Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Quad Cities was founded in 1983 by a group of social service professionals led by Catholic Social Services of Scott County, to meet a need for mentors for children being brought to the Quad Cities through an international refugee program. Originally known as "Heart to Heart," the organization aligned with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America in 1989. We have grown steadily ever since, working now out of four separate offices across our fourteen-county (13 in Illinois and one in Iowa) service region, and now are known as Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Mississippi Valley. We are currently one of the fastest-growing BBBS affiliate chapters in the nation, mainly through our ability to engage key stakeholders on a regional basis to share and coordinate resources.

We currently offer one-to-one youth mentoring using three different delivery models: the traditional "Community-Based" program (Bigs and Littles meet on their own time), the "School-Based" program (Bigs and Littles each lunch together at the child's school), and the "Campus-Based" program (children are matched with college student volunteers, who meet twice a month to take part together in some pre-arranged activity). In FY2007-8, we provided mentors for 1,500 children region-wide.