AUBURN – The Child Health Center’s Big Brothers Big Sisters of Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties held kick-off breakfasts for the new career-development mentoring program recently.

Local businesses, organizations, churches, municipalities and other community members joined to hear John Jenkins, guest speaker, and to learn more about the new program. After breakfast, volunteers received mentor training from the Child Health Center’s Big Brothers Big Sisters staff.

The program has been brought to the communities through a partnership grant with the U.S. Department of Labor, Maine Mentoring Partnership, His Place Teen Center of Oxford and the Child Health Center’s Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The funds will allow Big Brothers and Big Sisters to provide career-development mentoring to older youth in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties as part of the Child Health Center’s youth development program.

The Career Development Mentoring Program coordinators will screen and interview mentors using practices put forth by the National Big Brothers Big Sisters program. Mentees are matched with mentors based on career and personal interests.

The adult mentors will meet with their mentee, who ranges in age from 16 to 24, a minimum of four hours a month, building a friendship and working on career development for the youth.

As it is a career development program, mentors may take their mentee to their workplace, home, local career center, library or other places in the community. Mentoring coordinators from the Child Health Center’s Big Brothers Big Sisters will supervise matches by maintaining contact with the mentor, mentee and the mentee’s parents if the mentee is under 18.

For more information, call the center’s mentoring coordinator, Nancy Carpenter, at 562-5193 or 743-7035, send an e-mail to nancarp@megalink.net or contact His Place Teen Center Director Bert Rugg at 743-9305.