Big Brothers Big Sisters

of Elk and McKean Counties

The Guidance Center

History of Big Brothers Big Sisters

The National Organization

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is the only national youth-serving federation based on the concept of a one-to-one friendship between an adult volunteer and a child.  Big Brothers Big Sisters of America serves as the national voice for more than 500 affiliated agencies in the country, and provides services to approximately 100,000 children yearly.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America was formed in 1977 with the merger of Big Brothers of America and Big Sisters International.  However, the Big Brothers Big Sisters movement traces itself back to the first recognized one-to-one matches in 1902.  In working to help meet the needs of at-risk children and their families, Big Brothers Big Sisters has become the fastest growing youth-service movement in the United States.  The National Organization of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has played an important role in this growth by encouraging and assisting development of new agencies and offering valuable resources to all its affiliated agencies.

Agency

The Guidance Center is located in Northwest Pennsylvania and offers a wide variety of community based services including;  mental health, mental retardation, education and prevention services.  As a nonprofit agency established in 1984, The Guidance Center employs a staff of approximately 200.  Although the majority of efforts are directed at the counties of Cameron, Elk and McKean, some specialized services extend into other neighboring communities.

The Guidance Center initiated the Volunteer Friend Program in September of 1980.  It was designed to be a social service program that provided children and adolescents age 7-17, who lacked consistent adult role models in their lives, an opportunity to develop a strong stable relationship with an interested adult.  The volunteers were screened to insure a positive experience for the match participants.  Volunteers were also asked to make a commitment of at least one hour per week for one year to the child.  The volunteer and child would then spend time together in mutually interesting activities.   Each match was professionally supervised.

In October of 1988, it became apparent that affiliation with the National Big Brothers Big Sisters Organization was needed in order to meet the needs of the community, and to accommodate the growing number of referrals.  Staff worked continuously on the affiliation process, ranging from development of a Task Force and Casework manual to adopting the National Organization’s Standards and Required Procedures.  Provisional affiliation with the National Organization of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America was granted.

Background

Since 1980, The Guidance Center saw that there was an unmet need in McKean County.  Some children in the area clearly lacked the support of a one-to-one relationship with a caring adult of the same gender.  It is well known that one-to-one caring relationships enhance mental well being and positive growth.  In an effort to meet this need, The Guidance Center began to recruit, screen and match volunteers with children at risk.  Children between the ages of 7 and 16 who were involved in counseling services were matched with an adult volunteer who provided consistent, positive adult role modeling.  Careful screening and matching of participants was strongly emphasized in programming.

In November of 1989, the program supported five child/volunteer matches and had 73 children on the waiting list.  Since the inception of The Guidance Center’s effort, it became clear that many children, not only Guidance Center clients, had a strong need for the opportunity to develop a productive relationship with a stable adult.  The need for program growth was apparent.

To enhance program expansion, as well as increase program visibility, gain community support and receive technical assistance on a national level, affiliation with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America was pursued.  The affiliation process was finalized in April 1990 and the program is now called Big Brothers Big Sisters of McKean County.

In January of 2001 The Elk County Family Resource Network Collaborative Board, through the Communities That Care Process, administered the Pennsylvania Youth Survey to assist in identifying potential risk factors on Children in Elk County.  The results of the collected data were then prioritized, highlighting three major risk factors affecting area youth, those risk factors being:  favorable attitudes toward the problem behavior, favorable parental attitudes and involvement in the problem behavior, and early initiation of the problem behavior.  As a result, Big Brothers Big Sisters was selected by the Elk County Family Resource Network Collaborative Board to address these risk factors in Elk County.  A Blueprint Grant was then submitted to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, and awarded to start a Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Elk County.  As stated before, the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program of McKean County has been administered by The Guidance Center since 1990.  This expansion of an additional Big Brothers Big Sisters Program in Elk County offers mentoring opportunities for a whole new population of youth. Today, The Guidance Center provides 2 Big Brothers Big Sisters programs, one servicing Elk County and one servicing McKean County.

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