About BCYMP
BCYMP strives to increase resiliency of young people in our community and add protective factors by building and supporting consistent, encouraging relationships with trained, caring adults.
We envision a future in which all youth in Brookings County have developmental relationships with adults who express care, provide support, challenge growth, share power, and expand possibilities.
Our Core Values
Relationship
Strong positive relationships are critical across all parts of young people’s lives, but too many grow up without a strong support network of relationships. We do all we can to increase the number of developmental relationships our youth have.
Collaboration
BCYMP believes that the best community for youth is one in which all organizations work together to support their healthy development. We actively participate in the exchange of resources and ideas so that Brookings County can best support its youth.
Compassion
BCYMP is committed to building reciprocal relationships and creating environments in which youth, families and BCYMP volunteers are treated with dignity, heart, and respect.
Generational Impact
BCYMP believes that each mentoring relationship we build and support has the power to change lives--including those lives that Mentees will touch in the future.
About
Our Program
BCYMP is a mentoring program for all K-12 students in Brookings County. Any parenting adult may request a BCYMP Mentor by filling our online application form or talking with a school counselor or another adult who supports your child(ren). BCYMP focuses on increasing the resiliency and positive social skills of youth through evidence-based youth mentoring. BCYMP is a 501c3 incorporated in April of 2001.
BCYMP has 1:1 community-based youth mentoring and small group mentoring opportunities. We follow best practices in youth mentoring as established by MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, and everything we do is focused on building and sustaining healthy relationships.
BCYMP Mentors, staff and program volunteers are trauma-informed and also trained in Search Institute’s Developmental Relationships Framework (2017). Research shows that youth with strong relationships across contexts are more likely to have healthy attitudes and assets, and less likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors that ultimately result in long-term negative social and health outcomes. Mentoring changes lives.
In 2021, BCYMP received their Disability Mentoring Certification. To complete their certification, BCYMP staff completed over 20 hours of online coursework, contributed to weekly discussion posts, and attended live webinars and cohort convenings, while also creating a plan to improve the disability inclusion practices in their organization. BCYMP was one of just 23 organizations in the nation that completed their full certification.
Why Mentor?
Mentoring showed me that it is important to consistently be there for someone, and it helped me develop more meaningful relationships outside of BCYMP.
I mentor because it is an awesome way to encourage a child in the community and to be a friend to someone who might be going through a hard time.
I think that BCYMP Mentoring is empowering. Kids need a network. It can’t always be one person.
Monthly Mentor Support Squad
This month is National Mentoring Month, and we are excited to announce one way BCYMP is celebrating. We are thankful for Shane Anderson from Brookings Home Team, Powered by Century 21, Krogman & Co, for helping us celebrate National Mentoring Month. Shane, a BCYMP Board Member, is automatically gifting a […]
The Mentor Diaries: Alexander Boehmer
There is a saying I saw recently that struck me as particularly apt: Be the person you needed when you were younger. I never had the fortune of a youth mentor, or any sort of big brother program when I grew up, but the past four years with my mentee […]
BCYMP Participating in South Dakota Day of Giving
Get ready! BCYMP is participating in South Dakota Gives, our state’s second statewide giving day! The fun kicks off at midnight on Giving Tuesday, December 3 and continues until 11:59 pm that night. What’s a Giving Day? It’s one day that non-profits can highlight their work, and donors across the […]
Alpha Zeta Mentoring Pair Event
Alpha Zeta Ag Event By: Josie Nelson, Marketing Intern 11/18/2019 On November 17th, 2019 Alpha Zeta, an SDSU greek organization that is an honorary fraternity for top students in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences, hosted an event for BCYMP Mentoring Pairs. The Mentoring Pairs had over 10 […]