If you’ve ever been interested in volunteering and helping out youth in the community, there has never been a better time as there’s a pressing need for Surrey Big Brothers.
According to the Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver (BBGV), this April marked three years since a new family was accepted in Surrey.
The number of those in need is particularly distressing. As a result, the non-profit is expanding its search for Surrey volunteers. One way they hope to address the need is by getting the word out via virtual volunteer information sessions each week of April, along with two in-person opportunities to learn more at the Surrey office and the Surrey Libraries Newton Branch.
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Surrey Big Brothers paused the family intake program three years ago due to a volunteer shortage.
Currently, 24 children in the Surrey Community Program are waiting to be matched with a Big Brother. Additionally, 74 families on the waitlist have yet to enter the volunteer-matching process.
To fill the gap, BBGV must recruit “75 new volunteers in Surrey to consider reopening their family intake and begin to reoffer the program to the fastest-growing community in the province.”
It’s not all bad news. Four Surrey children were matched in 2025.
“We’ve seen a steady increase of Surrey volunteer applications across all of our programs this year, but since we’ve seen an uptick for our Big Brothers Community Program, it has allowed us to move some families from our waitlist into our active wait pool to match children with a Big Brother volunteer,” said Rose Higgins, director of programs and operations at BBGV.
BBGV community program manager Navkiran Brar had some sobering words about the situation.
“Three years is a long time to wait to meet your Big Brother,” he said, adding, “It’s especially heartbreaking to see when families ultimately don’t find one for their child due to long wait times or by even ageing out of our program altogether.”
We previously wrote about the struggles in Surrey in January 2023, when Surrey stopped accepting new children. At that time, with the largest wait pool in the entire agency, 30 kids were waiting for a Big Brother.
The BBGV Eventbrite page has more information on how you can get involved.