Children’s Home eliminates Big Brothers Big Sisters program

The Children’s Home of Jefferson County has eliminated the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the North Country program, effective Jan. 1.

Children’s Home Executive Director Karen Y. Richmond said that the decision wasn’t made lightly, and that it will save about $18,000 per year in administrative costs alone.

“We do mentoring in other programs, and Big Brothers Big Sisters let us be aware of that,” she said Wednesday. “When Big Brothers Big Sisters started, we started it on a shoestring and we had school support and state Office of Children and Family Services support.”

As state funds and other support have dwindled, Mrs. Richmond said, Big Brothers Big Sisters became a program supported only by grant funding. As an organization that constantly looks at sound financial support, Mrs. Richmond said, the Children’s Home decided that continuing to support the Big Brothers Big Sisters program was not viable.

“It’s not easy to get grant revenue,” she said. “It can only run on grants. That’s tough. We certainly didn’t throw it away without thinking about it long and hard.”

The board of directors finalized its decision Dec. 19.

According to a news release dated Dec. 29, which was sent to the Times on Wednesday, the decision to eliminate the mentoring program will streamline operations, increase cost efficiencies and eliminate duplication of services.

Mrs. Richmond said other mentoring programs offered by the Children’s Home include Advantage After School, Army Youth Programs in Your Neighborhood and the SoZo Teen Center.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters program averaged 100 to 150 “little” and “big” matches, in which a child is paired with an adult for mentoring. When the Children’s Home ran school-based programs in a few area school districts, the matches climbed to 500 to 600, Mrs. Richmond said.

The Children’s Home was approved by the national Big Brothers Big Sisters organization in early 2007 to transfer the former financially troubled local program under its umbrella. It had received a $56,000 grant from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, along with financial support from several other sources, to carry out the program.

The Children’s Home originally made a three-year commitment to the program, which began after the former Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern New York closed in 2006.

When the Children’s Home took over operations, the agency had financial support from the state, the Northern New York Community Foundation, the Jefferson County Youth Bureau, United Way of Northern New York, Lewis County and Stewart’s Holiday Match program.

The last major grant Big Brothers Big Sisters of the North Country received was $184,970 from the U.S. Department of Education, which required a minimum 75 “little” and “big” matches in the Indian River and Carthage central school districts from 2007 to 2010.

Over the past few years, Mrs. Richmond said, recruiting for Big Brothers Big Sisters had been difficult. Many “littles” were interested, but it had became tough to recruit “bigs.”

“Recruiting is very difficult to ask professionals to spend two hours a week alone with kids,” she said. “We looked at every program we have, and most children that participated in Big Brothers Big Sisters got services in other arenas.”

In August 2009, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the North Country received the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Gold Standard Award, which recognized the local program for being in the top 5 percent of Big Brothers Big Sisters’ nearly 400 agencies in the nation.

Mrs. Richmond said the decision to eliminate the program had nothing to with the Children’s Home’s finances. She said it was simple: When “you’re spending other people’s money, you have to be very responsible in how you use it.”

“It wasn’t anyone’s fault; it’s just the times,” she said.