Blueprints
Model Programs
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBS)
Program
Background
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Big Sisters
activity was initiated in 1902, when a group
of women in New York City began befriending
girls who came before the New York Children's
Court. Known then as the Ladies of Charity,
the group later became Catholic Big Sisters
of New York. A story in the New York Times in
1902 reported that a judge of the New York Children's
Court secured promises from a group of influential
men that each one would befriend one boy who
had been before his court. His activity could
have influenced a member of his court, Clerk
Ernest K. Coulter, who is credited with founding
the organized Big Brothers Movement in 1904.
A Cincinnati businessman, Irvin F. Westheimer,
and a member of a closely knit, charity-minded
Jewish community, urged his friends and business
associates to befriend troubled and disadvantaged
youths, which eventually led to the organization
of a Big Brothers agency in Cincinnati in 1910.
Before World War I, the Big
Brothers and Big Sisters Movement was characterized
by many forms of organization, under a variety
of sponsors, utilizing a number of approaches.
But all of the efforts were united by a single
spirit—a desire to help children, generally
from one-parent homes, whose moral, mental,
and physical development was endangered by their
environments and backgrounds.
By 1922, "standards"
(i.e., basic requirements) were created and
adopted. These early standards addressed the
one-to-one relationship as a volunteer's individual
and personal effort in behalf of children, and
asserted the need for an agency to manage its
affairs in a professional manner. By the early
1930s, the standards had become more stringent
in setting forth minimum requirements for operation
at the local level.
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In the mid-1930s, the Great Depression
affected the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Federation,
and by 1937 the national office closed its doors,
while local agencies continued to operate. Following
World War II, a new federation was established only
for Big Brothers agencies. Out of a conviction that
women could help meet the needs of girls, Big Sisters
International was created by the Big Sisters agencies
then operating in 1970. In 1977, Big Sisters International
and Big Brothers of America merged to become Big Brothers
Big Sisters of America (BBBSA).
Efforts focused on the development and piloting of
a set of Standards and Required Procedures for One-To-One
Service (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 1986;
as amended, 1996), which were adopted in 1986. This
consists of corporate management and program management
standards, with each standard having a set of required
procedures that were deemed necessary to fulfill each
standard. Compliance with these standards and required
procedures became the hallmark of an effective Big
Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) agency and the basis for
building a consistent one-to-one service of over 500
BBBS agencies across all 50 states. A description
of manuals published by BBBSA can be found in Appendix
B.
During more than 85 years of national organizational
development and localized service delivery, the word
"mentoring" was not a part of the movement's
nomenclature. In fact, it was not until the late 1980s,
when funders and researchers determined that mentoring
may be a promising approach for children at-risk,
that the word mentoring found its way into the BBBSA's
rhetoric for describing their service. There was a
strong inclination on the part of local BBBS agencies,
however, to not confuse BBBSA's systematic and structured
volunteer approach with the more loosely fashioned
mentoring programs that were being developed. Mentoring
has various definitions, depending on the emphasis
that a particular community youth program has as its
goal. "Mentoring" is often used interchangeably
with "tutoring," and sometimes, with the
goal of apprenticeship. Mentoring tends to be an add-on
to programs that have very specific goals and objectives,
with mentoring being seen as only one of many ingredients.
Historically, mentoring has had a helping-to-learn
aspect to it; for example, an older person guiding
a younger person, usually around some prescribed activity
or aspect of life. Big Brothers Big Sisters work,
however, focuses on friendship as the primary aspect
of the relationship, which should lead to a feeling
of trust over time, and which then may lead to some
aspects of learning, regardless of the subject or
behavior. But the relationship—the trust, the
mutually shared experiences of everyday life—is
the essense of the service. While the word mentoring
is now used, for the most part, interchangeably with
Big Brothers Big Sisters, BBBSA's emphasis continues
to be on the quality of the relationship between the
volunteer and the child, and not on a set of prescribed
activities.
Theoretical Rationale/Conceptual
Framework
Although BBBSA was not developed with academic theories
of delinquency in mind, the project's rationale most
closely resembles social control theory. According
to this perspective, attachments to prosocial others,
commitment to socially appropriate goals, and involvement
in conventional activities restrain youth from engaging
in delinquent activities or other problem behaviors,
because more socially bonded youth have more to lose
by misbehavior.
The rationale that has guided BBBSA service for nearly
a century has been that the consistent presence of
a non-familial caring adult can make a difference
in the social/emotional development of a child or
young person, particularly one growing up in a single
parent family or in an adverse situation. Over the
years the development of the BBBS service has been
based on the overriding belief that a consistent and
frequent volunteer contact is a powerful influence.
This belief has been based, predominantly, on anecdotal
reports from parents, teachers, case managers, and
children themselves.
The most relevant research to date has come from
the resiliency studies carried out by researchers
such as Emmy Werner, and others, under the rubric
of "caring adults." Werner, in a 30 year
longitudinal study on the island of Kauai, has found
that the number of caring adults outside the family
with whom the child liked to associate was a significant
protective factor for both high risk boys and girls
who made a successful transition into adulthood. Based
on such research, BBBSA continues its generalized
approach and concentrates on enhancing the infrastructure
to support the development and maintenance of the
relationship between the volunteer and child.
Brief Description of Intervention
BBBS is a community mentoring program which matches
an adult volunteer, known as a Big Brother or Big
Sister, to a child, known as a Little Brother or Little
Sister, with the expectation that a caring and supportive
relationship will develop. Hence, the match between
volunteer and child is the most important component
of the intervention. Equally important, however, is
the support of that match by the ongoing supervision
and monitoring of the match relationship by a professional
staff member. The professional staff member selects,
matches, monitors, and closes the relationship with
the volunteer and child, and communicates with the
volunteer, parent/guardian, and the child throughout
the matched relationship.
In practice, the volunteer intervention in the traditional
one-to-one relationship with a child is three to five
hours per week, on a weekly basis, over the course
of a year or longer. The generalized activity of that
relationship is related to the goals that were set
initially when the match was established. These goals
are identified from the extensive case manager interview
held with the parent/guardian and with the child.
The foremost goal usually set is to develop a relationship—one
that is mutually satisfying, where both parties come
together freely on a regular basis. More specific
goals might relate to school attendance, academic
performance, relationships with other children and
siblings, general hygiene, learning new skills or
developing a hobby. The goals established for a specific
match are developed into an individualized case plan,
which is updated by the case manager as progress is
made and circumstances change over time.
Generally speaking, BBBS agency staff do not tell
a volunteer specifically what activities to engage
in with the child during their time together, but
they guide the volunteer and make suggestions of possible
activities and approaches, based on the child's and
volunteer's interests and needs. Consistency in the
relationship over time is a higher priority than the
types of activities in which they participate.
Once the match has been initially agreed upon, in
the presence of the child, volunteer, and the child's
parent/guardian, it is then the responsibility of
the professional staff member, known as the case manager,
to maintain on-going contact with all parties in the
match relationship.
The Standards and Required Procedures for One-To-One
Service outlines the schedule of contacts the case
manager is to have with the volunteer, as well as
with the parent and/or child. There is to be more
frequent contact during the early stages of the match
with an initial contact within two weeks of making
the match, then monthly contact throughout the rest
of the year, and then contact every three months after
the first year and throughout the duration of the
match. The case manager calls the volunteer and the
parent after the first and second week of the relationship
to determine how the relationship is developing, and
may continue on a weekly basis through the first six
weeks, depending on the situation. However, it eventually
develops into a monthly contact with the volunteer
and the parent.
At least quarterly, the case manager is in touch
with the child to learn of the youth's experiences.
These supervisory contacts inform the case manager
how the relationship is developing and provide an
opportunity to give advice and guidance around any
issues the volunteer might have, as well as to encourage
and support various activities. For most agencies,
the on-going case manager supervision with the volunteer
takes place over the phone. The case manager is to
assess the match goals on an annual basis and make
appropriate adjustments to the case plan.
The Standards and Required Procedures for One-To-One
Service also describes the professional practice the
case manager is to follow throughout the intervention
process with the volunteer, parent, and child, including
maintaining confidentiality and case records.
Evidence of Program Effectiveness
In contrast to prior research on mentoring programs
which has failed to demonstrate the effectiveness
of those programs, research conducted by Public/Private
Ventures (P/PV) on the BBBS model provides clear evidence
that a caring relationship between an adult volunteer
and a young person can provide a wide range of tangible
benefits.
P/PV conducted a comparative study of nearly 1,000
ten- to sixteen-year olds from eight BBBS agencies
during the years 1992-1993. Half of these young people
were randomly assigned to a treatment group, for which
BBBS matches were made; the other half were randomly
assigned to a control group and were not matched (the
control group members were put on a waiting list for
18 months). The P/PV study compared these two groups
after an 18 month period of time.
At the conclusion of the 18-month study period, it
was found that Little Brothers and Little Sisters
(youth participants in the program) were less likely
to have started using drugs or alcohol, were less
likely to have hit someone, felt more competent about
doing schoolwork, attended school more, got better
grades, and had better relationships with their parents
and peers than those who did not participate in the
program.
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