Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County was founded in 1958 and is one of the national organization’s top mentoring agencies in the country, serving more than 3,000 children each year. Big Brothers Big Sisters believes that with the support of a caring mentor, every child has the ability to achieve his or her full potential. It is the nation’s largest donor- and volunteer-supported mentoring organization, serving a quarter-million children annually. Based in Santa Ana, Calif., the Orange County agency was incorporated in 1958 and works as a local extension of the national effort to make professionally supported, one-to-one matches between mentors (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”) facing adversity. Together with the Inland Empire agency, which opened its doors in 2013, the local organization serves more than 3,000 children annually through programs that improve the odds of youth performing better in school and avoiding violence and illegal activities. Ninety-nine percent of youth in the program graduate high school on time, 89 percent enroll in college, and 100 percent said their mentors were their biggest influence on pursuing a higher education.
