Dubuque, IA – Hillcrest Family Services Board of Directors voted Friday to transform the Development Office with a name change to Office of Mission Advancement. The name change comes along with the addition of two Mission Advancement staff. Reverend Kenneth D. Gibson joins the Hillcrest Family Services family as the new Vice President of Mission Advancement. Mindy Sampson fills the position of Public Relations Coordinator.

Ken comes to Hillcrest with a sincere passion for the mission of the agency. As a child, he was cared for by committed foster parents, and to this day, has a sincere and genuine love for those who cared enough to make a difference in his life. He hopes that his ministry here at Hillcrest will be the fulfillment of that inner calling to serve.

For the past seven and a half years Ken has served as Vice President of Wartburg Theological Seminary Mission Support office and upon his leaving Wartburg it was noted that Ken leaves having completed the most successful fund raising year in Wartburg's History. Prior to that call, Ken served as a parish pastor in Chassell, Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Prior to that calling, Ken served as a school teacher, a part time farmer and as an insurance agent in northwest Illinois.

Ken has served for five years as a Commissioner on the Iowa Commission for Volunteer Service, serving as chair for the last three years. Ken also serves as the chair of the Mississippi Valley Promise Board of Directors here in Dubuque. Ken is the father of two daughters and is married to Jodi for twenty five years. He enjoys boating and spending time with friends.

Mindy is a familiar face at Hillcrest having been the coordinator of the Tobacco-Free Coalition and local JEL (Just Eliminate Lies) chapters. Mindy also has a passion for the mission of Hillcrest, having family ties to the original Baby Fold. Mindy attended the Clarke College TimeSavers program where she earned a degree in Communications.

Over three years of preparation and hard work in evaluating the Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring program culminates on August 2, 2007 with the issuing of “Making a Difference in Schools: The Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring Impact Study.”

The results: Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring makes a real difference in the lives of our nation’s at-risk school children.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters has more than 125,000 volunteer mentors (“Bigs”) involved in one-to-one mentoring matches with children (“Littles”) in more than 6,000 schools nationwide—one of the largest in-school volunteer forces in the nation’s history.

• The Study finds that the Littles demonstrate eight positive academic outcomes in the first year as a result of the mentoring match. These include overall academic performance, performance in science, written and oral language, quality and number of assignments turned in, fewer serious school infractions, scholastic efficacy, and reduced skipping of school.

• The key? Big Brothers Big Sisters brings about these academic impacts through quality, professionally supported mentoring relationships with children in need—the fourth “R” for making academic gains.

• Conducted by the independent research firm Public/Private Ventures, the Study is the country’s first largescale, national, random assignment evaluation of school-based mentoring. It followed more than 1,100 children over 15 months at ten diverse Big Brothers Big Sisters locations.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is poised to do even more.
1. There were two positive outcomes evident in the second year of the mentoring match: reduced skipping of school and greater expectation to attend college. The other positive impacts from the first year of the Study were not sustained in the second year mainly because many of the mentoring matches were one-year matches. So, we need to do more. We have set the goal that our mentoring matches need to be longer, extending into at least a second year so we can bring about long-term impacts and academic gains.

2. As a learning organization, we will build on the positive outcomes that were found in the Study and strengthen our model even more. We will apply the learnings of the School Based Mentoring Study to improve, measure and lengthen our positive impacts.

There are an estimated ten million American children in need of a mentor.
We must continue to partner with volunteers, parents, children, schools, corporations, and civic and governmental leaders to bring about positive academic impacts and, long-term, to stem the high school dropout crisis in our nation.

Big Brothers Big Sisters – Dubuque County

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dubuque County operates out of the offices of Hillcrest Family Services, 2005 Asbury Road, Dubuque, Iowa 52001. A program of Hillcrest, it has full affiliation with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Adult volunteers are "matched" with a child. The child must be from a family situation that has limited involvement and support of two parents. Children between the ages of 5 and 15 who have custodial parents/guardians willing to support the relationship of their child with a Big Brother or Big Sister volunteer should contact the Program Director for a full discussion of the eligibility criteria.

Volunteers who wish to become a Big Brother or Big Sister to a youngster should be willing to make a one-year commitment and maintain a consistent relationship by getting together at least twice each month and by having phone contact between visits. Volunteers are interviewed to determine his or her interests, personality and expectations.

For further information, contact the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program Coordinator at 563-583-7357; Toll Free 877-437-6333 or e-mail Anne Hedrick at ahedrick@hillcrest-fs.org

Hillcrest Family Services has been selected to be one of the recipients of a $15,000 Dubuque Racing Association Grant award. Hillcrest has many ongoing capital improvement needs to support our twenty-five programs in nineteen different communities throughout Iowa. This DRA grant will most directly impact the clients we serve in our Dubuque and Maquoketa programs.