Mentoring Champion Rep. Fattah Receives National Leadership Award From Big Brothers Big Sisters
WASHINGTON, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Congressional champion and national leader in youth mentoring, has won the National Leadership Award of Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Fattah received the prestigious award this morning from Max Miller, BBBS chief administrative officer, during the Big Brothers Big Sisters 2012 National Leadership Summit at the Renaissance Washington Downtown Hotel, where 500 leaders of the nation’s largest youth mentoring network have gathered for a two day conference.
Fattah, from Philadelphia, was cited for his leadership in promoting mentoring in and out of Congress. He was credited with winning federal resources for mentoring efforts through his work as senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies. The BBBS thanked Fattah for winning an increase to $90 million for mentoring programs through the Department of Justice, which his subcommittee oversees.
“To me there is no greater priority in the Justice Department budget than the youth mentoring programs,” Fattah said as he accepted the Leadership Award from Miller and Ted Qualli, an official of BBBS Southeastern Pennsylvania. “If we want to cut the costs associated with crime and delinquency, then this is where we should focus our resources.
“As a nation, we will face the costs for not acting and they will be greater. I’m determined to see our nation do more to influence the life chances for our young people on the front end as opposed to paying for bad decisions on the back end,” Fattah said.
Fattah has been an advocate for BBBS, which has headquarters in Philadelphia, 350 local agencies and 600,000 volunteer mentors, mentees and families, including mentoring relationships with children of single, low-income or incarcerated parents and with sons and daughters of military personnel.
The Congressman has also worked closely with other youth and mentoring organizations. He forged a historic partnership between the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and FIRST! the robotics mentoring organization. Through his efforts they formed the American Innovation and Mentorship (AIM) Agreement to provide Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) opportunities through FIRST’s innovative robotics-based programming at 3,000 Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide by 2015.
SOURCE Office of Congressman Chaka Fattah
