Big Brothers Big Sisters of America was founded in 1904 as New York Big Brothers by Ernest Coulter, who was influenced by Julius Mayer, a judge in the New York Children's Court. The idea behind the program was to find influential men to mentor delinquent boys. Catholic Big Sisters was founded in 1905, also in New York. A similar idea emerged in 1903 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Irvin Westheimer mentored a poor boy. As of 2004, the organization serves about 400,000 children across the United States.
