Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Launches New Collaboration to Advance Racial Equity and Social Justice in Communities Nationwide

TAMPA, Fla., March 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) is one of the first national nonprofits to receive funding from The Starbucks Foundation to serve the Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) community. This is part of The Starbucks Foundation's commitment to advance opportunity for all, and funding will allow the one-to-one mentoring organization to continue efforts to provide JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) training in local communities through their national network of 230+ agencies.

The Starbucks Foundation grant will support BBBSA to implement a three-pronged strategy to promote resilience, and advance racial and social equity:

• Create social justice incident response units, Relationship Responders, to help communities negatively impacted by racism, brutality, and other injustices recover and heal.

• Provide JEDI and Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) training to frontline Big Brothers Big Sisters staff and volunteer mentors ("Bigs") on a national scale.

• Sub-grants will be awarded to local BBBS agencies to support equity in local communities that Big Brothers Big Sisters and Starbucks serve together.

"At Starbucks, we believe it is our responsibility to build bridges and advance social and racial equity on behalf of our partners and communities," said Virginia Tenpenny, chief social impact officer at Starbucks and executive director of The Starbucks Foundation. "We are honored to partner with nonprofits that share our aspiration for thriving and equitable communities, and which have decades of experience empowering young people. The Starbucks Foundation looks forward to supporting continued innovation of programs that address systemic barriers to equitable outcomes and can contribute to closing the racial opportunity gap."

"Big Brothers Big Sisters was founded more than 100 years ago as an organization focused on Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion," said Artis Stevens, President & CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. "Our program grew out of a need to offer an alternative path for youth facing the juvenile justice system. We focus on the importance of the one-to-one mentoring connection, and when youth need support and our communities are hurting, we want to be a resource to help in the healing process."

For more information about Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and our commitment to JEDI, please visit our website, bbbs.org.

About Big Brothers Big Sisters of America 
Founded in 1904, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is the largest and most experienced youth mentoring organization in the United States. The mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. Big Brothers Big Sisters' evidence-based approach is designed to create positive youth outcomes, including educational success, avoidance of risky behaviors, higher aspirations, greater confidence, and improved relationships. Big Brothers Big Sisters has 230+ local agencies serving more than 5,000 communities across all 50 states. For more information, visit: www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org. 

SOURCE Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

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