Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City

BBBS new location is awesome! The presentation and staff were very friendly. Orientation plus lunch didn’t last an hour.
Scott Cruce is a very friendly person. After they complete my background check, I hope to be placed with my Little within the next 3 weeks. I’m looking forward to making a difference in someone’s life.

The BBBS is having a great year with the move into their new space. It’s bright and beautiful, as well as being perfectly suited to their future expansion needs. More than that, they’re knocking charity work outta the box!
Their staff and supporters raised more money and made more matches last year than ever before. It’s easy to see why they’re the #1 BBBS in the nation when you go to one of their events. Check them out soon! You can change a child’s life for the better.

Great organisation, been with them for about 3 years.
First they matched me with one girl who had ADHD and was heavily medicated from it. In my opinion it was too much medicine because she was like a zombie most of the time with some rare splashes of activity. Eventually she got disinterested in having a Big sister and they matched me with another girl who was great and who I had lots of fun with for over a year. BBBS is very good at organising all kind of event for kids as well as fundraisers so there are always places to go to. They also give tickets to the concerts, shows and have discounts to lots of places so you can show your little around!

After hearing bad and good reviews of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, I decided to take a further look on my own…
I’ve officially became a member of the program and matched with my «little» and could not be more happy to be involved with such a great organization. Throughout the process it’s been extremely comfortable and easy.
My reasoning for wanting to become part of the program is because I missed being around kids and this was a great opportunity to change that.
BBBS makes you remember how great an organization truly can be.

Great organization! I became a Big Brother 2.5 years ago and it has been a fantastically rewarding and fun experience. Big Brothers Big Sisters of KC is an award winning (national chapter of the year the last couple years) group and they do great things for the kids in this community.
The time commitment is really nothing difficult (couple hours each week) and they do their best to pair you with a kid who has similar interests, lives relatively close and they just generally think is a good match. My Little Brother is a great kid who loves hanging out and trying new things. He and I have explored this city far more than either of us ever would have had it not been for this organization.
This is a great way to do something positive for another person and for this city. Get involved, you won’t regret it!

I had the opportunity to volunteer here this year for Help Portrait 2012. I met some of the employees, and many of the families that benefit from BB/​BS. Truly a good organization.

I applied for Big Brothers Big Sisters in December of 2010. It took the caseworker 7 weeks to schedule her in home interview. When she arrived, she was very young, very clipped and impersonal. I felt I expressed who I was, what I wanted with BBBS and what I hoped to give. I did mention that I looked at this as a stepping-​stone. I have no children in my life and as a professional, educated, married woman in her early 40s, I felt it would be fun to work with a Kauffman Scholar. I didn’t have parental support when I needed help with school or applying for college. I had to learn on my own. I knew the process well. I didn’t know if I could dedicate more than 1 day a month — so this seemed the perfect starting point. I hoped, that if things went well, I could eventually dedicate myself to a Little and meet on a weekly basis. I also expressed my desire to eventually foster or adopt an older child of my own.
This is the response I received (after waiting for 3 months) and it just doesn’t make sense.
«After careful consideration, we have decided not to accept your application to be a volunteer with our program. We want to emphasize that our decision is in no way meant to reflect badly on your personally, but rather that volunteer service of our particular type may not be appropriate for you given the amount of involvement that you hope to have with a child. We think you have a lot of experience, compassion, and dedication to offer a child in need and we encourage you to consider looking into the option of becoming a foster parent as a way to become more involved in a child’s life.»
Based on what I’ve read about BBBS and their applicant process, this means I am an «inappropriate» volunteer — no matter how you slice it. So I can only think that since I eventually want to be a foster parent or to adopt, I am inappropriate. I just have to question BBBS and their logic. There is no point in following up with BBBS based on their rejection policy. Perhaps if I were more clinical in my responses and cared less, I would be scheduling my training today. I think the concerns of the case work could have been resolved during training.
I can distinguish between being a Big versus being a parent. I don’t think the case worker can make the distinction and it’s no wonder, reviewing scribbled notes from a 3 month old interview, it seems apparent the caseworker made the wrong assessment. As a software engineer for the past 13 years, I know better than to wait a long time before writing down technical requirements… information gets lost in translation.
I will not be recommending BBBS to any one I know.