The “Brooks Bunch” was the cornerstone of Derrick’s initial community involvement in the Tampa Bay area. He founded the program in the third year of his playing career as a result of his many visits to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa. A young lady at one of the clubs asked him a question that stirred up a fire in him. Her question was “How do you get to the different cities and back to Tampa when you are playing games out of town?” He was a little surprised at the question, but explained that they flew on a chartered airplane. She then looked at him a bit confused and said “What is an airplane?” Much to his surprise the young lady had not only, never been on a plane, but didn’t know what an airplane was. This was the day that Derrick decided he wanted to take some of these young people from a low income community to places they had never been to experience life outside of their communities. This was the birth of the “Brooks Bunch Program.”

The program began with a day trip to Ft. Lauderdale and eventually grew to trips to: Atlanta, Washington DC, South Africa (twice), the Wild West of the United States and an East Coast College Tour encompassing four cities and multiple universities. The heart of the program was based on education and college prep with an emphasis on life skills and community service. This program was a huge success with hundreds of first generation college students being accepted to post secondary institutions around the country.

Derrick wanted to be able to assist our students who had successfully completed the “Brooks Bunch Program” with semester stipends, laptops and printers as well as moral support. In order to do this it was necessary to form the Brooks Bunch College Program. As of today, this program had graduated over 65 students from College, has two females in Medical School, multiple students in Graduate School and over 100 students currently enrolled in Undergraduate School.

Derrick Brooks Charities, Inc. no longer takes the educational field trips, but now funds the students enrolled in college. The “Brooks Bunch Program” has been replaced with out First and Goal Program which prepares and assists students in their goal to not only graduate from high school but also to attend college.