For over a century, Big Brothers and Big Sisters agencies have helped children reach their potential through professionally supported one-to-one relationships with proven results.

In 1904, a young New York City court clerk named Ernest Coulter was seeing more and more boys come through his courtroom. He recognized that caring adults could help many of these kids stay out of trouble, and he set out to find volunteers. That marked the beginning of the Big Brothers movement. By 1916, Big Brothers had spread to 96 cities across the country.

Around the same time, the members of a group called Ladies of Charity were befriending girls who had come through the New York Children’s Court. That group would later become Catholic Big Sisters.

Both groups continued to work independently until 1977, when Big Brothers of America and Big Sisters International joined forces and became Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

More than a century later, Big Brothers Big Sisters remains true to our founders’ vision of bringing caring mentors into the lives of children. Big Brothers Big Sisters currently operates in all 50 states … and in 12 countries around the world!

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washtenaw County program was started in 1991, as a sponsored program, under the auspices of Huron Services for Youth, and later under the HelpSource umbrella. In the first several years of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washtenaw County’s programming an average of 35 children were matched.  The program had grown slowly over the next ten years, serving 163 youth in 2001, but has recently shown substantial growth.  It reached its program high of 585 youth served in 2005.  

 In July of 2007, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washtenaw County became an independent organization and continues working toward serving every Washtenaw County child that needs and wants a mentor!