Big Brothers Find Recruits in Barber Chairs
Brandon Brown has no problem shaking hands with a stranger and talking about something near and dear to him: being a Big Brother mentor to his Little Brother Robert.
Brown takes his involvement with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cincinnati a step further, volunteering on the agency’s African American recruitment board. Their latest campaign to recruit African American men to volunteer as Big Brothers might seem unique: they reached out to Tri-State barbershops and asked to drop off information about volunteering that the shops could share with customers. Then, on a Saturday in October, Big Brothers and their Little Brothers, along with recruitment staff from the agency, spent time at the barbershops talking with customers about getting involved as a mentor.
Brown talked with customers at Preferred Cutz in North College Hill. Some of them worried that being a mentor would take too much time. He says, “I told them that the time can be ‘customized’ to their lifestyle. In the site-based program, it’s one day a week for an hour. This worked for many guys because they lead busy lives. We all do.”
Being a Big Brother himself, Brown could tell the men at Preferred Cutz that they might find they get a lot out of being a Big Brother. He told us, “Knowing that my Little Brother Robert is expecting me each week drives me. Recently, we were talking and I asked him who he admired and he included me in the line-up because I ‘had his back.’ That was priceless!”
At the end of the day, 17 men at Preferred Cutz asked for more information about becoming a Big Brother.
More at the link provided.