The oldest, largest, and most thoroughly reviewed youth mentoring organization in the world, Big Brothers Big Sisters is the gold standard of mentoring programs – our methods define “best practices” nationwide.
We're growing because our children demand it.
Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies have been working to make the Bay Area a better place since 1958. Kids in our program stay out of gangs. They do better in school. They grow up to be contributing members of our community.
Our vision is to provide a caring adult mentor to every child in need across five Bay Area counties.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area restructured in 2006, rolling three separate agencies into one to increase efficiency.
We are a 501c(3) not-for-profit agency serving Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties.
Our headquarters are in San Francisco’s Financial District, and we have offices in the East Bay (Oakland) and South Bay (Milpitas). We have hundreds of “matches” between caring, responsible adults and at-risk children in every county we serve, and eight program sites where we partner with local schools or institutions such as YMCA and Boys & Girls Clubs. This year, we are serving 1,000 Bay Area children.
We’re growing to serve more kids.
Our intention is to grow to serve 5,000 children a year by 2010. It's not ambition that makes us want to do this - there are 200,000 kids aged 6 - 16 living in a household headed by a single parent earning less than the Federal poverty levels.
As fast as we can match kids with adults, we have new kids on our waiting list – and more walking through the door each day. Our phone rings every day with more kids than we can serve.
Kids who have the potential for greatness, but nobody to believe in them; kids who need someone to look up to because their neighborhoods are tearing them down; kids who just need a friend they can trust.
Kids who are one friend away from turning their lives around. Our future demands that we grow to serve this need.