Big Brothers Big Sisters of America – Starting Something Since 1904

At Big Brothers Big Sisters, we’ve been impacting the lives of children for over 100 years. And we’re just getting started.

For over a century, Big Brothers Big Sisters has been helping change kids’ perspectives and giving them the opportunity to reach their potential. And we have over a century of volunteers, donors, and advocates just like you to thank.

It all started in 1904, when a young New York City court clerk named Ernest Coulter was seeing more and more boys come through his courtroom. He recognized that caring adults could help many of these kids stay out of trouble, and he set out to find volunteers. That marked the beginning of the Big Brothers movement.

At around the same time, the members of a group called Ladies of Charity were befriending girls who had come through the New York Children’s Court. That group would later become Catholic Big Sisters.

Both groups continued to work independently until 1977, when Big Brothers Association and Big Sisters International joined forces and became Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Origin of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rockland County

In 1977, Family Court Judge, Alfred J. Weiner, requested that the Rockland County Probation Department create, with the assistance of the Court, a Big Brothers Big Sisters program. The concept would offer an alternative resource for the Court to provide help for children who were brought before the Judge as juvenile delinquents and persons in need of supervision. It was anticipated that this program would prove to be an additional tool for the Court to prevent youngsters from having to be placed by the Judicial System in various correctional facilities outside of the community.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters program would supersede an original program entitled “Volunteers in Probation” which had been created to find available adult volunteer mentors for these troubled youngsters. Volunteers in Probation were administered by the Probation Department with a volunteer Board of Directors which had been recruited to help provide professional support and advice. Volunteers in Probation was eventually incorporated and entitled ‘Friends of Volunteers in Probation.’ Early meetings of the organization were held on a regular basis within the chambers of the Family Court. ‘Friends of Volunteers in Probation’ was ultimately found to be very successful in helping build the much needed self esteem for many of the children that came into Court.

Due to the success of the program “Volunteers in Probation,” it was then decided to obtain a charter from the national organization Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, in order to provide the specialized structure and skilled professional guidance from an already experienced and established nationwide mentoring program. Thus, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rockland County was established in 1984. As the original program entered this stage, everyone knew that the service was excellent, and there were predictions that now many more adults would volunteer to mentor disadvantaged children, and that it would be easier to obtain more funding.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rockland County is now an accomplished program which has grown by leaps and bounds in its service delivery. It was recognized by the national federation, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, for the significant increase in the number of children served and consequently, inducted into the National Hall of Fame along with multi-variable Federal, state and local awards.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rockland County

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rockland County is a full-service, national gold standard award-winning, and pre-eminent, NYS Better Business Bureau accredited youth mentoring organization serving “at-risk” youth from one parent homes between the ages of 7– 18 years throughout all Rockland communities. As the oldest, largest, and most effective youth mentoring organization in Rockland County, Big Brothers Big Sisters has been the leader in one-to-one youth services for 35 years.