When 10-year-old Malory’s* mother passed away, she struggled to find her identity in her new family structure. She was separated from her siblings and placed under the guardianship of her grandmother—whom she calls “Mom”—but had a lack of age-appropriate positive female influences in her life. While Malory has older cousins, they had not been the best influences. She grew up exposed to family members dropping out of school, scraping by with minimal academic achievement and being left without supervision or strong parenting.
This cyclical pattern of poor lifestyle choices and the trauma she experienced in losing her mother resulted in Malory being diagnosed with mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) tendencies. But, after she spent time in therapy, Malory’s concerned grandmother brought her to Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Inland Empire in hopes of finding her a positive role model who could help her discover her dreams and achieve them.
In August 2015, Malory was matched with 27-year-old Emerald, a goal-oriented individual who has worked for the Air National Guard for the past seven years. Emerald shares that she grew up in a “normal” home with two parents and four younger siblings, and wanted to give back to her community in a meaningful way.
Emerald and Malory have been matched for more than six months and our match support specialists are already hearing about the big impact mentoring has had on Malory’s life: She is noticeably happier at home and has started to create new goals for herself with Emerald’s encouragement. She’s taken an interest in fashion and cosmetology, particularly runway fashion and special effects movie makeup, and on one outing they even visited a local mall to watch makeup artists work their magic on clients. Their outings are an opportunity for Malory to experience new things. Emerald has introduced Malory to different vegan foods as well as shared with her the importance of giving back to one’s community through volunteer opportunities they plan together. They’ve also attended two Fox Foundation’s Students at Broadway shows recently—”Forever Blonde” and “Bullets over Broadway”—using free tickets provided to Big Brothers Big Sisters by the Riverside Fox Foundation.
By being a consistent presence in her life, Emerald has established herself as a strong support system for Malory. Though Malory is still adapting to her current living environment and coping with the loss of her mother, Emerald has been someone she can open up to as she begins to develop a more positive outlook on her situation and her future.
To join Emerald in making a difference in a child’s life, visit iebigs.org/volunteer.
* Names changed for the safety and confidentiality of our clients
