Volunteer as a Mentor

1. Submit your Application Package 

If you would rather complete your application form on paper, please contact our Volunteer Intake Coordinator and an application package will be mailed to you.

Your application package includes an application form along with a Volunteer Permission and Release form, Media Consent form, COVID-19 Waiver, Code of Contact Agreement and Confidentiality Policy Agreement.  It also asks you to share contact details for the people who will provide references for you.

We first contact your reference providers by email. This allows them to reply at their own convenience and provide in-depth, thoughtful answers. Please let your reference providers know that you are listing them prior to submitting your application. You will need to provide:

• 1 personal reference (Required by everyone);
• 1 partner/family reference (Required by everyone);
• 1 teacher reference (Required by those aged 14 to 18) or 1 employer reference (Required by those aged 19 and above); and
• 1 vulnerable sector reference (Required by everyone who has provided paid or unpaid care/services for children, seniors, or people with disabilities in the last five years).

• Strong from the Start Pre-match Training
• Developmental Relationships Pre-match Training Developmental Relationship Training

Join with other volunteers over Zoom to learn about our programs and what it’s like to be a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters.  Then learn how to build a Developmental Relationship with your mentee. Both training sessions must be completed before you can become a mentor but you can complete them in any order.

If none of the scheduled training dates listed on Event-brite work for you, or you’d prefer to complete training in another format, please speak with our Volunteer Intake Coordinator to make alternate arrangements.

• For volunteers aged 19 and over living in municipalities served by local police: We provide you with a letter to take into your local police station requesting that a Criminal Record/Vulnerable Sector Check be completed at no cost to you. You must show them two pieces of government issued ID – one of which must include a photograph. Please call the police after a couple of weeks to see if it is ready – only you can pick it up. We need the original record check form so please mail it or drop it off to us.
• For volunteers aged 14 to 18 and adults living in municipalities served by the RCMP: We provide you with Form CRR026, which you complete and return to us.  It gives consent for the BC Ministry of Public Safety to complete a Criminal Record/Vulnerable Sector Check on you, at no cost to you. You must show us two pieces of government issued ID – one of which must include a photograph. We submit the form to the BC Ministry of Public Safety and the results are sent back to us.

It can take many weeks for your Criminal Record/Vulnerable Sector Check to be completed, so please don’t wait to submit your request.

Interviews provide in-depth background information about you and allow you to discuss questions, concerns or expectations in a one-on-one environment. We will schedule your interview once we have heard back from two of your references. Interviews are held currently being held online through Zoom or Microsoft Teams but please let us know if you’d rather complete this step in person. Community mentors who may be driving with a mentee in their vehicle are asked to show agency staff their driver’s license and proof of insurance.

• Interviews will Teen Mentors take approximately 45 minutes.
• Interviews with Adult Mentors take approximately 90 minutes.

Go Girls! mentors also complete facilitator training that takes several hours. This will be scheduled prior to each new program session.

Once your application screening is complete, your file is reviewed by our Volunteer Intake Coordinator. Our decision regarding your acceptance as a volunteer will be e-mailed to you.

BBBS staff determine which child on our waitlist is most likely to have a successful mentoring relationship with you. You will be given information about that child and a time will be set for you to meet them. Community-based mentors also meet with the child’s parent/guardian before being introduced to the child.  Everyone signs a match agreement contract and the match begins.