Mentorship as a Pathway to Opportunity: A Conversation With Artis Stevens

Lisa Hamilton:

From the Annie E. Casey Foundation, I'm Lisa Hamilton and this is CaseyCast.

Today, we're thrilled to have a very special guest: Artis Stevens, President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Artis is a trailblazer in the nonprofit world. With more than 25 years of experience in youth development and empowerment. He brings a wealth of knowledge in nonprofit leadership, marketing and fundraising.

Artis has an inspiring personal story and a track record of transforming organizations. He's known for his innovative approaches to engaging youth, building partnerships and driving equity and inclusion.

Today, we'll be discussing Artis's vision for Big Brothers Big Sisters, the challenges facing America's youth and how mentorship can make a difference in young lives.

Artis, welcome to CaseyCast.

Artis Stevens:

Hey, Lisa. It's so great to be here and I'm telling you, after you read that bio, I'm feeling a lot better about myself this morning. Let me tell you. I need that every morning, my friend.

Lisa Hamilton:

You're an incredible leader, so we are so happy to have you on here. I know we're going to have a great conversation. Well, you are, as I said, an inspiring leader. I'd love to start the podcast with you telling folks about your background and your journey to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Artis Stevens:

Yeah, so I find it fascinating to talk about this because I always tell people that my journey to Big Brothers Big Sisters started almost like at birth. I know that sounds like wild to hear. I'm a PK, so I'm a preacher's kid. My dad was a preacher, my granddad was a preacher, and they were always focused on community and community empowerment and youth empowerment.

So when I say that, I grew up with this natural sense of feeling of seeing leaders right there in front of me every single day of my life who were committed to community and who were committed to young people in their empowerment. And I think something that really sticks out to me is that when you look across my family, where I'm the youngest in a large family, we grew up with about eight of us in the household. A lot of pass-me-downs, I'll put it that way.

Lisa Hamilton:

What number were you Artis?

Artis Stevens:

I was the youngest. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it was fun. It was interesting growing up that way and I got a lot of youth development that way too, Lisa. Here's what I recall. And so there's been my calling part in my principal throughout my life is that I went to my dad and I was 7 years old at the time because everyone was saying, "Hey, you're going to be a preacher like your dad." And I remember going to him, I said, "Hey, everybody said I'm going to be a preacher just like you. Is that true?"

And I'll never forget what he told me, he said, "Everyone has their ministry in this world. You got to find yours."

And I will tell you, Lisa, it was freeing. It was empowering. It helped me to get in this place of knowing that I wasn't defined by my generational expectation, if you will, how much money we had, where I grew up. It was this idea that I could order my own steps. And when I started to go off and start to order my own stuff, even at a young age, the one thing that was always by me, the one thing that was always connected to me was this sense of mentorship. People that were guides for me, people that were connectors for me, people that were challengers in my life that helped to pick me up, that helped to move me in one direction, that gave me sound advice that were friends. Some of them were in my family, some of them were outside of my family, but it was always that guiding principle.

So from one step to the next, whether it was the first of my family to go to college and graduate, right? Go Dawgs by the way, football season. Whether it was graduating from college and thinking I was going to law school, but meeting a mentor who I didn't expect to become a mentor and taking me to a community in my hometown and said, "Hey, what did I know about this public housing playground?" And I said, "I grew up in it and I played it when I was a kid." And he said, "I could always go to law school, but I can always come home and change my community." And starting my career there, and over the next 25 years, the one thing that had always been constant had been the determination and the focus of what my dad told me about my ministry, and then this idea of mentors being there every step of the way.

So I've had the opportunity to be exposed and empowered to youth development organizations, youth empowerment organizations all my life. And I found my ministry in empowering young people to change the world. That's what I believe of why I'm here, what my purpose is, and to bring this story all the way around to full circle. It was the pandemic year. It was going into from 2020 to 2021. And I remember there was everything that was happening of course, and all the stuff we were going through, social unrest, but it was a name for me that really registered and resonated with me more than any other. And it was Ahmaud Arbery.

At least I'm sure you know that story like most of the listeners here. He was murdered on the streets of Brunswick, Georgia. Brunswick, Georgia is my hometown. That's where I grew up. The street he was murdered on I walked on many times as a kid. We all know each other, so know people in his family. But what it made me realize was not that I wasn't following my ministry like my dad had shared, but it made me think about was I doing enough? Was I doing everything that I was intended to do? And it made me think and consider that even more. And I didn't know what the answer was at the time, quite honestly. What I knew was that there was purpose, there was additional purpose that I was intended and I felt like I was meant to do in my life. And about three weeks later is when Big Brothers Big Sisters reached out.

Lisa Hamilton:

That is a phenomenal story and an inspiration to others who are trying to figure out what their gift is, what their purpose is in life. My father was a criminal defense attorney. My mother was a French teacher, and I never thought that I would do things that they do. But I now realize as I was trying to find my purpose, it was to protect people and to provide opportunity for people.

And I knew there was something more than practicing tax law in my journey, and that's what brought me to philanthropy. So thank you for talking about how you were ordered and inspired to do this work and you are truly living in your purpose, and it is beautiful to see that.

Well, you lead an organization that has such a unique window into the lives of millions of young people, and we all hear the challenges that young people are experiencing today. From your perspective and from your organization's perspective, what are some of the common challenges you see America's youth struggling with, and how is Big Brothers Big Sisters uniquely positioned to help respond to those issues?

Artis Stevens:

Yeah. These are challenges, of course, that very well and many of your listeners will know incredibly well. I always start with the place of poverty and young people growing up either in or near poverty and the effect that it has on their lives and the effect that it has on a sense of opportunity to be able to thrive in their lives and thrive in this country. And that's something that we see very clearly in the work that we do every day because over 55% of the young people that we serve live either in or near poverty.

And what we've seen is that isolation has grown even more when it comes to those who have and those who don't have. We also see that it has this ripple effect in other ways as we think about things of mental health and trauma or when we think about the young people who are facing the justice system, in many cases unfairly.

And that's why we were started as an organization, as an alternative innovation to the juvenile justice system 120 years ago. And when you look at what's happening in young people today, I keep coming back to a core and central tenant: talent is everywhere in this country, opportunity is not. So the focus that you see, the idea of what we talk about from the standpoint of mentorship is absolutely the relationships that are important in young people's lives, but also understand those relationships have meaning and they have value. They give access, right? They give access, they give connection, and they give belonging to young people.

So if you think about even during the pandemic, which was nothing but an extension of the challenges that young people that we serve was facing for years. It wasn't just a pandemic. Pandemic did nothing but accelerate it.

Lisa Hamilton:

Layered on top of existing challenges, right?

Artis Stevens:

Exactly right. So when you think about that and we saw like 20% of the kids that we serve said that they lost contact with a positive adult in their life. Lost complete contact. So you think about that level of isolation of what young people are facing. You think about what we also saw what was happening was young people were getting to a place of graduation and matriculating in school and then asking the question to us, "What was next?" They didn't know how to take that next step in life or how to fill out a FAFSA form or how do you interview for that next step?

So there was these core skills that were also being exasperated because kids were not getting some of the skills you would get in terms of social interaction, being out daily in life, being in an isolated place were deteriorating a lot of the skill sets and confidence and self-esteem that young people have. I say all that to say that it all sets the context that today in our country you have about 10 million kids who don't have access to a positive sustained mentor in their life.

Lisa Hamilton:

That is powerful. And you've already started answering the next question I had.

You talked about opportunity and access. Are there other things you'd highlight about what makes these mentoring relationships so important in their lives?

Artis Stevens:

Yeah, they're foundational from a relationship standpoint, but we know it's also the empirical data and research that shows how this works. So if you think about mentorship and things that we've even been able to study, improve out in longitudinal studies through research, and of course through antidote as well, but 54% of the young people that we serve are less likely to have contact or any type of influence or connection to the juvenile justice system. So less in young people going into any types of court systems, of course, prison, et cetera. And that's so important, when we also know that the young people that we serve, about more than 25% of the young people have a parent or guardian that's been in the justice system, has been impacted by the justice system. So, when you talk about generational things, one thing that we are really centered on, in terms of mentorship, is the power to break generational cycles of things that young people in our communities typically face. So, the more our mentorship is about breaking generational cycles, the more that we know that we're being successful in ways like that.

We also know though that from a career perspective, we're seeing some positive things in terms of how young people matriculate through school and then readiness for life. So about 90% of the young people that we serve are on path to graduate. So we know that mentoring works for graduation, for access to graduation, but also positive choices outside of graduation.

In many cases that means going to college. But what we are focused even more on is the idea of what's the right choice for you. For some kids that's going to college, for some kids, that's going straight into career and making great decisions and choices in that way. For others, that's entrepreneurship. For others, could be military. But what we know is as important that young people have the types of mentors in their lives who can help to guide them and support where they're going and the direction that they're going.

And then the other thing that I'll say that's been really important for our work is around the sense of connection and belonging. And particularly as it relates to emotional well-being and mental health and the surgeon general just talked about this here recently about the youth mental health epidemic. And it's been a place for us that we've looked at a lot, not in the sense that we're mental health experts, but in the sense that we know that having supportive ecosystems around young people are critical mental health supports to how we think about the work in terms of providing them supportive relationships, encouraging their own self-esteem, ensuring that they feel more connected to their peers, to their community, to themselves, and being able to make positive decisions and positive choices in life.

Lisa Hamilton:

I mean, what an important testament to the power of mentoring. I mean, you talked about identity formation and belonging, how young people know they matter, of keeping them on track educationally of helping them make important choices, not just about their careers, but likely also about things like substance use, things that really can derail their lives, keeping them out of the criminal justice system.

Any one of those alone would be worth the investment in mentoring. When you compound those together, it really is a powerful solution and intervention in lives.

I bet every one of my listeners has heard of Big Brothers Big Sisters. You’re one of the best brands in the business, but could you describe what the typical mentoring relationship looks like? How does it begin? How long do they last? What do these relationships mean to the individuals who get to experience them, both the adult and the young person?

Artis Stevens:

So how I always explain it is essentially imagine someone wants to get involved to do good and to make an impact in the young person's life. So they raise their hand to do that. What Big Brothers Big Sisters does is help to facilitate that connection and to make that connection powerful and impactful in a young person's life, and then make it powerful and impactful in the volunteer's life as well. And we do that through a very intentional approach. So when you come to get what we call this match, so there's a Big and a Little, right? So the Big is the adult, the Little is the young person.

Typically what happens is someone will come through our process and then there's a screening process. And that screening process is one, to make sure that that match is intentional, it's thoughtful, it's connected, and you get matched with a young person who's the right connection and match for you and vice versa, that the young person gets connected with a volunteer who's the right match for them and for their family. The family and the parent is always involved. So you're not becoming substitute parent and they're not looking for a parent, they're looking for friends. So it's a friend partnership and then the family is connected into that.

What makes us unique and special is that we do it one, through a proven approach that's been tailored for over 100 years. It's empirical. So it's outcome-based. It is very thoughtful in the way that we match. It's always safe and secure. So that's a principle. So it has to be safe for the young person, has to be safe for you, and it is supported by professional staff.

So we match you, but we don't just match you, we stay with you. So we have what we call match support specialists that stay with you. What are the outcomes of that? So when you have your first connection with the young person, you both sit down and you come up with a plan, and it's not just your plan. The young person designs their own plan. We call it a youth development plan that they go sit down and say, "Hey, here's what I want the relationship, here's what I want to do." And then what's special is then you all start to meet. Typically, they're two times a month, they're about an hour each meeting. The Bigs typically want to do more when they get involved. Typically, the minimum requirement is a year.

Here's what we found: Formally in our program, matches last about three and a half years formally in our program. Now, in reality, matches last for a lifetime. So I can tell you countless stories, Lisa, and then we got 20 million alumni, by the way, who are out there who can tell you the same story of Bigs and Littles who start when the Little was maybe seven years old in our program. And then the Little grows up and gets married and the Big is in the Little's wedding. I mean, it's all of these generational Bigs and Littles. So one Big who has a Little, and then the Little then grows up, has their own Little, then the next Little grows up and then you see these four people in a picture all together from a generational match. It is life. It is that type of family, that type of extended family.

Lisa Hamilton:

You just made me think about a young woman that I mentored when I was in law school. I hate to admit that was more than 30 years ago, but about a year ago, we had been in contact periodically, she reached out and she had a baby when she was young, and the baby is now 20-plus years old and has a child.

And so your point that these relationships last a lifetime. That is beautiful to hear. How many matches do you have going at any one time? There are obviously millions of young people who need the support in their lives, but how many Bigs and Littles do you have in the country at this point?

Artis Stevens:

Yeah, about 400,000. We serve 6 million kids over our history. But here's the thing, and I always tell people this, we have about 30,000 kids on our waiting list. So even though we have these incredible relationships and these incredible matches, we have about 30,000 kids who are waiting for a mentor. Most of those young people are boys who are waiting because their family and the young people want a male as a role model, as a friend, as a connector.

And then one other thing I will say, as we talk about that 400,000 matches and young people and families that we have connected, what's critically important as we look at what's happening today in our country, and particularly when you talk about polarization and it's not a political statement, this is a reality that our country is so polarized, it's probably more polarized than you can think about ever in terms of sometimes where people stand and where they see the world.

What I really appreciate about what mentorship does is that it brings people from different backgrounds, experiences, economic levels together and connects families. And that's what we see in our mentorship program. So most of our mentorship connections and relationships are from different economic backgrounds, and we bring people together from economic backgrounds, from a different ethnic and racial backgrounds together. But what we're seeing in this incredible, and what I call again, magical recipe, is that it's this ability to bring not just that match, not just the Big and Little, but when you bring the Big and Little together, you also bring-families, friendship networks, right? Access for young people to be able to go for... If I only saw my six blocks in my community, now I'm seeing much more in the world.

If I was this person on one side who maybe not had access to what my community really looked like, now I'm seeing what it really looks like and it allows me to become more open, much more engaged in this process of really thinking about, "Hey, how do I make a difference?" But what my role in society is? And that's just something I just wanted to add. I think it's so important with what's happening today in our country.

Lisa Hamilton:

When you talk about polarization, maybe no issue has been more polarizing in recent years than equity and inclusion. You and I both know the data and know how important it is that we make sure that everybody in society has a pathway forward and opportunity and safety and wellness. Could you talk about how Big Brothers Big Sisters promotes equity and inclusion in its work?

Artis Stevens:

Yeah. The first place we started is our values. And our values start from our why and our purpose as a mission and our organization. As I shared earlier, we were a mission that was founded as an alternative innovation to the juvenile justice system. So justice was always core into our work and in the empowerment of our work and empowering young people. And it was always with the intention because the young people that we needed to serve was the young people who didn't have, who were outside of where everyday communities were getting access and getting connections. So there was a sense of equity that was embedded into the purpose and the reason of our organization and the way that we did it was through delivering relationships through diverse communities. And that's how we grew from different religious communities, from different economic backgrounds. But it was this diverse ecosystem who all came together to say, how do we provide the supportive system for young people so that they felt included for opportunity and better life, right?

Justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, that's our history, that's our thread.

So that's why we see that through the lens of a JEDI-focused youth empowerment organization, not because it's a headline, not because it's the right thing to say or right thing to do at the moment of the time, but it is innately who we are as a mission and as an organization.

And then if you fast-forward 120 years later, the way we operate is through that lens. So we start with our programs being programs that are really about access and belonging and ensuring that at the seam of our program, we're thinking about how we serve a variety of populations. We cater to young people, we cater to their needs and to the communities, and that our adults, meaning our staff and our volunteers are all trained to understand that. So before you get engaged in Big Brothers Big Sisters in any way, you go through the right coaching, the right training, the right support, so that you are empowered to have that type of lens and a level of inclusivity in the way that we think about how we build relationships with young people as well.

And that's critically important, particularly as we get volunteers from all various backgrounds that come into our community that we have a strong value set.

I'll also say it starts with leadership. And leadership at every level. So there is a key to being representative to what our communities and what our country look like, and we believe very strongly in that in Big Brothers Big Sisters.

I was the first Black CEO. I think that's made headlines that I was first Black CEO of this organization. And I've said many times, I'm the first, but I won't be the last, right? And my goal and my role, my responsibility is that from every level of our organization, that it feels reflective of the communities that we're serving. It's representative of the communities we serve.

It has the type of outlook to be inclusive, open-minded, belonging and connected to the communities that we serve. So I'm proud of when I look around Big Brothers Big Sisters, the increase that we done in terms of BIPOC communities and leadership positions in our organizations across our boards, the increase that we've seen in women that's leading our organizations and leading in our boards as well in our boardrooms, the focus on one of the most robust and progressive programs to reaching the LGBTQ community because we know that as we serve and open our doors more to this community in terms of relationships, we have greater connections of bringing Bigs who can identify with the kids and the young people that we're serving, and to be able to connect them.

And by the way, 50% of the young people that we serve in LGBTQ communities have come out to their Big and haven't come out to their parent.

Lisa Hamilton:

Wow, what a safe space. You're creating an important safe space for them. Yeah.

Artis Stevens:

That's right, Lisa. And that's the idea. The idea is not to say, "Hey, we got to form some perfect society here," but the idea is that we have to bring both the things we do well, but also our imperfections. And that's the way we come into this conversation. When we talk about inclusivity, it's bringing people as they are and saying, as a mentor, we don't expect you to be perfect, but what we do expect for you to be is present.

And being present in a young person's life means bringing your best, means showing up, means being intentional and being open to the idea of somebody who may be different than you and bring it in and say, "Well, where are our commonalities? What are the things that challenge us? Can we talk about it? And can we get to resolution in terms of helping young people in this world to thrive?"

And that's when I talk about this organization is a big tent. We're big tent to bring in people from various backgrounds to do one common thing, and that's to provide the most powerful, transformative relationships that help young people thrive so that our communities and our country and our world can thrive as well.

Lisa Hamilton:

That is beautiful. That is how you operationalize equity and inclusion to your point. It's not a statement. It is really living those values and it's obvious that you are leading Big Brothers Big Sisters to do that in every facet of its work.

Which leads me to ask you about you as a leader. You have been involved with many youth organizations, but you're an incredible leader at the pinnacle of nonprofit leadership. What advice would you give to other leaders either who are in your role, know that I'm listening to, but others who might aspire to hold a role like yours?

Artis Stevens:

Yeah. This is a great question because it really makes me think about the journey. I have to say very straightforwardly that I wasn't like, "Oh man, I wanted to become a CEO." That just didn't register for me. It wasn't my ambition. It wasn't, "Oh, I'm going to become a CEO." I felt like what my ambition was is that I wanted to lead. I did know that. Whatever I wanted to do, I wanted to be the best at it, and I wanted to lead, and I wanted to lead in a way that I thought was purposeful, that I thought was meaningful.

But what I will tell for those of you who are listening, where I really feel, and I mentioned some of this where I really felt like I was really intentional because I got great advice from great people, was one. Understanding mentorship. I know we're talking about mentorship as an organization, but I'm talking about personal mentorship; understanding the role of mentorship in your life, meaning to connect with people to learn and both receive mentorship and give mentorship. That is a two-way street. And that the idea of having a mentor is not someone you just sit at the feet at and just take the quiz from.

Lisa Hamilton:

Yeah, it just trickles down to you.

Artis Stevens:

Exactly. Mentorship is really a reciprocal relationship, and when you come into a mentoring relationship, you should expect to give as much as you receive

You always start with values, meaning authenticity. What core is what connects you. Then value then is extended from that because you see, "Hey, I want to help this person, I want this person to help me." And then vice versa. They want to do more in terms of supporting who you are and what you're trying to accomplish.

The other thing I will say is remember the follow and I gave you the story about my dad. For me, it started at a very early age. No matter what age it starts for you... And for those of you who may listen and maybe like, "I don't know what it is for me." It's okay, and feel okay, feel sometimes that it's okay to not be okay, right? And not that I got it, not that man, I don't know what it is for me. Sometimes I feel challenged. We all feel challenged. We all feel the terms of imposter syndrome, the lack of confidence in stages, but know who that rooted and who you are that you wouldn't be where you are if you hadn't worked as hard, you hadn't focused and done the things you need to do.

But it's also a place for you to be able to recognize and embrace the growth that you can have and the people that help you to get there are part of why mentorship to me is so critically important in the agenda of thinking about that. And then the last thing I'll is... Well, two last things. One is failure. I truly believe failure is learning, right? Failure... And I know this is a term. What? Failing forward?

Lisa Hamilton:

Uh-huh.

Artis Stevens:

Yeah. But failure is learning. It's all approach. Failure's approach. And it's like when... Sports is probably the best at this, right? That the idea of when you lose is losing learning, is the idea of losing in sport, learning when you don't get something or you don't arrive, do you learn and become better? Do you figure out, "Okay, this is what I have to do to enhance my skills and my ability that you're trying to really sink in everything that you can learn?" And that's been one of the things that I was taught and I try to do as much as a leader is the constant learning loop from failure, from losing.

And listen, I missed the shot more than I make it, but I learn and I adjust and I adapt as I go along. And I would say stretch and do the things that no one else wants to do.

The way that I actually learn how to manage a board is because I start... And this is for anybody who wants to be a CEO, right? You got to know how to manage a board. You got to know how to manage a budget. There are things you got to understand. You may see the sexiness of CEOs meaning being in front, but it's the backend stuff that typically differentiates people from folks who get the job from folks who don't, right? So there's the financial and the business acumen. There's the how do you manage a board. There's how do you think about talent and talent deployment, retention and support, those aspects, but it's also doing the things that people would necessarily not want to do.

So when so many people didn't want to do all the board book work and put together all the different things, and it was all administrative and maintenance, I raised my hand because I understood if I could understand and get into those conversations and be into those circles, I was going to be looped into learning things that I had no idea about.

Lisa Hamilton:

No access to. Right.

Artis Stevens:

Exactly. And you don't necessarily get access to unless you find your way in. So sometimes you got to do the things that no one else wants to do so that you can get ahead and you can get the type of opportunities because you got it on the ground level and you did the work. And I promise you, this will be the last thing.

Lisa Hamilton:

These are pearls of wisdom. We'll take them all.

Artis Stevens:

The last thing is as you go on your journey, don't forget about self.

Don't forget about the things that make you who are. Don't forget about having the balance that you need in your life, in terms of finding space and time for you, finding space and time for your family. My wife and my two girls are the center of my world. What I believe in is that my job and my wife and my kids are not disconnected. They're part of that journey just as much as my purpose is part of my family and my life. Now, I don't like, "Hey, I'm going to be here. I'm going to be working and doing all kinds of things when I'm doing something with my kids." But what I try to make sure I'm doing is being intentional with my family, being integrated into the purpose work. So yes, at my national conference, my wife is up on the stage. My two daughters were just up on the stage.

One did a big poem and read poetry on stage. One announced... She's big into fashion, so she announced the fashion collection for Big Brothers Big Sisters. They're all connected in this journey because for me to stay balanced into who I am and what I do, my family is important to be connected into that because that's my journey. And it won't be anything to in terms of worth of having this journey if my family is not connected.

And then every single day that I get up, and this is the last thing I'll share with your audience on this, is every day I get up, we do the same thing before my kids go off to school. And I encourage your listeners, whatever it is for them, but it's ritualistic. So, each morning we have a family motto. It's “Be smart, be strong, be kind and be you.”

And the whole idea of that, that I always tell people and me, and my wife try to impart upon our girls each day before they go out to school is be smart means yes, academically, but good decisions, being strong, yes, physically, but it's really about the idea of character. The idea of being kind is yes, being kind to those who are around you to this world, but also being kind to yourself. Because when you show the sense of self-kindness, hopefully that's going to ensue to the type of kindness and empathy you show to the world. And being you is always being your true, authentic self and not having to apologize for who you are and what you bring to this world.

Lisa Hamilton:

I'm going to close by asking you what your vision is for Big Brothers Big Sisters. You have already accomplished so much. What is the next mountain you'd like to climb with the organization, with your team?

Artis Stevens:

Yeah, no, that's a great question. Thank you. Growth. I'll put it that way and I'll break it down this way. As I mentioned to you earlier, 10 million kids in this country. And here's what I know about serving 10 million kids in this country. We can't do it alone. This is not a Big Brothers Big Sisters goal for me and an ambitious goal for me, it is a Big Brothers Big Sisters approach in terms of how we think about partnering with other like-minded partners and organizations like yourself, like other youth organizations out there who have the same type of values and are looking for solutions. How do we bring our solutions together and build those solutions so that we can affect both the way that we serve young people even more assertively, but also how we think about policy in this country is something that we are very intentional and thoughtful about.

And we're doing a lot of work in DC and state houses across the country to influence policy to get more investment in mentorship programs and youth programs across the country. We're seeing innovation. So one of the biggest innovation aspects we're doing today is with schools and going in schools, and it's embedded mentors in the school program where schools, and one of the pilot and innovation sites we have is in Atlanta where I live, where we have Atlanta Public Schools, DeKalb County Public Schools, and other school systems who are paying us to come into and be side by side with teachers during the school day. So they're paid mentors who are providing mentorship support. And what are we seeing?

Reducing absenteeism, reducing truancy, seeing support and better behavior in school because that's what teachers need as a solution. My goal is to ensure that people see the work that we're doing is not just as charity, but as a solution. Because when they see it as a solution, it becomes a value add and a value opportunity for benefit. So yes, our fastest growing population that we're serving today is 18 to 25 young adults. A lot of people don't know that.

Lisa Hamilton:

Wow. Please say more about that.

Artis Stevens:

So, we traditionally serve ages 5 to 18. That's been our core. It'll always be our core. We're never going to change our core. Most of the kids we serve actually are 13 and older. So we're one of those organizations that tend to serve kids who are older on the spectrum, more so than younger, but we know that there's sort of a spectrum of what they need in terms of being ready for life, being ready for careers.

But I had mentioned to you about the pandemic, and one thing that happened during the pandemic when kids were raising their hand and saying, "We don't know what to do next." Our agencies, our local affiliates had to respond. And the way that we responded was by building our career mentorship programs. So we're now staying with young people after high school.

And because we did that, now we have much more intensive career mentoring programs. It's much more focused on college readiness, much more focused on financial education and engagement, how you think about the job interview, internships, scholarships, but building a portfolio. And then we're saying, "Hey, listen, Big Brothers Big Sisters is in the hub," but what if the magic was organizations like Junior Achievement? What if the magic was organizations like Jobs for the Future who bring in specialized support that we can now bring in ecosystem around young people's lives and say we can be the catalyst, we can be the framing because we have this access to young people, but what if we were able to build it out with partners who brought other types of expertise to help these young people to be able to fill out FAFSAs more effectively? We just met with Department of Education, and one of the conversations we were having was around career advisement in school and the critical need for that where they have a lack and there's a white space.

Well, what if Big Brothers Big Sisters as a mentoring organization was able to bring in much more expertise in terms of mentorship and career advisement, bringing people into schools, which we do, and bringing adults into schools to be able to talk with young people, meet with them, regular connection; that's being a solution. So then when we think about how we invest, how we get investment from different entities, government, foundations, companies and corporations, we're coming to them as a solution.

Lisa Hamilton:

That is a powerful and exciting vision that you may know at Casey. We've got an effort called Thrive by 25, which is focused on youth and young adults, and everything you said is about what we believe our country ought to be thinking more deeply about. And you have put forth a beautiful and powerful vision for that. So thank you for sharing that. And thank you so much for talking with us today, Artis. You have been just food for our soul. It has been great to have you on CaseyCast.

Artis Stevens:

Well, I just want to say to you, I am so proud of what your leadership, Lisa, and what Annie E. Casey has been to all of us in this field for years and years. And I think you have just taken this organization and you continue to lead it, to be innovative, to be thoughtful, to be intentional, to challenge us in our field, to be stronger and to be better.

So thank you for giving space and opportunity and platforms like this to be able to tell the story even much broader.

Lisa Hamilton:

Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much for that.

And thank you to our listeners as well. If you liked our conversation, please recommend us on your favorite podcasting app. To learn more about Casey and the work of our guest, check out our show notes at AECF.org/podcast.

Until next time, I wish all of America's kids and all of you a bright future.