working
together to say, how do we now take the superpower
and take it to a larger audience.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Well, that's good to know. And again, Anissa, you know
mentors and mentees they're not losing any services here. There's
no major change at this point. But what are you
looking at coming down the pike here when it comes
to those potential changes. Do you have anything that you've
already kind of hashed out at this.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Point, Well, you know, through this process of partnership and merger,
you know the technical legal term, certainly there's been sort
of the business side of that work. There. You know,
our legal team, Marx Legal team, making sure that you
know the process is done well, done right. And you know,
the merging of two pretty large and obviously old legacy
(06:57):
organizations takes a lot of work. But you know, from
day one, Mark and I and our teams have always said,
what's best for the youth that we serve. How do
we do this so that it is least disruptive, And
you know, to Mark's point around the streamlining, that it's
seamless that kids in particular don't even realize that there
(07:18):
has been this shift, and we're both very proud that
it has not had an impact on the kids in particular.
Obviously the adults know that there's certain negotiations happening around,
you know, programs moving over, who's leading those programs, how
are they being delivered, How are we now when we
think about the future, looking to expand some of those
(07:38):
really exciting things. I'm proud as now the former leader
of Big Sister, that our New Girls Network, for example,
is continuing under the leadership of Mark and his team
and some of the Big Sister team that's migrated over
to Big Brothers. Big sisters. That's really exciting to me
because it is again an opportunity for us to grow
(08:02):
beyond what was a much smaller geographical area to a
larger one, as Mark mentioned, from the New Hampshire border
all the way through to the Cape and the Islands,
and you know a little bit, you know, it's just
a bigger area to both serve more kids, more boys
and girls that want to be a part of our programs,
to tap into more adult mentors. We're always always looking
(08:23):
for big brothers and big sisters now as part of
our collective work.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
But then also.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Through a lot of our other programming, reached to new
partners to make sure that we have strong, engaged partnerships,
whether it's with our donors and our supporters, certainly our
volunteers that step up, step up every day, but also
thinking about some of the college partnerships that we've both had,
(08:49):
but Marx had an incredible one with Boston College for example,
So how do we make sure that more and more
kids get to participate in that program, and how do
we take what's happening there, for example, and roll it
or to some other campuses. Because we are a bigger
and stronger organization. It opens some of those doors for us.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We want to make sure over the course of not
just the next year, for the next five to ten,
the next seventy plus years, that the Big Sister Association
Greater Boston, that that legacy lives on forever. We want
to make sure that the programs grow, that the number
of girls being served grow, And no matter if you're
a male volunteer, female volunteer, there's about thirty thousand plus
(09:28):
kids that if we were to really market to youth
but sign up for this program and we're only serving
collectively about four thousand kids forty five hundred. So yes,
there's a call for volunteers. But I want to make
sure that when we come together and we grow, hopefully
the thirty thousand kids, someday that people will know that
it's Eastern mass But there's also a cape in the
(09:49):
Islands branch. There's also the legacy of Big Sister Associates
a Greater Boston. So one of the main things in
the future we want to make sure is people feel
at home in this organization for a part of the
organization they want to be part of.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
When it comes to mentors, I've been doing this Public
Affairs Show for about five six years now, and I
feel like every time I'm talking either to you, Mark
or about anybody doing volunteer work with kids, there are
never enough mentors. Is that still the case?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It is? And I think that's one of the misnomers
about Sometimes people will say, oh, there's a focus on boys, right,
And the reason there's a focus on boys is because
I think female identifying volunteers are just nicer, so they
volunteer a lot more, and so it's actually four to one, wow,
And so there is a need, especially for male volunteers.
(10:39):
And so there is this really big push for volunteers,
especially male volunteers. But at the end of the day,
we are all doing kind of the same work to
get out there, especially when you get into the population
like Lowell or New Bedford or Brockton where there's a
lot more kids than professionals. And so we get to
a place where, especially the out areas of Boston, there's
(11:02):
a real need for people to step up with volunteer.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
If anybody is hearing this and saying, all right, I
want to be nice regardless of our identify, and I
want to get involved and bring in a little into
my life. How can they do that?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
At first say, it's not so much about being nice.
I think what I've seen in the last two and
a half years from all of our volunteers, however they
identify and want to engage with us, is that there's
this we talk about in lots of different career fields,
this imposter syndrome that volunteers or potential volunteers don't see
that they have something special to offer a young person,
(11:38):
when in fact, all they need to be able to
offer a young person is their time. That is truly
the greatest gift that we can give someone. And we
don't need fancy job, we don't need fancy degree, we
don't need some sort of you know, big you know,
extraordinary experience to be able to impart or to share
(11:59):
with a young person. A volunteer, a big brother, a
big sister simply needs some time in which to engage
with a young person. So the credentials, that's what it is.
So it you know, check check us out online. Both
of our websites are still very very much active because
Big Sister has had such great brand awareness and organizational awareness,
(12:23):
we're keeping that going just in case. That's the portal
that volunteers come to find us at a Big Sister
dot org. I think people like to hear me say
it with my Boston accent, but you know, you can
check out big Sister dot org and follow the links
to continue to volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters of
Eastern Mouse or check out the Big Brothers Big Sisters
(12:44):
of Eastern Mass website emassbigs dot org.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Emassbigs dot org. That is correct. Well, this is exciting news.
I'm hoping for the best for the merger. Obviously that's
already happened. I mean, this is great news for our
local kids. Mark A, Nissa, thank you so much for
your time and all the best as we move forward
into this new chapter for you both. Have a safe
and healthy weekend. Please join me again next week for
(13:07):
another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ
News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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