Creating and nurturing caring community for children in Pontiac
Our Beginning
Our 30th year!
For 30 years, Bound Together has provided tutoring, friendship and community to children and their families in Pontiac, Michigan. “BT” was founded in 1994 by parishioners at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pontiac as a response to the needs of students in a neighboring school. In 1999, Bound Together became an independent non-profit organization, working in close partnership with All Saints, as well as other area churches, civic and government agencies, to provide tutoring, a hot evening meal, as well as offering enrichment programming in visual art, STEM, literacy, and physical fitness for up to 33 elementary and middle school students.
“It really takes a community to raise children, no matter how much money one has. Nobody can do it well alone. And it’s the bedrock security of community that we and our children need.”
— marian wright edelman
Our Mission
Creating and Educating a Caring Community
The mission of Bound Together is to create a safe, stable, diverse environment for personal and academic excellence. We nurture the development of young people to be creative, self-directed, collaborative leaders, embodying the values of a just society. We offer a caring community with a shared moral purpose, respecting the dignity of those we serve.
Our Work
Bound Together’s dedicated volunteers and staff provide 1:1 tutoring for students on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with tutors committing to read, to write, to add/subtract and to laugh with a child on a weekly basis. We also serve a healthy snack, offer some much needed “down time” between school and tutoring, and provide a hot meal before sending students home. Our volunteers are a diverse group: retired engineers, professionals, and educators; they are high school students and medical school students; they are grandmoms and granddads, people from faith communities and civic organizations across Oakland County. The constant variable? That all of them are willing to be truly present in the life of a child.
100+
the number of volunteer opportunities every week
2,208
tutoring hours each year
4,000+
snacks and meals served each year
Our Future
We like to say that our children lead the way — that their evolving needs and the changing contexts within which they live and grow keep us open to change and to growth. While we celebrate 30 years of service to children and families, we also know that our work is ongoing, and that we can always do more. How can we expand our elementary program? Should we add a “summer slide” program? Can we do more to support our parent/guardians with workshops and social time? Do we think about the HS years, and our ESL learners? These questions are asked with open minds and hearts, of our volunteers, our families, our partners, and you — because we know that we’re strongest when we’re Bound Together.
Get Involved
Our volunteers engage in tutoring, meal service, and event planning/preparation, with community service hours and internship opportunities for high school and university students. All volunteers are supported with training and by the staff and fellow volunteers. Donations are also vital to our growth, and we depend upon our partners who support us with tutoring supplies, with the tools to provide our enrichment programs, and the many friends who provide us with the gifts, food and materials needed for celebrations throughout the year.