Rapppahannock Big Brothers Big Sisters

Rappahannock Big Brothers Big Sisters (RBBBS) is an affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA). BBBSA is the nation’s oldest, largest and most effective youth mentoring organization. The Big Brother movement began in 1903 when Mr. Irvin Westheimer of Cincinnati befriended a fatherless youngster who began calling Mr. Westheimer “big brother”. Because of his experience with his “little brother”, Mr. Westheimer solicited business friends who agreed to befriend other fatherless boys. In 1904, in New York City, a group of young men volunteered to work on a “one man-one boy” basis with boys who had become known to the children’s court. In 1947, Big Brothers of America was formed to serve as a national accreditation and standard-setting agency for local Big Brothers organizations.

The first Big Sisters program for girls was begun in New York City in 1908. Big Sisters International, Inc. was organized in 1970 in Washington, DC. Big Sisters International served as a national accreditation and standard-setting agency for local Big Sister organizations whose purpose was to provide guidance, advice, and companionship for girls through one-to-one friendships with stable female volunteers. Big Brothers of America and Big Sisters International merged in June of 1977 and became one organization, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, serving both male and female children.

Locally, the Reverend Thomas G. Faulkner, Rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg, was instrumental in founding the Rappahannock Big Brothers agency. Reverend Faulkner was concerned about the number of fatherless boys in the community. His concern spread to others, a steering committee was formed, and a nonprofit Big Brothers organization was formed in 1967. In 1974, the Agency incorporated a Big Sister chapter as part of its program, making it the first Big Brother organization in Virginia to sanction a combined Big Brother Big Sister program. Rappahannock Big Brothers Big Sisters, Inc. is a full-member agency of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, and serves the city of Fredericksburg, and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford.

RBBBS has a 44-year history of implementing the research-based BBBSA youth mentoring model. For over four decades, we have created and sustained one-to-one youth mentoring relationships with carefully screened and trained adults with measurable results. We are successful at what we do. The mission of RBBBS is to make a positive, measurable difference in the lives of the most at-risk children by promoting self-esteem and character development, expanding awareness of life’s opportunities and providing education, guidance and support through professionally supported one-to-one mentoring relationships between at-risk children and carefully screened and trained adult mentors. RBBBS serves more than 400 children per year, the majority of whom are minorities from single parent homes.

RBBBS has established a number of highly effective mentoring programs, individualized to meet the critical needs of the highest at-risk children in the varied populations of urban Fredericksburg and the fast-growing surrounding counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford.
RBBBS offers a variety of programs including a Community-based program comprised of one-to-one mentoring that takes place for about two hours a week for a minimum of one year, mainly in the mentor’s home or on mentor-mentee outings in the community. RBBBS also offers a School-based mentoring program (Bigs in Schools) involving one-to-one matches that meet at a local elementary or middle school for about an hour each week either after school or during lunch. Campus Pals is one-to-one mentoring by students at the University of Mary Washington. Parents drive their children to campus and the children meet with their mentors for three hours each Sunday during the academic year. Mentoring Children of Promise gives targeted support to children with issues specific to those who have incarcerated parents.

RBBBS is proud of its many accomplishments. The agency strives to achieve 10% growth per year, supporting 394 children in 2009. RBBBS continues to successfully diversify its programming, most recently with a project that targeted the underserved Hispanic population, as well as beginning implementation of a Sports Buddy Program to help combat obesity as well as a Healthy Relationship Program that deals with dating violence and abuse.

Board members serve in a fundraising, policy making and advisory capacity and all are active in supporting the activities of RBBBS. Staff members are responsible for all aspects of program operations, ranging from child identification and volunteer recruitment, the interview process, training, the matching process, to providing ongoing professional supervision of each match. Volunteers are vital to our organization. The primary use of volunteers in our agency is as mentors. Volunteers serve in other areas as well, heading up fund-raising committees, serving as board members, assisting in volunteer recruitment and acting as spokespeople for RBBBS.

At RBBBS we understand that it is the mentoring relationship itself that is the intervention. We focus less on specific problems after they occur and more on meeting the most basic developmental needs of the children such as guidance, support and friendship. We help mentors build relationships with youth that help these young people discover their strengths, develop self-confidence and avoid risky behaviors. While the children enjoy trips to the zoo, library and various other activities, it is the fact that they have a caring adult in their lives, someone to confide in and look up to, that makes the difference.