Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flint & Genesee County

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flint and Genesee County’s mission is to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. The agency’s vision is that all youth reach their full potential.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flint and Genesee County has been serving youth in our community for over 75 years. Locally, the Big Brother concept developed in the 1930s through the efforts of Frank Manley, well-known as the originator of the concept of Community Education. The Big Sisters program was inititated in 1955 through the collaborative effort of Frank Manley, William Minardo and Allen Mathrne. The first Big Sisters training group was comprised of fourteen Industrial Business Girls members. In 1985,  both programs were merged into one organization led by Gary Haggart, the first executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Flint.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America completed its Strategic Direction 2018- 2022 supporting its affiliates in serving more youth. The new mantra is “Together, we are defending potential”. In February, 2020 the organization relocated to 1176 Robert T. Longway Boulevard.

The new location is on the campus of the Metropolitan Housing Partnership. Our goals are to build resiliency through partnerships with the Flint ReCAST network and to ensure agency diversity, equity and inclusion as critical to quality service delivery.

Big Brothers Big Sisters continues to seek innovative program enhancements that strengthen the outcomes of the mentoring relationship.  The agency partnered with the Urban League in 1994 to establish the 100 Men 100 Boys group mentoring program in efforts to address the challenge to find male role models. In 2004, a Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program (AMACHI) was funded by the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2010, the agency purchased the Agency Information Management (AIM) database. The Office of Juvenile Justice provided pass-through funding from Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) to provide services to high risk youth. The agency continues service to youthful offenders through its Youth Workforce Opportunity Initiative, pass-through funding from BBBSA provided by the Department of Labor, adding a workforce development component along with six other program components. The agency has been a strong partner in the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative and the Flint and Genesee Literacy Network. In 2017, a My Sisters Keeper Mentoring program with a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) focus received funding through the Flint Women and Girl’s Fund. In 2019, pass-through funding from BBBSA was awarded to implement a “Bigs In Blue” initiative.

Big Brothers Big Sisters celebrates over 75 years of quality mentoring services to youth building their biggest possible futures!