2023-2026 Strategic Plan

We’re excited to share our 2023-2026 Strategic Plan, which follows months of listening to our communities, deep reflection on our values, and hard work examining how we can more fully live our commitments to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. We purposefully engaged over 700 youth, parenting adults, volunteers, community partners, other community leaders, donors, funders, and our board to inform our future work and new community-centered values. Every decision we make, action we take, and relationship we help build, will be grounded in these values. Our mission remains the same: Leveraging our expertise to create and support mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. 

We will deepen our reach, creating engaging, connected, youth-driven journeys to help achieve future success. We will transform our organization to one where all youth are proud to be associated with us. To that end, we will invest in listening to youth as experts of their own lives, supported by a community of caring adults, with greater partnership with historically underrepresented communities. We know that everyone benefits when we amplify these voices.

This is a moment for us. A moment of reflection, a moment of pride, and a moment of opportunity: The opportunity to reinvent our work, to reinvest in community, and to redefine our impact. It’s ambitious, measured, and who we want to be.

As our Vice President of Programs, Princess Kisob, often says, “It takes hard work, and it takes heart work.” This strategic plan reflects both.

We are immensely grateful to Leah Porter, Amanda Duhon, and their team at Propel Nonprofits, and Shana Moses, our Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion consultant, for their guidance, challenge, and collaboration in creating this plan, and centering us in youth and community.

Thank you to everyone who has supercharged our mission, inspired us in the creation of this plan, and is bringing their passion to the opportunities ahead.

Let’s go crush this!

– Pat

Big Brothers Big Sisters Twin Cities Agency & Board Leadership

Each strategic priority is informed by what we know and what we learned:

• Every year, we match up to 2,600 youth and their families, 85% of whom are from communities of color, especially from Black/African American and Hispanic/Latinx. An average of 300+ youth are also on our waitlist at any given time.
• And, at the heart of the strategic plan is feedback from over 700 community members, the vast majority being the youth, families, and volunteers in our mentoring program.

Through these 5 strategic priorities, our plan aims to ensure youth have greater access to diverse mentors, experiences to explore their interests, and opportunities that amplify their potential today and into the future.

• 1 | COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: We have trusted community relationships and partnerships with those aligned to our values and that are representative of the youth in our program, especially in Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, and LGBTQ+ communities.
• 2 | YOUTH PATHWAYS: The youth-centered journey is expanded to start at the initial inquiry, supported through the match, and extends beyond the match relationship to include College and Future Readiness programming.
• 3 | PARTICIPANT INTERACTIONS: Participants (youth, parenting adults, and volunteers) experience more timely, purpose-driven interactions throughout their relationship with BBBSTC.
• 4 | RECRUITMENT & REPRESENTATION: We recruit and retain volunteers, staff and board members who reflect and value the youth we serve. 
• 5 | IMPACT: We continually measure and communicate our impact, reflecting the experiences and perspectives of the youth we serve, to inform decision-making and to demonstrate both the direct benefits, as well as the ripple effects of our work.