Pinebrook Family Answers and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Lehigh Valley are working together to provide community-based mentoring services for children dealing with mental health challenges.

The goal is to serve 90 additional children by the end of September 2021.

Known as “Compeer of the Lehigh Valley,” Pinebrook represents an extension of an already thriving program that pairs adult volunteers with adults facing mental health challenges in mentoring friendships.

Compeer, an international mentoring organization, helps adults overcome the challenges associated with mental illness through the power of friendship.

Big Brothers Big Sisters and Pinebrook are extending services to younger people in Lehigh County through this program, using the successful community-based mentoring model Big Brothers Big Sisters has employed for nearly 50 years.

Through the Compeer program extension, Pinebrook and Big Brothers Big Sisters staff members work with community partners to recruit adult volunteer mentors, match volunteers with children in caring one-to-one relationships and support these mentoring relationships through their duration.

As a component of the partnership, Big Brothers Big Sisters will be launching a volunteer recruitment campaign in September called “The Future is BIG.”

The goal of the campaign is to recruit 30 new mentors over 30 days throughout the month.

This campaign will help provide mentors for children who are participating in the Compeer program.

Compeer of the Lehigh Valley program extension was funded through a grant provided by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.