Big Brothers Big Sisters Heart of Iowa

Mission: To create and support 1-to-1 mentoring relationships that ignite the power & promise of youth.

Big Brothers Big Sisters originated in 1972 in Marshall County when a group of concerned citizens recognized that some young people in our community needed a one-to-one, man-to-boy relationship. Big Brothers was founded to serve that purpose. Big Sisters was started in 1975. Big Brothers and Big Sisters were united into a single corporation. Since 2004 the agency is now named Heart of Iowa Big Brothers Big Sisters. We are an affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and Iowa Mentor.

The goal of the Heart of Iowa Big Brothers Big Sisters program is to offer a positive, broad-based program that focuses less on specific problems after they occur, and more on meeting youths’ most basic developmental needs. What matters most to the youth involved in a BBBS relationship is that they have a caring adult in their life, someone to confide in, relax with, and look up to. As a result, they do better in school and at home, and avoid violence and substance abuse during a pivotal time in their life when even the smallest changes in behavior or choices made, can change the course of their future.