Big Brothers Big Sisters of America: Building Relationships to Reduce Barriers for Underserved Communities

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) proposes to implement the Building Relationships to Reduce Barriers for Underserved Communities through Expanded Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentoring initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to connect 9,000 youth across the U.S. to high-quality mentors, leading to long-term positive outcomes for youth at risk of juvenile justice system involvement across the U.S. Project activities include providing 12-month, evidence-based mentoring services to new and existing at-risk, system-involved, and underserved youth. Program enhancements to support continuous quality improvement include training and resources to advance Youth & Family Partnerships, improvements to the systems available for technology-enhanced mentoring, and the introduction of an “agencies of excellence” framework to establish best practices and provide coaching to new and growing agencies. Expected outcomes include significantly reducing the likelihood of youth delinquency in all forms; bolstering self-confidence; preparing young people to be contributing citizens to society through a tailored, supportive relationship with an adult mentor; and increasing youth and family involvement in shaping BBBSA programming at subrecipient agencies. The intended beneficiaries of the project are youth 17 years old or younger who are currently or have been involved in the juvenile justice system; live in communities with high crime, violence, drug abuse, failing schools, or gang presence; are American Indian/Alaska Native; live in rural communities; live in areas of persistent poverty; have an incarcerated parent; have a parenting adult deployed in active military duty or have lost a parenting adult serving in the military; possess special physical or mental challenges; identify as LGBTQ; or have experienced bullying or violence. BBBSA will administer subawards to approximately 85 affiliate agencies in at least 42 states to provide mentoring services based upon the results of a competitive application process. Selection will be determined based on a record of strong grant performance, high program quality and capacity, and satisfactory financial controls and internal processes. Once selected, BBBSA agencies will perform screening that exceeds the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring benchmark standards to protect mentees while developing the most impactful mentoring match. To provide robust performance measurement, BBBSA will collect semi-annual data from affiliate organizations to track the number of mentors/mentees recruited and matched, mentor/mentee attrition rates, mentor training completion and retention, mentee behavior changes, mentee victimization, and general demographic data.