Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta Level Up Program

ATLANTA — Middle school principals are reporting unprecedented levels of disruption and conflict among students.

An Atlanta group is offering an innovative solution to help bring peace and stability to students who need it most.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta (BBBS) organization is known for its one-on-one mentoring, but it recently created a new group mentoring program called “Level Up,” which targets entire students by integrating mentors in full-fledged colleges. -time.

The group claims to have already seen astonishing results.

Problems rarely arise in college classes. Conflicts happen in the middle hallways, according to Tonetta Green, principal of Herman J. Russell West End Academy.

“People don’t realize that moving from one class to another is a big deal in college, just moving from one room to another,” Green said.

So at the end of each hallway, the school added a special type of classroom led by a Big Brother Big Sister mentor who meets with students every day.

TriKelia Browning attended Herman J. Russell as a student, but now she mentors 50 middle school girls for a week.

She served as a paraprofessional at the school before joining the BBBS mentor team.

“That’s my calling: mentoring. I love them. I love my daughters so much,” she said.

Browning’s classroom radiates warmth. Tables and chairs are set against the backdrop of a giant chalkboard wall marked with doodles and Instagram tags, flanked by a row of plush bean bag chairs. On the adjacent wall hangs a large picture collage on a cork board with images of smiling college faces. Fairy lights illuminate the area from the perimeter of the ceiling, and green plants dot the room.

Browning says every detail was intentional.

“Growing up in this neighborhood and facing the same challenges as kids, I never really had a safe space – at home or at school. So that’s something I always wanted my little ones to have,” she said.

Like the other teachers at the school, she comes to school five days a week and stays in her classroom during class hours.

Over the course of a week, Browning meets with eight groups of five girls and mentors 10 other students one-on-one.

The Level Up program began as a test for 6th grade students. Between two mentors, the school could grow to 100 students, or Herman J. Russell’s entire sixth-grade class.

When Director Green saw the participation rate increase from 43% to 73% in one quarter, she asked for more mentors.

“There was such a significant growth in attendance and behavior when they were here for a grade level, so I begged and pleaded with them to introduce it throughout my school,” she said.

Kwame Johnson, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, says it has been difficult to figure out how to expand the program to reach so many children.

With the help of U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, the organization just received $250,000 in federal funds to help it grow.

“We really infuse mentoring into the school fabric. We are not just another program operating in a school building. We’re part of the team here,” Johnson said.

Johnson entered the juvenile justice system as a teenager before changing his life to help other kids in trouble. So he understands the value of the program he is building on a personal level.

“I wish this program was there for me because I think it could have saved me from going to prison when I was 17,” he said. “If you’re a foster child, if you’re homeless, if you have mental health issues, all of those kids come to school at some point, so we’re serving kids who, well considerations, are neglected. »

The mentors follow the same group of students throughout the three years of college.

Browning says they talk about everything: how to make the right decisions, manage conflict, form the right friendships and find your purpose. She says she can see positive changes in her daughters’ lives.

Browning sees his role as providing stability, love, comfort, confidence and guidance in all the best ways.

As children benefit from mentoring, many act as unofficial mentors within the school.

“When you have a group of five boys sitting around talking about fighting culture and how it’s not cool to do and how we need to support each other and hold each other accountable for not doing that in a school building, it’s really life-changing. They become, in a way, mentors to the other kids in the school,” Johnson said.

It’s a success story far more valuable than any report card.

“It has definitely changed our academic culture and our success at our school,” Principal Green said.

Currently, the Level Up program serves 800 students in five metro Atlanta schools: Luther J. Price Middle School, Jean Childs Young Middle School, Bunche Middle School, Lithonia Middle School, and Herman J. Russell West EndAcademy.

The federal money will help the program expand to serve 1,400 students in the upcoming 2024-2025 school year.

To learn more about the program, click here.