BBF was founded in 1961 by Joseph Kellman to provide positive social and recreational activities to children living in North Lawndale.  

BBF’s Beginnings

Joseph Kellman, a native of North Lawndale, opened BBF in the early 1960s as a boys’ after-school boxing club.  Housing its own training facilities (the Archie Moore Gym), the club attracted hundreds of neighborhood boys and gained a reputation as one of Chicago’s premiere youth recreation centers.  However, when several boys involved in the club were arrested following the armed robbery of a local store, Kellman recognized that recreational offerings were simply not enough.  Boxing, while positive in its focus on discipline and physical skills development, did little to improve long-term life outcomes for youth individually or as members of the larger North Lawndale community.  As Kellman has been oft quoted to say, “Sports are a lure, not a cure.” 

That recognition led to the evolution of the agency from a single-sex sports program into a multifaceted social service agency, the mission of which is to improve the quality of life for North Lawndale area youth and their families by providing experiences that enhance their emotional, social, academic, and career development. 

47 Years of Growth and Change

Over the last 47 years, BBF has grown tremendously.  One thing, however, has remained constant—our commitment to serving the needs of the North Lawndale community and its young people.  As those needs have developed and changed, so, too, has BBF.   When the community called for a before school breakfast program, BBF provided it (long before the publics schools did).  When many of the youth who came through our doors were living on the streets, BBF opened a shelter for homeless teens.  When families needed infant/toddler care, BBF opened a Head Start center. 

Remaining responsive to community need has always been a key component of BBF’s operating methodology.  The suite of programs and services BBF offers now reflects the current needs of North Lawndale’s young people and their families and is focused on academic and social enrichment programming for children in elementary, middle, and high school as well as on-site counseling and intervention services  for youth/families in crisis. 

BBF Today

BBF relocated its operations to a temporary space on 18th Street in 2004 when the original BBF buildings at 15th Street and Pulaski Road were razed in preparation for construction of the new BBF Community Center.  Despite the space restrictions of the temporary program site, BBF continued to grow by:

• Adding on-site counseling services to the Family Services Program;

• Increasing enrollment programming for elementary school-aged children by nearly 75%;
• Launching LEEP, the agency’s first program designed specifically for “tweens;”
• Starting a book club for girls; and

• Sending some 60 young men and women off to colleges and universities throughout the nation through BBF Memorial Scholarship Program.

With the recent opening of the new BBF Community Center, BBF is focused on further expansion of its programs and services.  We have added intensive technology programming, enhanced social and recreational offerings, opened an after-school homework center, and secured new volunteers who are bringing reading clubs, film studies, dance classes, and art lessons to our children.  It is an exciting time at BBF.  To learn more, please visit Our Programs page.