City employees to participate in Big Brothers Big Sisters

Every year, City Manager Jeff Downes asks city employees to donate to a cause with an impact outside the Vestavia Hills city limits, such as the United Way. This November, however, Downes asked if employees would be willing to donate their time as well.

“We also talk about how we can make a difference in the Greater Birmingham community,” Downes said. “[We want to] set the standard that we’re more than just about ourselves. We’re about others as well.”

Twenty-five city employees have stepped up to start a Big Brothers Big Sisters program of their own in 2016. Downes said Vestavia Hills is the first municipality in the Birmingham area to have an on-site program like this.

“I’ve had a great bit of enthusiasm from the employees who volunteered,” Downes said.

The 25 employees will be screened and matched with middle school students from Birmingham City Schools in early 2016. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Birmingham will transport the “Littles” to Vestavia City Hall to meet with their big brothers and sisters for an hour twice a month and for planned activities.

Downes has been a participant in the program since 1990, and he still keeps in contact with the first child he mentored, who now has a wife and two children of his own. He said the employees who participate will benefit as much as the children they mentor.

“As much as you give of yourself… in return the self-fulfillment, the good feeling and the sense of accomplishment is returned to you in blessings as well. So I think it’s a two-way street,” Downes said.

Vestavia Hills is committed to work with the program through the 2016-17 school year, but Downes said he hopes the on-site program will continue after that.

“I would like to continue it for the long haul,” Downes said. “I think it sends a message that we in the city of Vestavia Hills … care about others.”