Big Brothers Big Sisters: the Agency That Closed in 2025

Founded 1968 — merged regional, then closed, June 2025

Founding: The mentoring agency's founding year is 1968 — the year its federal charity record carries for Big Brothers Big Sisters Southern Lake Michigan Region Inc., and the same year the agency's own arithmetic gives: when it closed in June 2025 it announced, on its own page, that it was shuttering "after 57 years." For most of its life the agency was this county's own — Big Brothers Big Sisters of St. Joseph County, documented under that name as late as the Notre Dame Observer of 5 March 2013, and rooted in the community's own leadership: Charles Martin, the YMCA youth worker whose center stands in Black History, once served as a president of the local program. Its South Bend office in its final years was Suite 710 at 218 West Washington Street.

The regional form and the end: The agency's last form was a consolidation. It took the name Southern Lake Michigan Region, serving eight counties in northern Indiana and southern Michigan, headquartered at Goshen; on 1 January 2022 Big Brothers Big Sisters of Elkhart County merged into it. In June 2025 the organization suddenly announced it was closing, citing, in its own posted words, the challenges stemming from the pandemic — "The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to walk a thin line, balancing our mission with the realities of an uncertain world." Some 300 children stood on its waiting list when it closed, by the account of its former director of programs. The closure is printed here as plainly as the founding: a fifty-seven-year institution, gone in a month.

The successor: The mentoring did not wait long for a new vessel. Katie Craft, who had worked four and a half years for the regional agency and served as its director of programs, founded Resonant Vibe to continue mentorship and advocacy in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, bringing two other former Big Brothers Big Sisters staff members with her; the new organization is based in Elkhart. Its youth mentoring program, RISE, for ages six to seventeen, was planned to launch in August 2026; by December 2025 its own newsletter counted 29 mentors and 44 enrolled "Rising Stars." Whether it becomes the institution its predecessor was is a question the record will answer in the update cycles; its founding out of the closure is documented here.

Sources:

1. Big Brothers Big Sisters Southern Lake Michigan Region Inc., federal charity record (EIN 35-1172510) — the founding year, 1968; the Goshen headquarters; the South Bend office at 218 West Washington Street, Suite 710 (2023 Cass County resource guide listing).
2. South Bend Tribune (Rayleigh Deaton), August–September 2025 — the June 2025 closure; the agency's own "after 57 years" announcement and its pandemic explanation; the roughly 300 children waiting; Katie Craft and the founding of Resonant Vibe.
3. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Elkhart County Inc., federal charity record (EIN 35-1272588) — the merger into the Southern Lake Michigan Region, 1 January 2022.
4. Notre Dame Observer, 5 March 2013 — Big Brothers Big Sisters of St. Joseph County under that name.
5. Resonant Vibe, organizational pages and newsletter, December 2025 — the successor's founding by former staff; the RISE program and its planned August 2026 launch; 29 mentors and 44 Rising Stars.