Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lorain County Mentoring Programs

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lorain County Mentoring Programs offers professionally supported, meaningful, monitored one-on-one mentoring matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children and youth (“Littles”). The program uses community and school or site-based mentoring with evidence-based practices that focus on educational success, improved attitudes and competencies, and risky behavior avoidance. One-on-one mentoring relationships include support for social and emotional development, and the mentoring approach includes recruitment, orientation, pre-match training, post-match training, in-service training, and ongoing evaluation and supervision.

• Ages: 6–18 years old
• Schedule: Open Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm, with weekends and after-hours available by appointment

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lorain County Mentoring Programs has been helping children and youth for the past 30 years and was founded in 1994 by Leadership Lorain County. Mentors are trained by BBBSLC staff in protective and risk factors, child safety, recognizing child abuse, youth development, communications, limit-setting, relationship-building, social and emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, and opioid impacts and preventions. Other mental health-related specialty curricula and training used with mentoring matches include social and emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, and opioid impacts and prevention. The overarching goal of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lorain County for the past 30 years has been to help children and youth facing adversity achieve measurable outcomes leading to lifelong success. The organization is led by President & CEO Holly C. Brinda.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lorain County is an affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, whose model has been recognized as an evidence-based program. It is a certified prevention service provider by the Ohio Mental Health Addiction Services Board and has two federal grants and one state grant to address the needs of high-risk youth in the areas of opioid exposure and delinquency prevention. The program uses extensive screening procedures for mentors, including criminal background checks, personal references, employment status checks, and home studies. BBBSLC is a prevention service provider affiliate of the Lorain County Mental Health Addiction Services Board and works in partnership with the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Ohio Department of Youth Services, the Ohio Department of Education, Lorain County Jobs and Family Services, local law enforcement agencies, and community partners that provide free match activities to kids, mentors, and parents.

Last updated June 25, 2026.