Positively changing Canada
SERVING CANADA’S COMMUNITIES
This year alone Big Brothers Big Sisters impacted over 40,000 youth in over 1,100 communities across Canada.
REPUTABLE AND ACCOUNTABLE
Providing life changing mentoring experiences since 1912, Big Brothers Big Sisters was named One of Financial Post’s Top 25 Charities in 2016.
IMPROVING SOCIETY
Every $1 invested in our programming returns between $18-$23 to society through taxes, higher incomes, volunteerism, and charitable donations.
VISION
We build thriving communities by empowering lives through mentorship.
MISSION
Mentorship is an essential service that supports all children and youth in reaching their full potential.
STRUCTURE
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada is a Federation comprised of 102 member agencies servicing more than 1,100 communities across the country.
ISSUE
Many children and youth in our communities are not reaching their full potential.
IMPACT
Facing prolonged adversity creates toxic stress in the brain that can negatively impact development.
SOLUTION
With the support of a mentor, these risks can be reduced or even avoided, and youth can reach their full potential.
Our Solution
Many children and youth in Canada struggle with societal barriers and face adversities in their lives like detrimental living conditions, family violence, risk factors for mental health, school issues and identity challenges.
These circumstances have nothing to do with the value of who they are or who they can become, but because of these situations, children and youth risk not having the opportunity to live up to their full potential.
Even worse is the possibility of continuing cycles of poverty and crime or developing mental health issues.
This comes at a cost to the young person, and to society.
With the guidance and support of a mentor, these risks can be reduced or even avoided, and youth are reminded they can be anything they dream of being.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada is a Federation comprised of 102 member agencies servicing more than 1,100 communities across the country. Together we mobilize over 20,700 volunteers who in turn mentor 41,400+ children and young people. That works out to nearly 2.1 million volunteer hours each year!
We are the leading voice of mentorship
For over a century, Big Brothers Big Sisters has been helping change Canadian children and youth’s perspectives and giving them the opportunity to reach their potential. And we have over a century of volunteers, donors, and advocates just like you to thank.
It all started in 1913, when a woman by the name of Eleanor Adams Hunter, working in the court system in Toronto, noticed quite a number of young boys coming through, as what they called then, juvenile delinquents. She had heard of the Big Brother Program that had started in 1904 in New York City, and felt that these boys, many of whom were from father absent homes, could benefit from having a positive adult role model in life. She founded the first Canadian Big Brother program in Toronto.
More than 100 years later, Big Brothers Big Sisters remains true to our founders’ vision of bringing caring role models into the lives of children. And, today, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada currently operates in 10 Provinces, one Territory — and in 12 countries around the world.