On Wednesday, July 13, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Heart of Georgia and Macon-Bibb County will hold a joint news conference to announce the 70 in 70 Campaign, an effort to recruit new mentors to the program and work with other organizations on starting their own mentor programs. Training and support for the new mentors and organizations will be funded by a recently announced Macon Violence Prevention (MVP) grant.

The announcement and details on how to be a mentor will be on at 10:30 a.m. in Commission Chambersat Macon City Hall (700 Poplar Street) and will be broadcast live at www.facebook.com/BBBSHGA.

“We are honored to work alongside a multitude of diverse organizations and individuals who are passionate about the safety and quality of life of our community,” says Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Heart of Georgia President & CEO Betsy Fitzgerald. “Together, we will be successful at addressing Macon’s challenges and make Macon a great place to live, work, and flourish.

In June, Big Brothers Big Sisters was announced as the recipient of a $50,000 MVP grant to help reduce violence in our community. It was one of more than 20 organization selected for the first round of grants. With its grant, Big Brothers Big Sisters will help organizations that may not have the experience, staffing, funding, safety measures, data collection, or wherewithal to have their own standalone youth mentoring program by collaborating with them and providing the backbone of these fundamentals to ignite their own grassroots youth service programs at no charge to them.