Big Brothers Big Sisters of Pinellas County Wins Award LARGO - Big Brothers Big Sisters of Pinellas County is one of ten Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies to receive the 2009 Annie E. Casey Foundation Family Strengthening Award for "engaging parents as partners" to help children improve their odds for success. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Pinellas County is one of the national donor-supported volunteer mentoring network of nearly 400 agencies serving children of single, low-income and incarcerated parents, with a focus on breaking negative cycles. Big Brothers Big Sisters' professional match coordinators (case workers) provide ongoing support to volunteer "Bigs," "Littles," and their families - creating positive, productive bonds between them while achieving sustainable positive academic and social impacts. This year's winners are recognized for specific areas of pace setting success: Effective engagement of parents/guardians as partners in the mentoring process: in the goal-setting for the child and the mentoring match, in helping the child towards the match goals, and in providing feedback on the progress of the child during the match period Involving parents in changes to or developments in programming Including parents and families in agency-specific activities Building an effective resource/referral system for agency families to link with community resources Provision of key and relative staff development opportunities that will benefit the families they interact with Securing co-investment resources to support their family-strengthening efforts and work As one of the 10 award winning agencies, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Pinellas County will receive $12,500 awards and share their best practices with other Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies.

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