Organizations that work hand-in-hand with youth to better their lives were challenged throughout the COVID pandemic and some are now starting to return to normal and are on the road to recovery.

That would include Big Brothers Big Sisters of DeWitt County and Chief Operating Officer Corey Burrows told Regional Radio on the WHOW Morning Show Thursday COVID dropped everything from children enrollment to volunteers and finances.

Burrows says COVID forced the agency to rethink how they make connections and like so many other agencies and entities, technology became the answer. Now that many mitigations are being peeled back, he indicates they are starting to recover.

BBBS lost a lot in fundraising in the two years of COVID. Burrows explains they lost almost a third of their budget that relies on fundraising efforts.

Beyond the funding, volunteers, and enrollment of kids in the program, Burrows says the connections were probably not as impactful as they started to get those back. For matches made during the pandemic, relationships were slower to bond but Borrows felt already formed relationships were not as impacted. 

Burrows reminds BBBS is a non-profit that seeks to pair youth that could use a positive adult influence in their life with someone in the community that can be that positive influence. It has been a long-running successful model that is in place all over the United States.

Burrows encourages anyone interested in returning to volunteering or trying out a new opportunity to visit their website, bbbs-cil.org to find out about the chapter near you and about what it takes to become a mentor for a young person in your community.