The Jewish Big Brother Big Sister Association of Cleveland (JBBBSA) is a non-profit agency that provides professionally supported mentoring services and programs to local children and their families. Cleveland’s Jewish Big Brothers was formally organized in 1919.

Our Mission is to aid in the development of confident, responsible and caring individuals, by providing professionally supported mentoring services and programs to Jewish children, their families and the diversified clients of Bellefaire JCB.

JBBBSA’s Programs and Services provide high quality mentoring services to children and youth.

Programs Include:

Community-Based Mentoring provides a one-to-one mentoring match between an adult and a child between the ages of 6 and 18. The children are Jewish children from single-parent families, recently resettled immigrant children and families with special circumstances.

School-Based Mentoring is an on-site program that matches high school volunteers with children in a group setting while still maintaining a one-to-one match. Volunteers meet with a child between ages 8 and 12 at the elementary school. Matches meet once a week for approximately one hour after school. Staff supervised activities range from tutoring to arts and crafts to a group community service project.

Put a little MAGIC into a child’s life! A 'Big' provides the 'Little' with an increased sense of self-confidence and belonging, and often leads to enhanced communication skills and improved performance at home, school, and in the community. 'Bigs' encourage 'Littles' to realize their potential and help them develop into competent, confident, and caring adults. Bigs and Littles have fun together, and ultimately, the volunteer also benefits while truly making a difference in the life of a child.

Annual fundraising events: Our Bowl For Kids’ Sake (BFKS) event, held each fall (November) is our primary fundraiser. We also hold a raffle each spring in which we sell tickets to win a variety of prizes. 100% of the funds raised each year benefit the our children. Furthermore, we have an annual fund, “Our Children – Our Future Fund“. If you are interested in making a donation in honor of somebody, making a contribution to “Our Children – Our Future Fund“, donating a prize or learning more about how you can participate in BFKS, please contact us at 216.320.8310. You may send donations (made payable to JBBBSA) to JBBBSA, 22001 Fairmount Boulevard, Shaker Heights, Ohio 44118.