The Big Buddy Mentoring Trust matches adult men as volunteer mentors (Big Buddies) for fatherless boys (Little Buddies) aged 7-14.

We recruit screen and train male volunteers and match them as mentors to suitable boys for, ideally, lifelong relationships. We operate in Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland and in 2016 funding from Trust House helped us cover the costs of our Wellington office.

Our programme envisions a community in which every boy experiences a nurturing one-to-one relationship with at least one adult male, which in turn allows each of them to develop into their full adult potential; capable of making informed, responsible decisions as involved members of our community.

Without a father figure a boy will grow up searching for what it means to be a man. Some are lucky and find it, others won’t and the rest of us will feel the consequences – that is boys growing into angry, sad or just plain bad men, inflicting their dysfunction on the world through crime, violence and suicide.

Every fatherless boy in New Zealand needs a father figure – a mentor – and our goal is to find them one. In the process we build a better world. We have no plan B!

 

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