Big Brothers Big Sisters developed the Beyond School Walls program in 2008 as a way to partner at-risk students with corporate leaders in the workplace. Generally, students from Sto-Rox High/Jr. School have visited employee volunteers at our Comcast offices in Pittsburgh every other week throughout the school year since then, developing mentoring relationships through lunchtime conversations and group activities. The Sto-Rox partnership includes 22 students and 26 Comcast volunteers.
Comcast volunteers have remained committed to their Littles even as the pandemic has sent them home to work and learn. In addition to exchanging notes and video check-ins, the Comcast Bigs participated in their first group video meeting on Friday to play a trivia-style game with their Littles. “The Bigs and Littles were very excited to be back together,” said Jan Glick, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh. “Videoconferencing is how all of us are keeping connected right now to important relationships at school, work, and with mentors.”
In addition to supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh, Comcast is committed to at-risk students’ access to broadband through our Internet Essentials program, the nation’s largest, most comprehensive and most successful broadband adoption program for low-income Americans. For more on steps, we’re taking to make it easier to connect low-income families to home Internet during this time, go to https://www.internetessentials.com/covid19.
