Big Buddy Program

The Big Buddy Program is a youth-based service-learning and mentoring program at CUNY Queens College that is designed to foster an engaging learning and mentoring experience for college students and homeless children in an equity-based, empowering, and socially just context. As such, the goals and objectives of the program include mentoring, educating and empowering children who are experiencing homelessness.

The Big Buddy program was started by Arthur Salz, now a Professor Emeritus in Queens College’s Department of Elementary Education, in 1989. Big Buddy pairs a college student with a child who is homeless, and together they spend time throughout the academic year participating in a wide variety of mutually chosen educational, cultural and recreational activities. The program addresses both the related affective and cognitive needs of these children, by providing them with a mentor who serves as friend, educational and cultural guide, confidant and role model.

Youth who are experiencing urban homelessness in the Queens, NYC area can and do experience personal and academic disparities. A Big Buddy mentor builds positive, healthy relationships with a selected child, while results in improving children’s attitudes towards adults and school, and building personal self-esteem and self-confidence Consequently, for the youth involved in the program, participation not only leads to an improved personal attitude and outlook towards life; improvement in mental focus but also an increase in academic enrollment and graduation rates every year.

Furthermore, college students understand how to be an effective and inspiring mentor and gain experiential knowledge of working with educating children of diverse, socially disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, they also learn practical skills such as management, communication, and leadership, and they develop more cultural awareness from working with a diverse group of children, all of which help them when they move on to their respective careers

In 1989, there were 10,000 children living in homeless shelters. According to the 2020 statistics released by the New York Department of Homelessness, there are as many as 16,000 school aged children in homeless shelters on any given night. With so many homeless children in New York City, Big Buddy is more crucial than ever.