Editors note: The following article was submitted by Robin Myer, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Western North Carolina.

With a new year comes renewed hope for the future, as individuals, families, communities and as a nation. The timing could not be better to Start Something to make a difference.

As communities face limited resources to bolster key components of youth success funding for schools, better training for teachers and more involvement from parents research points to something known to work, at least as part of the solution quality mentoring.

Long-standing independent studies find children enrolled in Big Brothers Big Sisters long-term mentoring programs are more likely than their peers to earn higher grades and are less likely to skip classes and school days, factors linked to high school graduation.

The same studies find children in these long-term quality mentoring programs are also more likely than their peers to avoid violent and unhealthy behaviors and more likely to have positive relationships with their parents and others.

A Harris Interactive Study of adult Little Brothers and Little Sisters found:

90 percent said having a Big helped them to make better choices in life;

62 percent reported achieving a higher level of success than youth not involved in BBBS;

81 percent said their Big helped to change their perspective of their future.

Mentors give youth a boost with confidence, social skills and decision-making skills – to set goals and reach them.

This month, is the 10th anniversary of National Mentoring Month. Big Brothers Big Sisters is urging adults to Start Something to help kids succeed in and out of school.

For more information on how you can help, go to www.bbbswnc.org or call 828-859-9230 to speak to someone at the local Big Brothers Big Sisters serving Polk County and Landrum children.