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BGCMS Named "Safest Club in the Nation" with National Culture of Safety Award

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 18:55:24 GMT

On May 5th, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South was recognized as “the safest Club in the nation” when we were awarded Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s 2023 Culture of Safety Award at BGCA’s 2023 National Conference in Orlando, Florida.

As BGCA’s most coveted and prestigious national safety designation, the Culture of Safety Award is awarded annually to the local Club that best exemplifies an organization-wide commitment to physical and emotional safety. BGCMS was selected from more than 5,000 Clubs nationwide to receive this award.

An award ceremony was held during BGCA’s 117th National Conference in Orlando, Florida, which was attended by representatives from thousands of local Boys & Girls Clubs across the United States. During the ceremony, BGCMS President & CEO, Derek Heim, was invited onstage to accept the award and share a few words about the Clubs’ mission and commitment to safety.

“Safety is our number one priority,” Heim said. “We practice safety day in and day out. At BGCMS, every individual—from Club members all the way to the Board of Directors—is charged with keeping themselves and others safe.”

Our commitment to safety is apparent in every aspect of leadership communication with staff and community members, including email messages, phone calls, and in-person conversations. Parents, staff, and community members can clearly recognize the critical role that safety has in Club strategy, programs, and operations.

This award serves as a testament to BGCMS’s exceptional efforts in promoting safety throughout the organization and the broader community. Comprehensive training in child abuse prevention is required for all full-time and part-time staff. All staff are also required to download CrisisGo, an app that sends instant alerts and step-by-step guidelines in the event of an emergency.

This year, our Clubs implemented WAVE, a drowning detection and prevention system. WAVE utilizes a comfortable, lightweight, head-band-like device to monitor how long each swimmer's face is fully submerged underwater. If someone submerges beyond the maximum safe allowable time, the WAVE system immediately alerts lifeguards so they can intervene – well before the event can turn dangerous.

Throughout the past several years, our Clubs have been instrumental in implementing innovative safety programs and practices in the areas of facility improvement, emergency preparedness, and holistic youth well-being. BGCMS is honored to receive this award in recognition of its comprehensive safety efforts and is committed to continuing its innovative approaches as a community leader in safety.

Great Futures for Girls

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 15:50:44 GMT

Celebrating Women's History Month

Throughout the month of March, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South celebrated Women’s History Month with special programs and activities designed to empower their female members. Across all areas of programming throughout the year, we work to ensure that our Clubhouses are places where all youth thrive.

Since the very first Boys & Girls Club was founded in 1860 by Mary Goodwin, Alice Goodwin, and Elizabeth Hammersley, women have been critical drivers of Boys & Girls Clubs’ missions across the nation. Today, women make up 70% of BGCMS’s senior leadership team, providing critical guidance and insight as we work to help girls in the community overcome collective and individual challenges. Women's History Month provides community organizations like BGCMS with the opportunity to recognize the many contributions of women to their mission and recommit to providing girls in the community with the resources and support that they need to succeed.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South is committed to meeting the unique needs of girls in the community through targeted programming and individual and group support. In the month of March and always, we help girls develop critical social and emotional skills, inspire self-confidence and growth, discover their passions through service learning and specialty enrichment programs, and see themselves in their mentors and role models.

During Women’s History Month, members in our SMART Girls group mentoring program participated in a creative exercise to celebrate Women's History Month. Through this activity, participants shared what traits and qualities they associate with girlhood and womanhood, discussed their heroines, and used artwork to express the qualities that make them each special.

On March 18, BGCMS alumni Mariah and Makayla Brown presented at the 12th Annual South Shore Leadership Conference at Stonehill College. Sisters Mariah and Makayla, both former BGCMS Youths of the Year, spoke about their experiences developing self-confidence and shared their strategies for overcoming challenges through affirmation and perseverance.

Special activities during March are just one of many empowering opportunities available to girls at our Clubs. Throughout the academic year and summer, BGCMS offers girls-only STEM education cohorts, tailored mentorship, and female-focused sports and fitness activities, ensuring that their Clubhouses are places where all girls feel seen, heard, and empowered is one of our top priorities.

Each year, our Clubs provide nearly 1,000 girls with the educational, nutritional, and developmental support that they need to thrive. We are proud to provide girls with safe and welcoming environments, strong mentors and role models, and intentionally-designed programming to encourage self-discovery, help them to build strong peer-to-peer relationships, and inspire them to be their best selves.

In 2020, Adaptation is Our New Normal

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 13:34:26 GMT

What does an after school program look like when there is no longer a traditional school day? That’s the question that

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South has been working hard to answer since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced our temporary closure back in mid-March.

Our Clubs have continuously looked for new ways to adapt to meet the challenges of this not soon to be forgotten year. In March, our Club leadership quickly sprang into action, pivoting our long running daily Kids Café healthy meals program to a “ Grab & Go ” style weeknight dinner service just two days after first closing our doors, in order to ensure that youth who might not otherwise have consistent access to healthy meals could receive free and nutritious dinners that could be picked up from either our Brockton or Taunton Clubhouse and eaten safely in their own home.

Ever since, our Clubs have been adapting swiftly and intentionally to continue serving youth in need, beginning with the launch of our “Club at Home” virtual programming suite which provided 5-10 virtual activities and programs for youth each weekday through the end of the school year in June. As spring turned to summer, our focus turned to safely operating the summer programs at Camp Riverside in Taunton and at Camp Brookside at our Brockton Clubhouse. That meant reducing the daily capacity in camp programs to around 250 youth per day compared to the more than 500 youth served each day in 2019 summer camp programs in order to ensure social distancing could be observed and group sizes limited to no more than 10 youth. We extended the summer camp season at both camps by two weeks, offering full-day programming through Labor Day in response to the delayed start to the 2020-2021 school year.

When the school year did finally arrive, our Clubs were ready to spring into action again. On September 21st, we launched full-day Learning Pods programs at both our Brockton and Taunton Clubhouses. The program day begins at 7:30 a.m. and provides youth with a safe and supportive place to do their remote learning while parents and guardians return to work. When the classwork portion of the day concludes, our Clubs revert to their roots -- offering many of the traditional after school enrichment programs and recreational activities which our members have enjoyed through the years.

“It’s more important now than ever that youth have a place where they

can receive support for their social-emotional needs and for many kids,

without in-person school, our Clubs are the only place

where they receive that intentional support,”

- Samantha Fagundes , Taunton Clubhouse Executive Director

With this in mind, our Clubs have made intentional adaptations to ensure programs were poised to meet the evolving needs of members as they returned to the Clubhouse this fall. In developing our programs for this school year we worked harder than ever to ensure that our programs included opportunities for youth to have a voice -- providing enriching hands-on and interactive experiences.

In our Learning Pods, youth are divided by grade level into groups of up to 10 students with dedicated staff assigned to each pod. Each Clubhouse is currently serving approximately 60 children per day in Learning Pods -- in addition to another 50 or so youth per Clubhouse who are enrolled in licensed school age child care programs -- and all youth receive breakfast, lunch, and snacks as part of the programming day. In the morning, youth log in to their remote classes and participate in their school’s assigned curriculum from algebra to physical education, all within their pod. After the school day wraps up, our pods participate in rotating supplementary enrichment activities including gym games, computer skill-building, arts and crafts, STEM exploration, and outdoor play.

Our Learning Pods provide kids with in-person staff support during their remote learning along with the enrichment and socialization that they would otherwise miss out on by being away from their traditional classroom environment. So far, this model has been a winning formula, giving kids that might otherwise be home alone a chance to thrive in a familiar environment and giving parents peace of mind that their children are safe and supported throughout the day.

“ I really love the staff members here and that I’m able to see my friends, ” says Story , a 9-year-old enrolled in the 4th grade Learning Pod at the Taunton Clubhouse. Her friend and classmate Maya , also 9, agrees. “ I think online school is easier here than at home because I’m around 4th graders like me, ” said Maya when asked about the challenges of switching to remote schooling. With the help of support systems like these, students are finding new successes in their online classes, making friends, and getting the space they need to safely play and grow.

“Fittingly, the kids here at the Brockton Clubhouse are handling this change like champions...

Virtual learning is not easy for anyone but they are doing their best to keep learning and growing.”

- Rachel Dawson , Brockton Clubhouse Sr. Program Director

In Brockton , in addition to running a full-day Learning Pods program, we are also operating one of the only dedicated in-person teen programs in the city at this time. The daily activity slate kicks off at 2:30 p.m. each weekday with homework help and dedicated study spaces available for teens to pre-book. Elective enrichment programs like songwriting and music production, college prep, and small group mentoring begin around 4:30 p.m. each day. At our Brockton Clubhouse we have also introduced a refreshed version of our “ Money Matters ” financial literacy program which is sponsored by SCU Credit Union . The program teaches our teen members best practices for saving, budgeting, paying for college, and other valuable financial skills they will need as they enter early adulthood. Also in October, we began offering a teen Healthy Relationships 101 peer leaders program aiming to combat dating violence in partnership with Family and Community Resources, Inc. and Cape Verdean Women’s United through grant funding from the Dept. of Public Health.

Marisa Nieves , College & Career Access Director at the Brockton Clubhouse, can’t overstate the importance of having a safe place for teens during the coronavirus pandemic, saying:

“When our teens returned in late September they hadn’t been in the building since

mid-March and they really needed a place to have safe social interactions...

Ultimately, it’s about giving them a space where they can grow

and feel connected through our programming."

For Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, 2020 has been about adapting our longstanding formula for impact to meet new challenges as they arise, and meeting those challenges head-on with resiliency and compassion for those most impacted by the social and economic effects of this sustained global health crisis. Adaptation has now become second nature, and despite all the challenges the year at hand has presented to our Clubs, we continue to live out their mission in support of the youth who depend on us.

“Across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and across

the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Movement, our rallying cry has been

‘ Whatever it takes to build great futures ’ for Club kids and this year it’s

certainly taken more than any of us could have imagined.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our organization and especially our frontline program

staff for the flexibility and resilience they have shown these past 8 months...

They may not realize it but our kids are learning so much just by watching how

our staff team -- their mentors -- have risen to the occasion. I know that when

we come through this we’ll all be coming away with a renewed sense of purpose

and newfound confidence that we stand ready to take on any

challenge that comes our way, together. ”

- Derek Heim, BGCMS President & CEO

One thing is for sure here at Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South... today and every day we will continue to adapt, overcome, and we will continue to do whatever it takes to build great futures .

Celebrating One Year of Better. Together.

mlombardo@bgcbrockton.org (Monica Lombardo) — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 16:48:26 GMT

On July 1, 2019, the Boys & Girls Club of Brockton and the Boys & Girls Club of Taunton officially merged to become Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South after nearly two years of partnership in order to do more for even more kids in Southeastern Massachusetts. This month we’re celebrating the one year anniversary of our union and taking a pause to reflect on all that we have accomplished in a year that has been anything but ordinary.

Though so much has been achieved to move our mission forward in the last 12 months, it has also been a truly challenging year for our organization, our members, and their families. The challenges we’ve faced as a nation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have deeply affected many of our communities and daily lives. At BGCMS, we’ve worked as a team to put safety first, plan strategically, and move forward -- and we know that our Clubs have been so much better positioned to weather this storm together than we ever would have been apart.

Despite the challenges we faced in the second half of our first year as BGCMS, we have much to be proud of. We began the 2019-2020 school year with a significant accomplishment -- expanding our Kids Cafe healthy meals program to the Taunton Clubhouse. For many years, our Kids Cafe healthy meals program has been one of the most critical supports we have offered at our Brockton Clubhouse. Upon merger, expanding nightly dinner service to our Taunton Clubhouse was a top priority. We are incredibly proud to report that our two Clubs now serve more than 400 hot, healthy dinners each weeknight to ensure that no child goes without the fuel they need to survive and to thrive, and we now serve more than 100,000 meals per year to our Club members!

After expanding our meal service capacity last fall, many families in our communities faced unprecedented challenges and heightened food insecurity this spring due to COVID-19. We are proud to have been able to adapt our Kids Cafe program to meet increased community need by launching a weeknight Grab & Go dinner program at both our Brockton and Taunton Clubhouses in mid-March to serve ALL youth under 18, not just our Club members, and we have committed to continuing Grab & Go meal service through at least the end of the summer.

In our first year as BGCMS, we have also placed great emphasis on improving and expanding our facilities to ensure we can serve even more kids, even better. Last summer, nearly $250,000 was invested into the Taunton Clubhouse’s indoor Aquatics Center to make much-needed repairs to the water-damaged roof and install a new HVAC system to ensure the safety of our Club members and many community members who utilize our pool for swimming lessons and more.

Our most recent facilities improvement project is wrapping up this month, as the large multipurpose room located in the rear of our Taunton Clubhouse is undergoing a complete renovation to transform an outdated and underused space. The new Stoico/FIRSTFED Youth Enrichment Center is comprised of accessible, multi-use classrooms for youth to learn and thrive in after school, a large cafeteria to house our Kids Cafe program, and a social recreation room to nurture our members’ positive development. The purposeful, flexible space will promote academic success, healthy lifestyles, creative expression, and great futures!

Perhaps our greatest win of the past year was bringing over 400 youth together at Camp Riverside each day last summer for the first time. Kids from Brockton, Taunton, and surrounding communities enjoyed nine fun-filled weeks of camp at our beautiful 45-acre Camp Riverside property, as our merger made it possible to provide transportation from Brockton to Camp Riverside in Taunton, and allowed for the expansion of our Kids’ Cafe program into the summer months in Taunton. We are now able to help significantly more kids access fun, safe, and affordable summer programs where they can develop self-confidence and social skills, build lasting relationships with peers and counselors, work to improve their grasp of core academic disciplines, increase their level of physical fitness, and explore their creativity. Especially for urban youth, the summer months can be some of the most critical of their lives and helping them to spend their summers in safe, green-spaces can truly change a child’s life. While camp looks a little different this year due to guidelines surrounding bus transportation and the need for much smaller group sizes, we are eager to be able to run at full capacity again in summer 2021 and get back to the important work of bringing youth from multiple communities together for fun, learning, and self-discovery!

While we don’t do what we do to be recognized, all of our hard work has not gone unnoticed. At the 2019 Boys & Girls Clubs of America Northeast Leadership Conference, our Taunton Clubhouse was presented an award for an exceptional increase in ADA (average daily attendance) and our Board of Directors was awarded the Gold Honor Roll League of EAGLES award — the highest regional level of board recognition bestowed by BGCA. We are thrilled to be recognized for the progress we have made across all levels of our organization this year, and we are motivated to keep pushing forward towards our goals for greater impact.

The progress we have made since last July serves to prove that we truly are #BetterTogether. With hard work and the support of our communities, we will help to build even more pathways to #GreatFutures for many years to come!

#GreatFutures Start With Safe Clubs

mlombardo@bgcbrockton.org (Monica Lombardo) — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 16:35:31 GMT

In order to reach their full potential, children first and foremost need to feel and be safe in every way. At Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South , we work to nurture the positive overall development of our youth through intentional programming in safe, caring, and enriching environments. The safety of our members has always been our highest priority, and now more than ever before during this unprecedented global health crisis, safety is at the forefront of every decision we make.

E ach year during the month of June, recognized as National Safety Month , we pause to reflect upon, evaluate, and renew our commitment to ensuring the safety of everyone in our care. This year, healthy and safety have never been more front of mind for our staff and parents alike, and we’re taking every precaution to ensure the health and well being of our boys and girls as they return to programming with the start of the upcoming summer camp season in early July.

Especially now, during this unprecedented time, the safety of our youth is critical to the well-being of our community. Our leadership team has worked tirelessly to create a comprehensive COVID-19 Prevention & Phased Reopening Plan that will enable us to begin resuming programming in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The safe environments we have worked so hard to develop have been challenged like never before, and as such, we have adopted additional safety procedures and enhanced best practices to help limit the potential spread of illness that will remain in place during the summer camp season and likely into the start of after-school programming in the fall as well.

These added preventive measures include daily temperature screenings for everyone in our facilities, increased handwashing and the installation of more than 40 additional hand sanitizing stations across our facilities, daily disinfecting of our program spaces and high-contact program equipment, following social distancing best practices, and limiting group sizes for our members in line with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Minimum Requirements for Health & Safety for Child & Youth-Serving Programs.

As we move into the next phases of the state’s reopening, we look forward to offering summer camp programming at both our Brockton and Taunton Clubhouses and at Camp Riverside . This summer, perhaps more than ever before, kids will need opportunities to connect and re-establish many critical interpersonal skills after months of social distancing from their friends and many of the adults they trust and know best aside from their parent s.

“Young people need to know that someone

cares about them. Boys & Girls Clubs offer that

and more. Club programs and services promote

and enhance the development of boys and girls

by instilling a sense of competence, usefulness,

belonging, and influence.” - BGCMS Handbook

Our members need environments that offer positive peer and adult relationships, guidance, structure, high expectations, and opportunities to try new things – these are the signals to them that they are safe and cared for. At every level of our organization, we employ a comprehensive Child Protection Policy which outlines policies within four elements of screening and hiring, training, supervision, and feedback systems. We take the prevention of child abuse extremely seriously, and as an organization, we are committed to taking proactive steps to protect children in our care to ensure a safe and impactful Club experience for all members.

It is so important for our Club community to go beyond physical safety protocols and establish a strong culture of emotional safety in which members can feel accomplished and fulfilled. At BGCMS, we focus on helping our members grow into well-rounded you adults by offering programs that focus on the whole self. We work to protect and fortify the emotional well-being of our members through our social-emotional development and mentorship programs by giving our members outlets to express their opinions and feelings, engage in dialogue, and develop meaningful relationships. Creating an atmosphere where youth feel safe is not just about the structure and safe buildings, it’s equally as important that our members feel valued, like their voices are heard, and that their opinions matter.

According to Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s

National Youth Outcomes Initiative (NYOI)

survey administered to our own BGCMS Club

members in April 2019, 88% of members feel

as safe if not safer when they are at the Club

compared to when they are spending time elsewhere .

Within our programs, we work to ensure that the safety of our members is the highest concern for all of our team members. All adults who work with members within our Clubs, including volunteers, are required to complete a Child Abuse Prevention Training prior to any contact with our youth. This training covers everything from inappropriate relationships to neglect and accident or injury risk. All of our staff are required to have up to date training in CPR and First Aid and concussion protocol. To ensure that our staff members are fully trained in these protocols, regular random safety drills are conducted at all of our facilities to ensure we are prepared in the event of a true emergency.

Our members themselves also play an important role in upholding the safe environment at our Clubs. Our Member Code of Conduct is a set of rules designed to ensure that all members and staff feel safe and respected while they are at our Clubs and camps, that age-appropriate behavioral development is consistently reinforced, and that all staff and members act as positive representatives of BGCMS. Parents are encouraged to ask their children about issues such as bathroom procedures, what happens at their Clubhouse or camp, and, ultimately if anything is making them uncomfortable. Feedback and community involvement are vital components of staff supervision and abuse prevention, as well as building a culture where kids feel safe.

At Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we take child safety extremely seriously and pride ourselves on fostering a culture of safety where kids are free to learn and grow. We are always working to provide our members with the safest, most enriching programs and spaces so that they can feel and become confident as they work to achieve #greatfutures!

Learning to Swim Helps Kids Build Skills & Confidence With Every Stroke

mlombardo@bgcbrockton.org (Monica Lombardo) — Tue, 12 May 2020 16:53:05 GMT

“Dreams are best pursued by diving in head-first” - Anonymous

At Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we're constantly encouraging our members to engage in new experiences that will push them to reach new heights -- and new depths too. As we recognize #NationalWaterSafetyMonth throughout the month of May, we're reflecting on the critical importance of safety and skill in the water, and the longterm developmental benefits for youth of accomplishing the feat of learning to swim. For many of our members, learning how to swim serves as the foundation upon which they'll build the confidence they need to try even more new things as they march towards adolescence and young adulthood.

As the summer months draw near, National Water Safety Month helps us promote the idea that everyone should have the opportunity to become water competent . This means being aware of surroundings while in the water, understanding risks, having swimming skills, and knowing how to help others in the water. At Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South safety is our highest priority, and as such we offer swimming lessons for children as young as 6 months as well as lessons for older youth and adults throughout the entire programming year. We work to ensure that all of our swimmers -- young and "old" -- are safe, comfortable, and confident in and out of the water.

In our Taunton Clubhouse Aquatics Center , our swim lessons offer a safe, positive, and fun experience for swimmers of all levels. We offer a wide range of swim classes, private lessons, clinics, and swim camps for various ages and skill levels. Open swim is also a daily option for our regular after-school program participants throughout the year. Each spring, many of our members take swim lessons at our Taunton Clubhouse in preparation for the warmer months ahead. However, due to the unprecedented closure of our Clubs this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our members have lost months of instruction time that would have set them up for the summer. This year, swim lessons offered during the summer season will be more important than ever for our kids, and especially critical for our members who do not yet know how to swim.

Many of our members come to us without any swimming experience, and in many cases, this lack of experience leads to hesitation around the water. Our spray deck at Camp Riverside helps kids who may not be comfortable around water gain familiarity before learning how to swim in the pool. The spray deck is an engaging, approachable, ADA compliant play area that features water elements like sprinklers and waterfalls. This play-based exposure to water helps kids who may be reluctant to swim become more comfortable and confident in and around the water, and encourages them to continue engaging in new experiences and learning new skills .

Learning to swim cannot only be a daunting task for some children but for many of the youth we serve, swimming lessons can often be entirely inaccessible. For many families in our community, swimming lessons are considered a non-essential luxury, and studies have found a correlation between income levels and children’s ability to swim.

According to a 2019 study published by the USA

Swimming Foundation, 66% of free or reduced

lunch-eligible youth report having little to no swimming ability.

The study found that child and parent fear of drowning and parental involvement or encouragement were the most commonly reported barriers to learning how to swim. 92% of BGCMS Club members qualify to receive free or reduced lunch, meaning the population of kids we serve is much more likely to have little or no swimming ability than youth in more affluent communities.

Not only does swimming open the door to some of the other water-related activities that we offer at Camp Riverside - like fishing, canoeing, and kayaking - but it also sets the tone for our kids to continue diving head-first into other new experiences. Mastering a major life skill like swimming builds confidence and empowers children to believe in themselves and their ability to achieve their goals.

Learning how to swim helps instill resilience in our members so they can continue trying new things and pursuing their goals as they grow. We are always working to help our members build important skills that will inspire confidence and courage as they work to achieve #greatfutures!

Volunteers: The Secret Sauce for Mission Advancement

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 17:37:09 GMT

“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.” – Elizabeth Andrew

For Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, like so many other nonprofit organizations, volunteers are absolutely essential to carrying out our mission. From lending their time and talents to spruce up Camp Riverside each spring in anticipation of the arrival of campers in June, to devoting countless nights and weekends as coaches for our youth sports leagues, to providing afternoon homework help -- volunteers are ingrained into so many aspects of what makes our Clubs a second home for the nearly 2,500 youth we serve each year.

#NationalVolunteerMonth , recognized throughout April, gives us the chance to celebrate the many incredible individuals and groups that help us live out our mission and ensure that every child has the chance to have a great future! Volunteering is an integral component of the culture of our Clubs, and volunteers play a key role for us at every level of our organization.

We engage passionate individuals who want to give back to their communities in a wide variety of volunteer opportunities. Individual volunteers who offer their time to our Clubs make an immediate and lasting impact on the lives of our members through their service in a wide variety of program areas. I ndividual volunteers at our Clubs can offer expertise in a variety of specialty program areas. Our Athletics & Recreation Department, for instance, allows many volunteer coaches and referees to make an impact through organized sports leagues, including floor hockey, basketball, soccer, and volleyball. By sharing their strengths and passions during the sports season, these individuals help us to instill in our members the importance of healthy habits and the values of leadership, determination, and teamwork.

Volunteers with expertise and passion in a certain field provide a wealth of knowledge for our members to learn from. Through our Keystone Keynote Speaker Series , members are exposed to role models and career paths that they may not have known existed through volunteer speakers. From politicians and veterinarians, to Harvard University professors -- we invite a diverse group of leaders to donate their time to inspire ambitious goals in our members. Each speaker tells their own story, including their failures, moments of weakness, loss, and adversity. Then, they lead an interactive activity that encourages critical thinking, team-building, leadership, and self-reflection. Our volunteer speakers inspire our members to strengthen their leadership skills and continue working towards their goals despite whatever circumstances may seem to be standing in their way.

While single-day service is an accessible way for volunteers to make an immediate impact, individuals with special interests in certain program areas often choose to serve in long-term mentor-based roles at our Clubs in a variety of program areas based on their experience and expertise. Many students from local colleges and universities choose to volunteer with our Clubs in this way. These passionate individuals serve as consistent, positive adult role models for our youth, help contribute to the quality of our programs, and support the well-rounded development of our members within these different program areas. This type of volunteering requires dedication to our mission, and is one of the best ways to remain connected and committed to our members’ personal success over an extended period of time.

According to the National Mentoring Partnership,

at-risk youth who have a mentor are 90% more interested in

becoming a mentor themselves.

In addition to hosting individuals, we also welcome volunteer groups from corporations and other organizations to enhance our programming and facilities. Our group volunteer opportunities provide a meaningful, productive team-building experience while fulfilling a need at one of our Club or camp locations. Volunteer groups often visit Camp Riverside, the home of our summer camp programs, to complete physical construction or modification of camp infrastructure, beautification and upkeep of our grounds, and other projects to prepare the space for summer. We rely on corporate volunteer groups like The Phia Group, Bank of America, Sensata Technologies, the United Way , and many other partners to help us prepare Camp Riverside for both opening and closure each year.

Beyond seasonal preparation, volunteer groups can also work directly with our members during our regular after school or vacation week program hours. This includes visiting our Clubs, supporting Club events, hosting Club members at their offices, or hosting school supplies or winter outerwear drives. Groups of volunteers are especially helpful when it comes to facilities projects, collection drives, career exploration, and special events.

One of the most inspiring examples of corporate volunteerism is the Sullivan family of Sullivan Tire & Auto Service, who generously host a holiday celebration at both of our Clubhouses each December. The Holiday Parties for Kids provide our youth, many of whom might not otherwise have access to cheer of the holiday season, the opportunity to share in friendship and fun. In addition to volunteering their time to decorate the Clubs and serve special holiday meals, the Sullivan family and their employees also provide hand-picked presents for every boy and girl to ensure that no child goes without a special holiday gift of their own.

Arguably our most committed and crucial volunteers are those who serve as members of our Board of Directors. These dedicated individuals give their time, talents, and treasure to help advance our mission. Our board members go beyond the call of duty, taking the time out of their busy lives to serve on committees, assist in event planning, fundraise, and make crucial Club decisions. They provide governance and guidance to our senior leadership team, and are charged with leading our organization, especially in challenging times like those we are facing today.

At Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Northeast Regional Leadership Conference last fall, our outstanding board was awarded the Gold Honor Roll EAGLES award -- the highest level of BGCA board recognition -- for their outstanding work. The League of EAGLES Organizational Recognition Program Gold Honor recognizes organizations that achieve at least 95% board involvement measured by their engagement, fundraising, giving, strategic leadership, performance, and service.

At every level of our organization, volunteers set a positive example for our youth and inspire Club members to become future volunteers, mentors, and leaders themselves. At BGCMS, we are committed to helping youth develop into well-rounded adults by nurturing the whole self. We work to do so by instilling in them a sense of community and a desire to positively contribute to society.

According to Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s National

Youth Outcomes Initiative (NYOI) survey administered

to our Club members in April 2019, 73% of our teens

volunteered at least once in the last year.

Not only does volunteering positively impact our Clubs, but it also makes a real difference for our volunteers themselves as well. Time spent at our Clubs helps both members and volunteers build skills, make new connections, and feel a sense of greater purpose. For volunteers, the rewarding first-hand experience with our youth can help expand perspectives and attitudes about the world around them.

The crucial work that our volunteers help us to do is invaluable to our organization. Volunteers help us in so many ways to create pathways to great futures and carry out the critical work of our mission for the youth who rely on us each and every day!

Celebrating Club Girls To Honor The Past and Inspire Great Futures!

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 16:42:20 GMT

The United States Congress first designated March as Women’s History Month in 1987, and since then this month has been celebrated each year to commemorate and celebrate the vital role that women play in American history. The celebration of #WomensHistoryMonth across the nation provides a unified platform to amplify women’s voices in order to honor the past, inform the present, and inspire the future. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, Women’s History Month gives us the chance to honor our female founders, empower the women who carry out our mission, and embolden the future generation of female leaders within our Clubs.

Looking back at the history of women within our own Movement, we proudly celebrate the three Hartford, Connecticut women who in 1860 founded the organization that would go on to become the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. What Alice Goodwin, Mary Goodwin, and Elizabeth Hammersley began as one stand-alone Boy’s Club has since grown into a national organization serving more than 4 million youth per year! As individual Clubs began to affiliate, our Movement was named the Federated Boys’ Clubs from 1906 to 1931, at which point it was renamed as the Boys’ Clubs of America. It wasn’t until 1990 that the organization officially became the Boys & Girls Clubs of America , with our Congressional charter amended to reflect the incorporation of female members into our Movement. This year, Women’s History Month gives us the added opportunity to celebrate this landmark in female inclusion as we recognize the 30th Anniversary of girls’ full and equal recognition in our Clubs.

30 years after their official incorporation into our Movement, girls now make up nearly half of the members served at Clubs across the country and here at Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South. As such, establishing an environment in which our girls feel comfortable and empowered to learn, grow, and flourish is central to every program that we offer. At BGCMS, we operate multiple programs tailored to the unique needs and interests of the girls which are designed to inspire #GreatFutures. SMART Girls , a discussion-based small group program for adolescent girls, helps young women explore their attitudes and values as they build skills for eating right, staying physically fit, getting good health care, and developing positive relationships with peers and adults. The program’s focus on social-emotional development helps improve readiness to learn, self-confidence, academic performance, and overall personal development. Socially and emotionally competent girls are better prepared to navigate the world around them and to succeed in the Clubs and beyond.

“One-third of girls attribute their lack of

motivation for becoming leaders to fear of

being laughed at, making people mad at them,

coming across as bossy, and not being liked by

people.” - (Change It Up, Girl Scout Research

Institute)

Girls Gym gives girls their own time and space to feel more comfortable participating in athletics, in addition to all of our traditional co-ed athletics offerings. Through member feedback and surveys, we discovered that because the gym was so male-dominated, many girls were intimidated, felt they didn’t know enough about sports, and were too afraid of making mistakes to try new activities. Girls Gym helps girls build confidence in an athletic setting that they may not have felt comfortable doing otherwise, filling a gap in youth development programs. Since the program started, we have added girls’ volleyball and basketball travel teams and observed a steady rise in girls' participation in co-ed gym activities as well.

Our Director of Athletics & Recreation, Courtney Mosher, is one of our most visible and vibrant female mentors for our youth. She shares her time between both our Brockton and Taunton Clubhouses, so all of our members are able to learn from and look up to her. As part of her commitment to our kids, Courtney recently supervised the annual Don Leal Memorial Floor Hockey Tournament, a competition that has been running at our Taunton Clubhouse for more than 50 years.

“During the games, I was congratulated on

being the youngest and first-ever female

Athletics Director at our Clubs,” said Mosher.

“Initially, I thought to myself, ‘it doesn’t

matter that I’m a woman,’ but I’ve realized

that it actually does, and I feel honored to be a

knowledgeable, confident woman in sports.”

Mosher’s knowledge and confidence make a real difference for our girls, and as our first-ever female Director of Athletics & Recreation, Courtney is a true role model for our females.

Like Courtney, all of our Program Directors work hard to ensure that every child has the opportunity to engage in fun and enriching programs and explore new experiences. In our STEM Labs, SciGIRLS is an innovative initiative aimed at inspiring our female members to pursue STEM careers. The SciGIRLS program launched at the start of the 2018-2019 academic year and goes beyond our traditional high-yield STEM curriculum to introduce both a historical and futuristic outlook on STEM careers. Girls in the program learn about the historical accomplishments of women in STEM, and have the opportunity to engage with women currently working in STEM industries. Learning from female role models who are leaders in their fields is another way that girls are exposed to possibilities for their future.

“The more experience youth have with

leadership roles and extracurricular activities,

the more likely they are to aspire to leadership.

However, environments in which girls can

develop and safely practice leadership skills are

scarce.” - (Change It Up, Girl Scout Research

Institute)

We are working to form the next generation of leaders, and we understand the critical importance of providing our members with strong mentors to learn from and look up to. As such, our professional staff, Board of Directors, and volunteers echo the diversity of our members so that our youth - especially our girls - have access to the experience and expertise of a diverse group of mentors. At every level of our organization, from programs to personnel, we aim to demonstrate to our members that a great future can start right here, today, by virtue of their own commitment to success. While we celebrate and empower the women and girls in our Clubs all year long, especially during this 30th Anniversary year, Women’s History Month provides for a special focus on our current female leaders, and the leaders of tomorrow.

Healthy Habits Today Poise Club Kids for Great Futures

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 14:37:36 GMT

The road to heart health begins in childhood. The habits youth form today are likely to become their habits for life. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we understand that promoting healthy habits for our members means providing holistic support for their healthy physical and emotional development. Each February, during #AmericanHeartMonth , we double down on our commitment to educating our boys and girls about the long-term impacts of the choices they make today on their health and vitality in the future.

Our Healthy Lifestyles programming helps develop our members' capacity to engage in positive behaviors that help them nurture their own well-being, set personal goals, and live successfully as self-sufficient young adults. We are dedicated to providing our members with the resources and opportunities they need in order to take the power of good health into their own hands, and it starts with ensuring their most basic needs are always met.

Food insecurity is a leading cause of malnutrition in children, and for too many youth in our community it is also a threat to their cognition, emotional regulation, and long-term health. Through our Kids Café Healthy Meals program , we serve nutritious dinners to more than 400 youth each evening during the academic year, and both breakfast and lunch to more than 500 youth during the summer months to ensure our members never leave our Clubs hungry.

92% of our members qualify for free or

reduced-price school lunches, and many

depend upon lunch at school and dinner at

our Clubs as their only reliable sources of

healthy food each day.

Further, we work to ensure that the meals we serve are well-balanced so that our members do not just get food to fill them for the day – they get the proper nutrition to fuel them for their futures. Eating well gives our members the energy they need to set and achieve their goals, and create positive habits that will sustain their long-term health as they develop into young adults. We incorporate as many natural ingredients as possible into these meals, limit the number of processed foods we use, and offer as much fresh produce as we can to ensure that our members have balanced plates and balanced diets.

According to Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s

National Youth Outcomes Initiative (NYOI)

survey administered to our Club members in

April 2019, 86% of BGCMS members report

eating fruits at least once a day, and 75%

report eating vegetables once a day.

Apart from a healthy diet, youth also need access to daily physical fitness opportunities in order to maintain their heart health and their overall well-being. Daily physical activity is shown to increase a child’s self-esteem, mood, and all-around cognitive function. Kids who are regularly physically active also tend to have better grades, school attendance, and classroom behavior. For young people living in urban environments, going outside to exercise and play with friends is not always an option. In cities like Brockton and Taunton, there are limited outdoor areas for youth to be active and very little green space for children to safely play. Our Clubs provide a vital space for our members to stay fit and healthy.

In addition to group play and individual free recreation time in our gymnasiums, our Clubs offer playgrounds, sports leagues, and team-based programs to keep our members moving. Our Brockton Clubhouse offers several dance programs in our Dance Studio, and both our Clubhouses have teen fitness centers where members can utilize cardio machines and free weights to improve their cardiovascular health and strength. Our Taunton Clubhouse offers a full indoor Aquatics Center to combine healthy living, water safety, and enriching fun. Swimming is not only a great way to stay active, but it is also an important life skill that our members are able to practice every day at our indoor pool, both through swim lessons offered by our Clubs and as part of the regular programming day. Our Aquatics Center also serves as the host site for our very own competitive swim team, local high school swim teams, and adult lap swim to encourage the well-being of our community members.

When school is out for the summer months, our Clubs also host full-day camp programs at Camp Riverside, where members are encouraged to explore a wide variety of ways to be active. Camp activities like rock climbing, swimming, canoeing, high and low ropes courses, field games, and nature walks are just a handful of the opportunities offered to the more than 500 youth we serve each day at during summer camp. Access to our 45 acres of safe green space at Camp Riverside is a crucial resource that we provide members in order to keep them active and healthy. Having fun while being physically active encourages our members to continue engaging in activities that help them stay fit and have fun at the same time.

According to the 2019 NYOI survey, 80% of

BGCMS members report being physically active

for sixty minutes or more at least two days a week.

Of all the opportunities and resources that we offer to our members to help keep them healthy, the heart of our Healthy Lifestyles programming is wellness education. We work to teach our youth how to make healthy choices when they are not at our Clubs, including healthy foods and positive behavior. We help members make the connection between proper nutrition and activity and feeling well and healthy.

Our wellness education curriculum is designed to help our youth understand where their healthy food comes from, increase their knowledge about nutrition, and get them excited about staying active. Youth learn about natural and environmental sciences in our STEM Labs and get hands-on experience to understand where their healthy food comes from by growing fruits and vegetables in our indoor hydroponic grow-towers. These fruits and vegetables are also used in the Kids Café Healthy Meals program to serve fresh produce to even more members and pique their interest in the cycle of healthy choices.

Along with learning about physical well-being, our members also engage in programs that help foster their emotional and mental wellness. Programs like SMART Girls, Passport to Manhood, and Buddy Chats offer space for our members to express themselves, explore their opinions, and learn from the experiences of their staff and peers.

By empowering our members with the knowledge and resources they need to make healthy choices in all areas of their lives, we know we are contributing the kind of systematic change that is so desperately needed in communities like ours. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we work to incorporate healthy living into all areas of our members’ Club experience and provide a holistic wellness program. We aim to help our youth lead well-balanced, healthy lifestyles that nurture their hearts, minds, and bodies and set them on the path to great futures!

Mentors Help Club Kids See and Seize Their Potential

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 19:11:09 GMT

“A m entor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey

At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, mentoring is an integral part of all that we do. Mentors offer a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction – and during #NationalMentoringMonth we are shining a spotlight on the important role that mentoring plays in the positive development of our Club members.

We pair our members with caring, consistent adults who serve as role models for our youth and help them build confidence, communicate their ideas, and develop a positive sense of self. This type of personal growth is defined as social-emotional development , and it is arguably the key ingredient to their present and future success. Having a mentor from a young age fosters improves a child’s readiness to learn, academic performance, behavior and attitude, and overall positive personal development.

Our Next Level Football College Prep Program is a prime example of the impact that mentorship-based program models can make a profound impact on youth. Next Level Football is a unique college preparation program, which was founded by Brockton High School alumni Macey Russell of Choate, Hall & Stewart LLC and Judge Michael Williams of the MA Dept. of Industrial Accidents. Launched in 2015, the program now serves more than 50 under-resourced youth from Brockton in grades 8 to 12 each year. Next Level Football provides academic support and mentoring to prepare student-athletes to thrive at the collegiate level, allowing them to transform the trajectories of their lives.

The mentorship-based program has been nationally recognized with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s most prestigious program award - the 2019 Gold Honor Award for Program Excellence . This award recognized Next Level Football as the number one Sports, Fitness and Recreation program run by any Boys & Girls Club in the country. In 2017, Next Level Football won second place in the same category among all “homegrown” BGCA programs nationally.

Next Level Football combines athletic training with academic and personal mentoring to prepare participants for rigorous college academics and instilling both technical football and valuable life skills. College tours, guest speakers, and weekly supplemental academic sessions are provided to participants with the support and information they need to prepare for expectations after high school. Weekly lectures include tips on studying habits, applying for college and financial aid, resumes and interview prep, overcoming peer pressure, time management and more. The participants in the Next Level Football College Prep program are emerging leaders who serve go on to serve as mentors to others at the Club and in their community.

The majority of youth in the program will be first-generation college students. Most come from single-parent, low-income families with limited means to support them in the academic or athletic pursuits. These young men benefit not only academically and athletically, but also emotionally as they form relationships with their caring mentors – Coach Macey Russell, Coach Mike Williams, and Coach Gene Marrow – all Brockton natives who have gone on to much success and who serve as tangible examples of what hard work and dedication can accomplish. More than that, they model the importance of turning around to help the next generation through mentorship and access to opportunity.

“Coach Mike, Coach Macey, and Coach Marrow are three

successful men giving back to their community.

It’s an honor to witness that as a young man.”

- Devante Offutt, NLF alumni and Framingham

State University student-athlete

Beyond our formal group mentoring programs like Next Level Football, all of our afterschool enrichment programs utilize the principles of natural mentorship to help nurture positive youth development. Our programs in Character & Leadership Development help our members acquire the skills and knowledge they need to make a difference in their communities and create brighter futures for themselves. Our Passport to Manhood, SMART Girls, and Buddy Chat programs all aim to engage our youth in discussions and activities with staff and peer mentors to reinforce character, leadership, and positive behavior as they make the transition from childhood to young adulthood. Across all of our programs, our caring staff provide guidance and encouragement that help kids develop a positive self-image and learn to respect their own and others’ ideas and identities.

According to the National Mentoring Partnership,

at-risk youth who have a mentor are 55% more likely to enroll in college,

81% more likely to participate in extracurricular activities,

and 90% more interested in becoming a mentor themselves.

Our members are encouraged to become role models for their younger peers and to help inspire others. High standards of conduct, personal responsibility, and commitment to others are recognized and celebrated through our Member of the Month and Youth of the Year programs. Each month, one member from both our pre-teen and teen cohorts are selected as a Member of the Month, an honor earned by demonstrating true leadership and outstanding character. Our annual Youth of the Year competition honors the extraordinary achievements of one Club member and the example they set for younger members at our Clubs.

“People at the Club walked into my life and made a difference.

They reminded me that I can make a difference in the lives of others.”

- Mariah Brown, 2017 Youth of the Year

Our former Youths of the Year and many of our alumni remain involved in our Clubs after graduation. They continue to support current members, sustain meaningful relationships with their peers, act as role models for younger members, and make a positive impact on their community. Many of our teen members form and lead interest groups at the Clubs, work as counselors at our summer camps, help teach in different program areas, and serve as voices of encouragement for our younger members.

Our intentional approach to mentoring provides youth with the support of caring adults who are committed to their progress and invested in their success. We embrace the power of mentoring at our Clubs to help nurture the holistic development of our members and put our youth on the path to #GreatFutures !

Access & Affordability: The Keys To Connecting Kids To Club Memberships

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 15:55:40 GMT

How do we know potential when we see it? What do #greatfutures look like today? At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we see the potential for great futures in each and every one of the boys and girls who walk through our doors. We know that all of our youth are full of promise and possibility, and we are determined to do whatever it takes to meet their needs, support their dreams, and set them on the path to success.

For too many youth in our communities, generational cycles of poverty, violence, and underachievement create barriers to future success. In many cases, these kids have the desire to set and achieve goals but do not possess the resources or support system to do so. This is where our Clubs come in. We work to intercept these cycles, break down barriers, and transform lives by inspiring our kids, raising expectations, and providing opportunities and support to ensure that our kids can succeed.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South is fueled by the mission to nurture strong minds, healthy bodies, and community spirit through youth-driven, high-impact programming in safe and fun environments. Our Clubs provide each of the nearly 2,500 members we serve every year with high-quality programming that is safe, fun, and which makes a measureable difference in the long-term trajectory of their lives.

To do so, we utilize Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s nationally developed “Formula for Impact” model to help drive the three priority outcomes of Academic Success , Healthy Lifestyles , and Character & Leadership for our youth. Our programs in Academic Success help to provide our youth with the skills and resources they need to succeed in the classroom, apply learning to everyday situations, and embrace 21st Century technology to achieve career success in the future. Our Healthy Lifestyles programs develop our members' capacity to engage in positive behaviors that nurture their own well-being, set personal goals, and live successfully as self-sufficient adults. Programs in Character & Leadership development are designed to help our members acquire the skills and knowledge to make a difference in their communities and create brighter futures for themselves in the process.

Across all areas of programming, the key to making a real and lasting difference in our members’ lives is breaking down barriers to success and making our programs accessible to all members, regardless of their life circumstances. For our Clubs, accessibility means offering programs that are affordable , localized , and informed , starting with the fact that Club membership costs just $35 per year . No child is ever turned away due to inability to pay, and we offer financial assistance for families who cannot afford the cost of membership.

An annual membership to our Clubs

costs families just $35 per child. In

reality, it costs our Clubs more than

$900 per child to deliver our life-

changing programs.

We understand that many of our teen members in particular cannot rely on other sources to pay their membership fee. For this reason, more than 90% of the financial assistance provided by our Clubs to cover the cost of a school year membership is given to teen members. Further, our Youth Jobs program helps teen members prepare for the workforce and earn a reliable income by placing them in jobs throughout the community or at our Clubs to make maintaining membership through high school more feasible.

More than any other group of members, teens have the autonomy to choose where they spend their time. As such, our teen attendance is one of our truest measures of programmatic success. Every day, more than 100 teens choose to spend their afternoons at our Clubs, participating in positive and productive activities that set them up for future success. We recognize the importance of keeping our teens engaged in safe and positive programming, and we strive to ensure that our life-changing membership is affordable for all youth.

Keeping our programs localized within our communities also helps us serve even more youth in our region. Both our Brockton and Taunton Clubhouses are located downtown, but even with our centralized sites, many kids cannot easily get to their local Clubhouse from their school. In fact, the number one barrier reported by parents to accessing Club programs was the inability to bring their kids to our Clubs after school. In order to break down this barrier, we provide transportation between our Clubs and local schools. We offer both before and after-school care , and members are able to take a van from their Club to their school in the morning and from school to the Club in the afternoon. Our fleet of Club vans operates routes to nearly every elementary and middle school in our cities so that our members can access the programming they rely on every single day.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South also operates extension sites at the housing communities of Chatham West and The Pines Apartments in Brockton in order to serve even more children in our region. We bring our fun and enriching programs to neighborhoods around our cities so that even when kids can’t get to us, they still benefit from our life-changing programs.

Our organizational values stem from a commitment to creating an optimal Club experience for our members. Our programming is informed by our members and their experiences, and our dedicated staff work to adapt program offerings to suite the changing interests and needs of our youth. Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South offer what young people need and want most – mentors who respect and listen to them; safe environments where they can have fun and be themselves; and engaging programs that nurture their bodies and minds and empower them to try new things.

“The Club teaches us that if we can be

better, we can make the future better!”

- Pamila, 11, Brockton Club member

For so many of our kids in our communities, a membership at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South is the transformational first step on the path to achieving their fullest potential. Our members are welcomed to the Clubs with the promise that a great future can start right here, today, by virtue of their own commitment to success. We strive to support our youth in every way – from their most basic needs to their biggest dreams – and to ensure that great futures are within reach for every child!

Club Scholarships Place College and Great Futures Within Reach

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 19:20:48 GMT

For many hopeful first-generation college students, gaining college admission is a tall task in and of itself. Add to that soaring tuition and on-campus living expenses, and the act of enrolling in college becomes an almost herculean feat for low-income students looking to access higher education.

November is #NationalScholarshipMonth and at our Clubs, it’s a month devoted to raising our members’ awareness about the many scholarship opportunities available to them through Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South’s many corporate and community partners who share our commitment to their future success.

At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South (BGCMS), we believe that #greatfutures start with a great education. We also believe in doing all that we can to address as many of the socioeconomic barriers to college access and college graduation as possible.

College access is more than just ensuring that our members have the support they need to get good grades, score competitively on college entrance exams, and tour colleges to find their best match - it also means working to help them identify opportunities and resources to get the financial assistance they need to realize their dreams of attaining a college education.

At our Clubs, promoting #AcademicSuccess is more than a priority - it’s the foundation upon which all of our programs are built, and the results speak for themselves.

According to our Clubs’ April 2019 NYOI

(National Youth Outcomes Initiative) data

compiled by Boys & Girls Clubs of America,

95% of BGCMS members are on track to

graduate high school in four years.

Further, 88% of our members expect to complete a 2 or 4-year post-secondary degree, and 48% of our members expect to achieve an advanced degree at some point in their lives.

Clearly, our kids have big dreams and we’re committed to helping those dreams become a reality by connecting them with ten of thousands of dollars in available merit-based academic and leadership-focused college scholarships -- like Sullivan Tire & Auto Service Scholarships which are awarded annually to Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South members, staff, and alumni. Over the past 5 years, more than $50,000 in scholarship funds have been awarded through the Sullivan Tire & Auto Service Scholarship to help send dozens of well-deserving Club members on to college and to help many of our Club staff members continue their educations.

“I don’t think teens and kids fully realize how much our Boys & Girls Clubs can inspire and support them,” said Mario Centeio, who graduated from Brockton High School and from our Brockton Clubhouse, and who received a Sullivan Scholarship this spring.

“The scholarship I received made me so happy

and hopeful! $5,000 is a lot of money for me

and I just feel so thankful to the Club for every

staff member that believed in and inspired me

- they’re the reason that I’m standing here

today,” said Mario.

The Phia Group’s $10,000 Great Futures Scholarship is awarded annually to one college-bound Club member to assist them in their pursuits of building a strong work ethic, developing self-appreciation, and pursuing their educational dreams.

In May of 2019, Adam and Kelly Russo awarded the first-ever $10,000 Great Futures Scholarship to graduating Club senior Anthony Ellcock, who also worked part-time at the Brockton Clubhouse. Adam Russo (founder and CEO of The Phia Group) and Anthony's family visited our Brockton Clubhouse to surprise him with the news during one of his shifts and present him with the scholarship. Anthony is now a freshman at UMass Boston studying Electrical Engineering.

Another scholarship opportunity at our Clubs is the annual Youth of the Year competition. Each year, Boys & Girls Clubs of America holds a Movement-wide competition to award the most prestigious honor a teen can receive as a member of their local Boys & Girls Club. The Youth of the Year is BGCA’s signature effort to foster a new generation of leaders, fully prepared to live and lead in a diverse, global, and integrated world economy. With this title at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South comes a $4,000 scholarship and a laptop (courtesy of The Phia Group), and the chance to compete on a regional and national level to become Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Youth of the Year.

Many of our other corporate partners offer scholarship opportunities as well which our members are encouraged to apply to. These partners include Bridgewater Savings Bank, Crescent Credit Union, HarborOne Bank, Mechanics Cooperative Bank, Metro South Chamber of Commerce, Planet Fitness, Taunton Federal Credit Union, the Rotary Clubs of Brockton and Taunton, and Wells Fargo.

As part of this #NationalScholarshipMonth, we are building a scholarship database for our teen members to utilize during our Diplomas 2 Degrees program with the support of our #MassachusettsPromiseFellowship College Access & Career Exploration Coordinator. This database provides our members with easy access to scholarships offered by our generous core partners, scholarships that they may qualify for as Club kids, and additional regional scholarships they may not know are available. To date, we have identified over one million dollars in scholarships that our members and youth in the Metro South region may qualify for.

At our Clubs, supporting education doesn’t stop when our members graduate from high school and Club membership -- supporting their continued success with college scholarships is a critical component of our commitment to creating pathways to college and #greatfutures!

For Club Kids, Promoting Positivity is the Key to Bullying Prevention

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 18:07:37 GMT

For nearly 15 years, October has been nationally recognized as #BullyingPreventionMonth and utilized as a platform to educate children, adults, schools, and communities about bullying prevention. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we work hard every day to provide safe, fun environments in which our members can learn and thrive. To achieve these environments it’s essential to teach our youth about healthy relationships, the detrimental effects of bullying, and the importance of creating a welcoming atmosphere for everyone at our Clubs.

Bullying is defined as acts of aggression that reflect a real or perceived power imbalance. It is typically a repeated action and can be verbal, social, physical, or cyber-based. According to the United States Government’s Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention , led by the Department of Education and Department of Human Health Services, 1 in 5 students between the ages of 12 and 18 experience bullying. According to the same interagency, bullying can result in reduced interest or avoidance of school and activities, decreased achievement, lowered self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. Youth who bully others are more likely to get in fights, vandalize property, drop out of school, be abusive in romantic relationships, abuse drugs, and alcohol, and generally commit crimes as adults.

Our mission at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South is to “nurture strong minds, healthy bodies, and community spirit through youth-driven, high-impact programming in safe and fun environments.” We understand that bullying prevention within our Clubs and among our members is a critical part of setting our kids on the path to #GreatFutures. By setting high expectations, fostering a sense of belonging, and providing opportunities for growth and development for all of our members, we aim to empower our youth to become caring and responsible young adults.

At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, our number one priority is member safety. This means creating a culture of acceptance and a safe environment where positive peer to peer interactions take place. We believe that youth need to learn about the importance of positive relationships, conflict resolution, and confidence through working with mentors, educational activities, and positive through reinforcement.

According to a nationwide bullying study conducted in 2018 by Ditch the Label, an anti-bullying charity, over a third of bullies surveyed said that they do not spend a lot of time with their parents or guardians. A similar number also said that they experience arguments at home every day. Many reported that they had experienced trauma in the last 5 years - including their parents divorcing or the loss of a family member, or even the birth of a sibling. According to this study, other factors that contribute to bullying behavior include decreased access to education, insecurity in relationships, or low self-esteem linked to experiencing bullying themselves.

Most generally, bullying stems from poor stress management, inability to build positive relationships, and low self-esteem. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we offer programs that help youth develop these crucial skills. Positive Social-Emotional Development is one of our most important goals for our members. Social-emotional development improves youth's readiness to learn, self-confidence, behavior, academic performance, and overall personal development. Nurturing our members’ development not only helps to prevent bullying, it is also vital to their successful futures in society. Socially and emotionally competent youth are better prepared to navigate the world around them and are more likely to succeed in school, at our Clubs, and in life.

88% of our members feel safer at our

Clubs compared to other places,

according to an April 2019 survey

of our member’s attitudes about

their Club experience.

Our Clubs run targeted programming specially designed to help foster our youth’s personal development. Passport to Manhood engages adolescent boys in discussions and activities that reinforce character, leadership, and positive behavior as they make the transition from adolescence to manhood. 2 out of 3 bullies are males, and boys are statistically less likely to positively cope with their emotions than girls. For our female members, our SMART Girls program helps adolescent girls explore their attitudes and values as they build skills for eating right, staying physically fit, getting good health care, and developing positive relationships with peers and adults. These crucial programs prepare our members for positive conflict resolution, help them build self-awareness and confidence, and provide them with platforms to discuss their values and beliefs.

Beyond these small group programs, we also strive to create opportunities for our members to form meaningful, positive relationships with a variety of mentors. Mentors at our Clubs include our excellent team of youth development professionals, Club alumni, and older current members. Buddy Chats are group-based mentoring activities that provide a platform for our members to open up to staff and to each other. Every Friday afternoon, youth are divided by grade level and groups are given their own space to discuss relevant, potentially difficult topics such as bullying or mental health. They also discuss resources and techniques to help them face these kinds of issues and talk about what they can do to prevent negative situations for themselves and their peers.

Personal responsibility, commitment to others, and high standards of conduct are also encouraged and formally recognized through our Member of the Month and Youth of the Year programs. Each month, one member from our 5 to12-year-old pre-teen cohort and one member from our 13 to 18-year-old teen cohort is selected as a Member of the Month, an honor earned by demonstrating strong leadership and outstanding character. Our members are further encouraged to exhibit excellent character through our annual Youth of the Year competition, which is aligned with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America National Youth of the Year program and honors the extraordinary achievements of teenage Club members across the nation.

The high expectations and sense of belonging we work to foster at our Clubs let our members know that their opinions are heard and that they have the ability to contribute in meaningful ways and positively influence others. Providing our members with a sense of belonging and the opportunity for growth within our Clubs also helps them build a sense of pride in their actions and confidence in themselves.

Bullying prevention runs much deeper than encouraging our members to use kind words. Through our programs focused on the whole person, social-emotional development, and mentoring, we are working against bullying by helping to build strong, resilient, and considerate young people who are poised to lead #greatfutures and lift up others along the way.

For Club Kids, Career Development Starts Long Before The Job Search

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 17:56:11 GMT

In 2016, the U.S. Senate designated September as #NationalWorkforceDevelopmentMonth to recognize the importance of workforce professionals and highlight initiatives that support successful employment. Workforce development generally refers to investments in education, training, and career advancement. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we encourage and empower our members throughout their time at our Clubs to pursue their passions and build towards future career success.

Through our programs in Academic Success and Character & Leadership Development, we aim to inspire our members, raise expectations, and help them set long-term goals to channel their interests and talents into meaningful, rewarding careers. We know that education is the key for youth to unlock their full potential and as such, we work to instill a life-long love of learning in our members which will serve as the foundation for their future successes. Our educational programs provide our members with well-rounded resources and opportunities to explore the wide world of career possibilities. Our ultimate goal for our educational programming and workforce development initiatives is to expose our members to the many different career paths they might take to achieve their own #greatfutures.

Career development goes far beyond technical training and is inherently tied to the development of the whole person. After our members leave our Clubs, we want them to be ready to start careers, not just jobs. The difference between the two is simple. While a job pays the bills, a career is a lifelong journey -- an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life with opportunities for progression and growth. That journey requires transferable skills like communication, flexibility, self-awareness, and an ability to identify and pursue one’s passions.

In each of our STEM Labs, boys and girls are engaged in hands-on, high-yield activities ranging from simple chemistry projects and elementary robotics to hydroponic gardening, weather observation and more. Our SkillTech programs help familiarize members with technology, particularly the basic computer skills that are necessary to excel in school and the workplace. These integrated STEM programs help to provide our youth with the skills and resources they need to succeed in the classroom, apply learning to everyday situations, and embrace 21st Century technology to solve our most challenging social problems.

We also help to develop our members’ creativity and cultural awareness through visual and digital arts, music, and dance. The excitement of new experiences and the willingness to learn that go hand-in-hand with these exploratory programs translate into invaluable workforce skills. A life-long interest in learning is one of the most important factors in growth, flexibility, and in turn, job satisfaction. While this is an essential quality of career success, supporting academics alone is not enough. For this reason, we supplement traditional educational curricula with programs specifically designed to foster character and leadership skills in our youth.

At our Clubs, as members transition to high school and beyond, we provide the support they need to explore and take their next steps towards self-sufficiency and adulthood. Our Diplomas 2 Degrees college readiness program assists Club members as they work towards high school graduation and prepare for post-secondary education. Our dedicated staff take members on college tours and help with the college admission and financial aid application processes. In partnership with many generous donors, our Clubs also have the ability to offer nearly $30,000 in scholarships annually to college-bound members.

According to the 2019 National Youth

Outcomes Initiative (NYOI) survey administered

to our Club members in April 2019, 86% of

BGCMS youth expect to complete a 2 or

4-year post-secondary education.

Of those, nearly 50% expect to achieve an

advanced degree !

We also recognize that our members will, and should, pursue many different paths. Money Matters focuses on preparing our members with the knowledge and skills they need to form positive financial habits and become fiscally responsible. These are essential life skills that help lead to success in any field, and contribute to the well-rounded preparedness we strive to provide our youth.

By the time they are 13 years old, our teen members have access to many career training resources. Our Youth Jobs program teaches necessary skills for entering the workforce including resume writing, professional etiquette, and interview practice. We also work to place our teen members in jobs throughout our community and within our Clubs. This provides members with an environment that reinforces and develops what they have learned in their classrooms and at our Clubs and allows them to gain valuable job experience to kickstart their future careers.

Through our Keystone Keynote Speaker Series , we expose our members to role models and career paths that they may not have known existed. From politicians to veterinarians, to Harvard University professors, we bring in a diverse group of leaders to help inspire ambitious goals in our members. Each speaker tells their own story, including their failures, moments of weakness, loss, and adversity. Then, they lead an interactive activity that encourages critical thinking, team building, leadership, and self-reflection. Our speakers inspire our members to strengthen their leadership skills and continue working towards their goals despite whatever circumstances may seem to be standing in their way.

In all areas of programming, we are guided by our vision to ensure the greatest possible impact of our programs on the long-term positive trajectories of our members’ lives. This vision can only be realized by maintaining lifelong relationships with Club members and alumni to support them even after high school to ensure they not only go on to continue their educations but have the resources they need to complete their degree programs, begin rewarding careers, and ultimately achieve #greatfutures!

Back-to-School and After-School Too!

Tue, 13 Aug 2019 17:44:38 GMT

August is #NationalBackToSchoolMonth and the perfect time to share the powerful benefits of after school programs at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South. From early September through late June, the doors of our Clubhouses are open Monday through Friday during the critical hours of 2:00-8:00 p.m. Our after school programs provide a supportive bridge between school and home. Our Clubs are places where kids and teens can not only have fun but also receive guidance from positive adult role models and peers. Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South provides our youth with safe and fun environments to engage in high-quality and enriching programs that help to nurture strong minds, healthy bodies, and community spirit. Back-to-school means that children will have a safe and fun place to go each day that will give them the opportunity to learn and grow in all areas of their lives.

Our programs in Academic Success help to provide our youth with the skills and resources they need to succeed in the classroom, as well as apply learning to everyday situations, and embrace 21st Century technology to achieve career success in the future. The Learning Center at our Brockton Clubhouse and the Robert F. Stoico/FIRSTFED Charitable Foundation Educational Achievement Center at our Taunton Clubhouse are enriching environments that reinforce the importance of education and aim to inspire a lifelong love of learning in our members. One of our many programs that helps bridge the gap between school and home by providing youth with academic support is Power Hour , which offers tutoring and homework help to all Club members each afternoon. Our Learning Centers provide an environment free from distractions for our members to focus and complete tasks, as well as receive the support they need from our trained and responsive staff. Our programs in Academic Success instill positive values of hard work as well as consistency into our members’ daily routines, helping them become more independent and successful in their daily lives.

In addition to receiving educational guidance, our youth have the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with our staff members, as well as experience the benefits of mentor-based relationships. The impact of mentoring on children is monumental in improving educational achievement. Our programs in Character & Leadership offer these mentor-based relationships while focusing on improving our members’ personal responsibility and conduct. For example, our Member of the Month and Youth of the Year programs honor members who display good character and leadership, and who embody the Boys & Girls Club mission. Mentoring is a crucial part of positive youth development, and we work to empower our members to make decisions and connections that set them on the path to Great Futures.

Youth participating in mentoring

relationships have improved school

attendance, a better chance of going on to

pursue higher education, and better overall

attitudes towards school.

Many public schools cannot afford to offer children a variety of specialized activities that enhance their skills across multiple domains. Our daily schedule offers members a variety of activities from sports and recreation, STEM exploration, creative arts, and much more. Over the past two years, our Brockton and Taunton Clubhouses have each installed state-of-the-art STEM Labs thanks to our partners at the Massachusetts Life Science Center. Because of program support from key STEM education funders like the Sensata Technologies Foundation, the HarborOne Charitable Foundation, Columbia Gas of MA, the JetBlue Foundation, Wells Fargo, the Auriga Foundation, the CLA Foundation, National Grid, 3M and others, our members have access to unique spaces that offer hands-on experiences in the rising field of STEM and which provide our members with an integrated, experiential approach to learning and applying concepts which will prepare them to solve complex problems today and in the future.

Our programs in Healthy Lifestyles offer children opportunities to take part in a variety of physical activities including basketball, swimming, and educational programs that teach our members the importance of proper nutrition and exercise. Through our Triple Play program, members develop the capacity to engage in positive behaviors that nurture their own well-being, set personal goals, and live successfully as self-sufficient adults.

Research shows that children who are active

for at least 60 minutes per day are able to

better remain focused in the classroom, which

not only improves their abilities in school

but their overall livelihood.

The types of community disadvantage that Brockton and Taunton face can have a profound negative impact on our children in the areas of health, learning, and safety. Compounding this are low-income, urban settings where fast food is cheap and readily available, with few grocery stores and restaurants offering healthy foods. 50% of our members live in a single-parent home and 60% are part of households that earn $40,000 or less per year. Many Brockton and Taunton families struggle to put food on the table, gain steady employment, or afford key essentials.

As such, our Kids Cafe Healthy Meals Program is one of the most essential components of the services provided to our members. We provide nutritious meals to our youth each evening during the academic year, and both breakfast and lunch during the summer months to ensure that no member who wishes to eat at our Clubs leaves hungry.

Each day we serve meals to nearly 400 of our

members; totaling more than 7,500 meals

served per month and more than 100,000

meals served annually!

In addition to meal service, we work to teach our members how to choose healthy foods when they are not at their Club and to make the connection between eating well and feeling well and healthy. We also aim to eliminate the anxiety that comes with never knowing where one’s next meal will come from. By removing this constant worry from the minds of our members, we can help them better apply their efforts in school, and give them the freedom to just be kids.

After school programs can also offer extensive opportunities to children in Arts & Creative Expression . At our Clubs, we enable youth to develop their creativity and cultural awareness through knowledge and appreciation of the visual arts, crafts, performing arts, and creative writing. Our Visual Arts programming encourages members to express themselves through drawing, painting, and photography. Our Clubhouse gives children the space to explore their interests in art and creativity, which can help expand their skills and allow them to become more well-rounded individuals.

We are also proud to be a Music & Youth Initiative partner site with a full recording studio located in the Teen Center at our Brockton Clubhouse. Our Brockton Studio Clubhouse offers members the opportunity to learn all aspects of music production - from building instrumental skills, to song composition, as well as recording and performing. Creativity and expression are essential for a child’s personal and social development, as well as for their ability to work with and listen to others.

Not only are after school programs beneficial for young children, but they are also helpful for teens who face many different challenges like peer pressure or struggles in school or at home. Our Clubhouse can be a refuge for teens seeking a place to make friends and build towards their academic and career goals. In December of 2018, our Club partnered with Planet Fitness of Taunton to create our Planet Fitness Judgement Free Teen Center at our Taunton Clubhouse. This space offers members ages a place to exercise as well as a lounge area for working on homework and small group programming.

Through programs in College Access & Career Exploration , we offer extensive educational and career guidance for our teen members who will soon be graduating high school. Many of our Academic Success programs are designed specifically to service teen members and are implemented in our dedicated Teen Centers. Teen members can receive support for applying to college or trade schools, completing college essays, as well as researching career options for the future. Programs like Youth Jobs and Money Matters prepare our teen members to take on new roles in their lives and in the community through learning and acquiring the necessary skills to join the workforce, such as resume writing, interview techniques, as well as positive financial habits and responsibility. Our staff and teen-focused youth development professionals provide members with guidance, knowledge, and the necessary skills required to succeed after high school.

Throughout the school year, after school programs provide youth with a safe and fun environment that offers a variety of unique opportunities to help them excel in all areas of their lives. Each day at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, our members are greeted by passionate, engaging youth development professionals who focus on providing for each individual members’ needs. Our programs help enable youth to excel in their day-to-day life at both school and home, and to learn healthy habits from positive adult role models.

There is something for every child to discover at our Clubs this back-to-school season!

As Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South We Are Better. Together. In Every Way

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 17:33:36 GMT

Better. Together. It’s pretty simple really. Together, the Boys & Girls Club of Brockton and the Boys & Girls Club of Taunton can do so much more to help our members achieve great futures. We couldn’t be more excited that as of today, July 1st, our two storied Club communities have officially merged operations and missions and become the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South!

We have a new vision for the future of our Clubs but our mission is unchanged. That shared mission is “to nurture strong minds, healthy bodies, and community spirit through youth-driven, high-impact programs in safe and fun environments.” And together we are positioned to maximize our impacts in our respective local communities and bridge service gaps in our region. In every respect, the ultimate goal of our merger is to do even more for even more kids.

Since 2017, the Brockton and Taunton staff teams, Boards of Directors, and our network of community partners have been working hand-in-hand to share resources and ensure that the youth in both of these proud communities will continue to be able to rely upon their local Boys & Girls Club as an unparalleled resource aiding their academic success and social development. In coming together, the Brockton and Taunton Club communities have brought best practices, local partnerships, and unique resources to the table which position the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South to broaden the scope and reach of our core after-school, weekend, and summer camp programs. In all aspects of our union, our highest priority is to advance our shared mission and vision to provide accessible, inclusive, high-quality out-of-school-time enrichment programs and experiences for youth throughout our region.

But what exactly is a “merger” and why is it the best choice for our Clubs? The basic definition of a merger is a kind of partnership in which two or more organizations become one. Mergers are not one-size-fits-all, however, and they can take on many forms based on the particular needs and goals of the organizations involved. Not all partnerships result in merger and instead, coordinating services, referral relationships, or sharing information sometimes turn out to be the best option. A successful merger requires a long-term plan, openness to change, creativity, and a willingness to work together. Those involved have a unique opportunity to collaborate with people with different perspectives and experiences from their own.

Our merger is fully endorsed by our national parent organization, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and in fact, mergers of Clubs with close alignment of mission, programs/services, and serviced populations is a core component of BGCA’s “Great Futures 2025” strategic plan for our Movement. We are proud to join Clubs nationally in aligning our priorities around a shared purpose and goal, while meeting the particular needs of our local communities. To achieve greater outcomes for youth and to live out our mission, we agree with BGCA that it is critical to achieve a high level of program quality to ensure that our Clubs provide engaging and enriching experiences and opportunities for our members.

Many Clubs across the country have been exploring strategic partnerships, such as mergers, management agreements, or other innovative operating models (IOMs). This strategic direction stems from evidence that multiple organizations are strengthened through consolidating Club operations, addressing financial situations, resolving staff or facility challenges, and increasing ability to fundraise. In the past two years, over 130 IOMs have been designed across 200+ Boys & Girls Club organizations.

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When merger is deemed to be the best path forward, as is the case for Brockton and Taunton, BGCA is committed to ensuring a successful transition to the new operating arrangement so as to ensure seamless service for youth and to the community. BGCA has provided ongoing support to our Clubs, including organization assessments and analysis, financial assistance, and assistance in rebranding the new consolidated organization. Coming together to form one organization provides long-term stability through access to experienced senior staff and board leadership, proven programs, and an impressive roster of strong community partnerships throughout the region to support both fundraising and program quality. The merger also facilitates access to much-needed physical resources including a new home for summer programming at Camp Riverside located in the Myles Standish Industrial Park in Taunton and an indoor Aquatics Center at the Taunton Clubhouse.

Together, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South will serve more than 2,500 youth ages 4-18 each year through after-school drop-in and licensed child care programs, in addition to summer camp programs which run from late June through late August. Annual Club memberships will continue to cost families just $35 per year per child and no child will be turned away due to an inability to pay. As chartered members of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, both Clubhouses use the national organization’s Formula for Impact model that focuses on the priority outcomes of 1) Academic Success, 2) Healthy Lifestyles, and 3) Character & Citizenship. Within these core areas, we engage our kids in homework help, career development, the arts, community service opportunities, leadership development, daily fitness and recreation, and more. Over the years, our program offerings have evolved to meet the changing needs of Brockton and Taunton youth. Throughout each of our histories we have implemented a combination of Boys & Girls Clubs of America-chartered programs along with activities we design ourselves to best suit our Club members.

Our Clubs operate “Open Door” programs – meaning that our members are welcome to come to the Club as many times as they want or need, whether that’s once every few weeks or every day. During the school year, we are open Monday through Friday from 2:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., with our Teen Centers remaining open until 8:00 p.m. We also open on occasional Saturdays for special programs. When the cities’ schools are only open for half-days, the Clubs are open to members for extended hours.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South’s corporate offices will be headquartered at the Brockton Clubhouse located at 233 Warren Avenue in downtown Brockton. The organization’s Advancement Office which houses all fundraising and community outreach efforts will be based at the Taunton Clubhouse located at 31 Court Street in downtown Taunton. Rebranding efforts have included changes to the signage at both Brockton and Taunton Clubhouses, the debut of a new website (bgcmetrosouth.org), and new and improved social media accounts. All programs and people that our Club members know and love will remain the same sources of support and consistency that they are today.

As we embark upon this new chapter, it is essential that we pause first to thank our donors, community partners, and the families of the boys and girls who comprise our Club communities for entrusting us to provide your children with the tools, experiences, and support they need to seize the opportunities before them. We too stand poised to embrace the new opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South as we work to fulfill our vision to serve even more kids and to serve our existing members even better. Simply put, as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South we are Better. Together.body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Nature's Bountiful Benefits for Youth

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 17:22:42 GMT

June is #NationalGreatOutdoorsMonth , which gives us the chance to celebrate the many benefits and of spending time outdoors, especially for kids. Throughout the school year, after-school programs at Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South offer each of our Club members access to enriching opportunities to try new things, take risks, and hone new skills. Those opportunities are amplified during the summer months when youth have the opportunity to spend significant time each day outdoors learning from nature!

Nature play gives children a chance to express their creativity and develop critical thinking skills, in addition to helping them learn and develop many essential life skills that benefit their development across multiple domains.

With summer right around the corner, our boys and girls will have the opportunity to continue growing and developing outside the classroom at Camp Riverside, the 45-acre home of our summer programming for you ages 4-15.

Summer camp affords children space and opportunities to explore new environments, challenges themselves physically, and develop invaluable social skills. Many of the youth we serve reside in densely populated urban neighborhoods and lack access to safe green spaces to play outdoors. That’s why summer camp is particularly critical for low-income urban youth and why we are excited to share that for the first time this summer, our Greater Brockton campers ages 5-12 will be joining their peers from Greater Taunton at Camp Riverside and will truly be able to experience summer as it should be!

Camp Riverside features incredible amenities which provide a variety of enriching activities for our youth New at Camp Riverside for summer 2019 is a 40’ climbing tower, high and low ropes adventure courses, a 400’ zip line, a new playground and outdoor classroom, an expanded waterfront, and much more! Thanks to the help of great volunteers from Sensata Technologies and Bank of America this spring, our campers will have easier access to begin their exploration thorough expanded nature trails over a new footbridge to our expanded waterfront area.

Numerous studies evidence that group-based

activities at summer camp help boost a child’s

self-esteem, as well as their overall happiness.

At summer camp, children partake in a variety of team-based activities that develop their abilities to work with others. Sports like soccer, baseball, and basketball help develop a child’s communication skills as they interact with their teammates and bond over fun games. The outdoors provides a space for children to run free and use their imagination, often coming up with games of their own with fellow campers. Comradery is a staple at summer camps - children learn group cheers and songs as they partake in the collective camp experience. Theme weeks like Mystery Mayhem, which calls for campers to work together to solve the mystery of the missing camp mailbox, facilitate both critical thinking and teamwork. Group activities at camp allow children to more easily form friendships with their peers, which can make transitions between school years easier by introducing a child to new interests and new friends to look forward to in the fall. Nature play also provides a reprieve from the stresses of school, technology, and many forms of peer pressure.

The benefits of the great outdoors aren’t limited to the summer months and neither is our commitment to connecting our youth with nature. A key part of our after-school Healthy Lifestyles programming is Triple Play – a wellness program that strives to improve the overall health of our youth by increasing their daily physical activity, teaching them about good nutrition, and helping them develop healthy relationships with a focus on nourishing the mind, body, and soul. We encourage our youth to take control of their health by teaching them how to plant, grow, and harvest their own vegetables. This helps youth to develop respect for nature and learn how nature helps sustain their lives nutritiously, physically, and emotionally.

Integrating practical skills and activities into the outdoors engages our members who are offered limited recess and outdoor-time at school. According to the National Network of Public Health Institutes, nationwide only 35% of 6th-grade students participate in regularly scheduled recess. During the school year, it’s important for children to have time during the day to run and play. A 15 to 20-minute break outside allows children to release pent up energy and lets them return to class with higher awareness and stronger attention spans. A lack of free-play outside can negatively affect a child’s performance in school and at home.

Spending time outdoors can become more than just a break from the school day – it can become the place where children go to ask questions, experiment, and discover the world around them. Nature supports a child’s natural curiosity, and catering games and activities in the outdoors to supplement learning can be beneficial for children in many ways. This summer at Camp Riverside we are offering daily STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) activities, where campers will get to explore nature through our hiking trails and along the Three Mile River. Campers will also get to engage with life in nature through “raising” butterflies and tadpoles, and through birdwatching expeditions.

Not only does nature impact a child’s emotional development, but spending time in nature can help a child develop physically as well. Activities like climbing, jumping, and balancing help a child build an awareness of their body’s boundaries as well as develop their body’s essential muscles. At summer camp, children have access to a wide range of physical activities including soccer, baseball, and basketball, our climbing tower and ropes courses, swimming, archery and more.

Our New Heights Challenge Adventure Specialty Camp for campers ages 9-14 incorporates initiative games and challenges on our new 40-foot climbing tower and high and low ropes courses. Campers will have to incorporate the use of their full body as well as the help of their peers in order to complete the ropes course challenges. Exposure to a diverse range of outdoor activities helps a child develop the dexterity to perform a variety of tasks and even help them manage tasks they may encounter in the future.

The American Academy of Pediatrics

recommends 60 minutes daily of unstructured

free play as an essential part of children’s

physical and mental health and social

development.

Despite the positive benefits of nature, studies show that children are spending less time outdoors. The decrease in time spent outdoors is likely a cause of several factors, including the prevalence of social media and technology, as well as misconceptions about the importance of nature and its impact on children. Safety concerns are also a major issue among parents and guardians who believe that outdoor activity without parental guidance is potentially dangerous. Education on the importance of nature play for children is imperative for parents. In order to make the outdoors more accessible, Camp Riverside program fees are nearly 50% lower than the average figure families report paying for summer programs nationwide, and camperships are available to youth with significant financial hardships.

Nature is a place for kids to learn about themselves, their peers, and the world around them. Nature’s positive effects on a child’s emotional, physical, and social development reflect the importance of regular and daily outdoor play. National Great Outdoors Month reminds us how we can better educate ourselves and our community about the benefits of nature for youth and adults alike. We can’t wait to welcome our campers to Camp Riverside on June 24th! Let summer 2019 be the summer of greener spaces and brighter futures!

Swimming: A Life-Saving and Life-Enriching Skill for Youth of All Ages

Wed, 01 May 2019 17:11:06 GMT

May is #NationalWaterSafetyMonth – a timely opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of keeping our kids safe in and around the water. With summer right around the corner, swimming season is on the horizon and we’ll be offering a variety of aquatics programs at Camp Riverside from June through August to ensure that our boys and girls have access to high-quality, affordable, potentially life-saving swimming lessons.

National Water Safety Month takes place annually each May and is proclaimed as a joint effort of the World Waterpark Association, the American Red Cross, the National Recreation & Park Association, and the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance (formerly The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals/National Swimming Pool Foundation). We are proud to join these organizations in highlighting the importance of public education regarding safer water practices.

From the time school is out in June until school begins again in the fall there is a significant period of time when youth have an opportunity to learn and further develop outside of the classroom. Especially for urban youth, the summer months can be some of the most critical of their lives. We couldn’t more excited that beginning in June 2019 all Brockton Clubhouse campers ages 6-12 will be joining youth from our Taunton Clubhouse at Camp Riverside for summer programming! Camp Riverside is a beautiful 45-acre summer camp located along the Three Mile River in Taunton (only about a 15-minute bus ride from the Brockton Clubhouse). Camp Riverside features an in-ground swimming pool, brand-new rock-climbing tower and high ropes course, basketball courts, a new playground, ball fields, hiking trails, boating and fishing at the riverside, a new outdoor classroom and much more!

Swimming and other water-related recreational activities are especially popular among our campers during the warm summer months. Our Aquatics staff is dedicated to safety in and around water for every member, participant, and Club staff member. All Aquatics staff are trained and certified in lifeguarding, CPR/AED, First Aid & Emergency Oxygen. We have monthly in-service trainings which focus on different areas of risk and prevention, skills drills, and scenarios.

We also observe a 1:15 ratio for lifeguards to swimmers, which is lower than the state-mandated ratio of 1:25. Every swimmer is given a swim test and marked for their appropriate swimming level before entering our pools. We also review rules with any swimmer prior to entering the water. Lifeguards issue a swim test on the first day of camp or for any new swimmer. Counselors are always present in the water to assist with the test. Any child who does not take the swim test is marked as a shallow water swimmer. Non-swimmers must wear a flotation device and be accompanied by an adult in the water unless they can stand flat foot in the deepest part of the shallow end, with their head above water. Our pool is 3ft at the shallowest and 5ft at the deepest, and rope boundary separates the shallow end from the deep end. An accessible chair lift is available for campers with limited mobility. Counselors always accompany their groups in the water as well as on deck.

Swimming is the only sport which can save

your child’s life. According to the National

Safe Kids Campaign, drowning is the second

leading cause of unintentional injury-related

death to children ages 14 and under, so it is

absolutely crucial that all kids know how to

swim at a young age.

Even if you do not want to pursue swimming as a competitive sport, it is important to learn the basics. How to tread water, how to breathe, float, and get yourself back to the wall after accidentally falling into a pool, etc. are all lifesaving skills that are taught in swim lessons. Swimming skills are also important for other water-related activities such as canoeing or kayaking. While everyone must wear a life vest while participating in boating activities, knowing how to swim is an extra precaution that makes our campers even safer. Parents can have peace of mind knowing that their children know how to be safe in and around water.

In early August, a splash pad will join the list of new amenities at Camp Riverside for the Summer 2019 camp season in order to make water play more accessible for all youth. A splash pad, or spray pool, is a recreation area with water spraying nozzles of various kinds with little or no standing water. Splash pads are an ideal alternative to swimming pools for organizations like ours which are concerned about water safety. Because there is no standing water, the need for lifeguards or other supervision is reduced and there is little risk of drowning compared to traditional swimming pools.

While we offer swimming lessons as part of the camp day, the vast majority of our campers are low-income urban youth, who come to us lacking the ability to swim. In cities like Brockton and Taunton, there are fewer opportunities to engage in water-related activities available than there are in more rural areas. There are also disparities that exist when it comes to the cost of learning how to swim.

According to the USA Swimming Foundation,

79 percent of children in families with a

household income less than $50,000 have little

to no swimming ability .

Our Clubs are located within geographic areas that have Community Disadvantage Index ratings of 10 out of 10. This index measures poverty levels, crime rates, and social barriers that inhibit children and their families from succeeding. We aim to provide affordable opportunities to ensure that our boys and girls can succeed, regardless of their life circumstances.

While most campers achieve the life-changing ability to swim over the course of the summer, a splash pad would have a transformational impact upon our ability to safely keep more than 100 youth cool at one time. Besides the benefits of cooling down and getting much-needed exercise, water play provides a rich sensory experience for the developing child. Playing with water is important for a child’s sensory integration and development and the versatility of splash pads with their multiple spray zones appeals to all age groups. Additionally, splash pads offer universal accessibility for all types of physical abilities and this is something upon which our organization places great importance. Across all the upgrades to Camp Riverside, including the expansion of our waterfront and new playground structure, accessibility for youth with physical limitations is a top priority.

Not only do our campers gain the knowledge and skills to be safe in and around the water, youth ages 11-14 have the opportunity to learn how to save others. Our week-long Junior Lifeguard Camp has a strong focus on developing swimming skills to help participants meet the Lifeguarding course prerequisite. The course also introduces participants to life-saving skills, such as in-water rescues, use of rescue tubes, first aid, CPR, and AED. Participants also have the opportunity to shadow lifeguards in rotation to get a real sense of being on the job. This is an invaluable chance to learn what it means to be responsible for others and how to respond to an emergency.

A summer spent at camp provides unique opportunities to hone life skills that help kids become more confident, understanding, driven, and independent in all areas in their lives. In order to reach their full potential at camp, every child must feel safe. Summer camp with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Brockton and Taunton creates incredible opportunities for youth ages 4-15 to form new friendships, learn from one another, and together gain critical skills that will set them on the path to Great Futures.

Safety Lies at the Heart of our Club Culture

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 16:32:36 GMT

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and while child abuse is a difficult subject it’s critical to talk openly and honestly about the reality that threats to our children’s safety and well-being do lurk around too many corners in every community. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South we use National Child Abuse Prevention Month as a platform to spread awareness and bring attention to our Clubs' number one priority – the safety of our members.

At our Clubs we believe it’s essential to have an open dialogue with community members, families, and our staff team in order to maintain the highest standards in our commitment to protect our youth. Our Clubs serve many of the most vulnerable boys and girls in our communities and as such it’s essential that we provide our members with a safe and positive environment where they can grow in thriving young adults and that we impart to them the skills they need to overcome the many challenges before them.

Children who experience child abuse & neglect

are 9 times more likely to become involved

in criminal activity.

Child safety is our number one priority, and that starts with taking every precaution in determining who works with our youth. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South are a safe and fun environment where kids can pursue academic success, develop good character, become engaged citizens, and establish healthy lifestyles all under the guidance of our caring, trained and trustworthy adult leaders. Criminal background checks and CORI/SORI checks are required for every staff member and volunteer in our building. Direct supervision and feedback systems help us monitor all employees and volunteers to ensure that our children are in safe and caring hands.

Further, our mission-aligned insurance provider, the Redwoods Group - is dedicated to promoting cultures of safety within our Clubs' communities and many others. They provide us with a variety of training academies and tools to ensure that our staff of youth development professionals is fully trained on best practices in child abuse prevention. Our rigorous training and supervision processes enable us to provide the best possible mentors and leaders for our youth.

Our after-school and summer programs promote positive youth development at every turn. At our Clubs, children can find the support they need to learn new skills as well as develop their ability to communicate with peers and staff, especially about difficult subjects like physical or emotional abuse. Communication is key to ensuring child safety. When children feel accepted by their peers or the adults in their life they feel comfortable opening up about the challenges in their lives. Children who suffer from abuse need access to kind and trusting adults. They need guidance from someone who can listen and take proactive or appropriate action when needed.

For Club members we serve as an essential bridge between gaps not filled by their school and home lives – providing the essential nutrition, educational enrichment, and mentorship that every child needs to thrive. Each day, our boys and girls are welcomed by caring and trustworthy adult leaders who work to establish positive personal relationships with our members and who adapt to the needs of each individual child so that no one feels unsupported. By creating an environment and culture of acceptance, our members feel not only safe in communicating their thoughts and ideas, but strengthened by community and friendship to find hope through life's difficult challenges.

A number of our programs in Character & Leadership development help encourage members to reflect a high standards of self-conduct, personal responsibility, and a commitment to others. We help our members develop leadership qualities that allow them to take action against something they believe is wrong, illegal, or unjust. Our members learn that they can foster the positive values the develop at our Clubs within their communities. We believe our youth can strengthen their communities and foster positive environments in the various communities to which they belong when they take pride in their personal achievements and the achievements of their peers.

To that end, out commitment to promoting high moral standards at every level is proven and recognized through our Member of the Month and Youth of the Year programs. Each month, one member from our 5-12-year-old “pre-teen” cohort and one member of our 13-18-year-old “teen” cohort is selected as the Member of the Month for their age group – an honor earned by demonstrating true leadership and outstanding character. Members of the Month are recognized on social media, as well as on the main lobby bulletin board, in addition to earning a certificate of achievement. Our annual Youth of the Year competition is aligned with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America National Youth of the Year program, which honors the extraordinary achievements of teen Club members who serve as the ultimate representatives of the BGCA Movement. Providing positive adult staff mentors for our youth is critical in helping to shape our Club members into Members of the Month or Youths of the Year.

At our Clubs, we foster a sense of community in everything we do in order to ensure that every child feels accepted and understood. Programs like Torch Club, Keystone Club, Buddy Chats, SMART Girls and Passport to Manhood offer youth the support of a small, focused group of peers with whom they can establish trust, develop a sense of belonging, and wherein they can open up and listen to their peers in a respectful and insightful manner. These structured small group programs provide our members with the opportunity to plan community service projects, discuss new programs they would like to see come to our Clubs, and discuss their roles as leaders in our Clubs and the local community. Programs like these empower our youth to see their individual impact and to voice their opinions and let their communities take the shape of the positive values they’ve developed at our Clubs.

At our Club 50% of teens who regularly attend

volunteer in the community at least once a

month. Each year, our Club members perform

2,000+ hours of community service!

National Child Abuse Prevention Month serves as an opportunity to reflect on how our communities can better provide for and care for our children - especially those who need us most. Every child should have access to a safe environment where they feel accepted and understood, where success is nurtured and supported through positive relationships with peers and mentors, and where their thoughts and feelings are acknowledged and important. Our Boys & Girls Club is that safe, positive, special place for Brockton and Taunton's youth!

Empowering Our Girls Extends Beyond Women's History Month at the Club

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 17:16:20 GMT

March is National Women’s History Month and provides an opportunity not just to celebrate women’s achievements throughout history and across the world, but also right here at our Clubs. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South we have numerous programs which are intentionally designed to focus on the development and empowerment of girls. Women have played an incredibly important role in our organization’s own history and in fact it was three women – Mary Goodwin, Alice Goodwin, and Elizabeth Hammersley – who organized the very first Club in Hartford, Connecticut in 1860 started what came to be out national Movement.

One of our signature programs dedicated to empowerments of our female members is SMART Girls which promotes health, fitness, prevention/education and self-esteem enhancement in a small group setting designed to meet the developmental needs of girls in three age groups. Through dynamic sessions, highly participatory activities, field trips, and mentoring opportunities with adult women, Club girls explore their own and societal attitudes and values as they build skills for eating right, staying physically fit, getting good health care, and developing positive relationships with peers and adults. Our Clubs are committed to developing our community’s youth by instilling a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging, power, and influence. We especially want our female members to feel proud and confident knowing that they are valued members of our community and that their voices are heard.

At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we believe it is especially important for young girls to have the opportunity to thrive in programs in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) . In 2017, thanks to grant support from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center , we unveiled a state-of-the-art STEM Lab in our Clubhouse. The gaps in achievement in STEM testing underscore the importance of supporting Brockton and Taunton youth in these disciplines. Further, in typically male-dominated fields like science, technology, engineering, and math, it is even more crucial to provide young women with not just the tools and skills to compete in these arenas, but also the self-confidence and consistent encouragement to pursue them professionally.

Remy Uwilingiyimana, STEM Director at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, believes that it is an invaluable experience for the girls in our Clubs to see examples of women who are successful in STEM careers throughout history and today, so they can look up to them and say, “that could be me one day.” Not only are they learning about these accomplished women, but they are putting this knowledge into context through experiments and activities in our STEM Lab. With more women engaged in these fields, they stand to benefit from an influx of not just talent and intellect, but also diverse and fresh perspectives, which are crucial to solving the complex 21st Century challenges facing our world.

In 2018 the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South received a grant from the Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation to help fund our programs and opportunities which work to advance girls. With these programs, we aim to help shatter the glass ceiling and remove barriers that prevent women and girls from achieving their goals. Eastern Bank’s support contributed to the launch of our sciGIRLS program, an initiative aimed at inspiring our female members to pursue careers in STEM. The sciGIRLS program launcged at the start of the 2018-2019 academic year and goes beyond our traditional high-yield STEM curriculum to introduce both a historical and futuristic outlook on careers in STEM. Girls in the program earn about the past historical accomplishments of women in STEM, as well as having the opportunity to engage with women currently working in STEM industries through interactive information sessions hosted here at the Club and at the headquarters of STEM companies in the region. Most recently, a group of our female members went on a field trip to the headquarters of Sensata Technologies in Attleboro and were able to talk to a panel of women professionals, including the Program Manager of Finance, a Design Engineer, and the Director of Communication to learn about their personally and profession journeys to success in typically male-dominated fields.

Another area in which we aim to encourage our girls to participate are our athletics programs. At a local level, we work to make athletics at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South more accessible to girls to encourage their physical fitness. Mario Lamarre, our Teen Director and former Athletics & Recreation Director, started our Girls Gym program when he noticed that there weren’t many girls participating in gym activities. Through member feedback and surveys, he was told that because the gym was so male-dominated, they were intimidated that they didn’t know enough about sports and were too afraid of making mistakes. In response, they were given their own space so that they would feel more comfortable participating in athletics. They started with training and learning on specific sports and, eventually, started competing. Since the program started, we have added both a girls’ volleyball travel team and a girls’ basketball travel team. Since the launch of Girls Gym we have observed a steady uptick in co-ed gym activities as well.

According to Boys & Girls Clubs of America,

31% of Club girls ages 12 to 15 are physically

active every day, compared with 23% of girls

in the same age range nationally.

While it is important to celebrate and empower women and girls all year long, National Women’s History Month in March gives us an opportunity to both underscore women who have led the way and highlight girls who will be the leaders of tomorrow. By showing examples of women’s accomplishments, we can inspire our Club girls to fulfill their true potential and believe in their capacities to lead great futures !

Healthy Futures Start at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 17:01:18 GMT

February is #AmericanHeartMonth and offers a timely platform for raising our members’ awareness of heart health and the importance of overall wellness. Healthy Lifestyles programs at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South are focused on nutritional assistance and education, promote physical activity through active play, and empower our boys and girls to take control of their own health. Programs like Triple Play, Healthy Habits, and SMART Moves work to develop our members' capacities to engage in positive behaviors that nurture their own well-being, set personal goals, and live successfully as self-sufficient adults.

Food insecurity and lack of access to foods with great nutritional value is a challenge for many of our members due to the socioeconomic climate of Brockton and Taunton. A lack of proper nutrition and physical activity can lead to serious chronic health conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and diabetes – all of which take a toll on quality of life and which can place additional financial hardship on families already struggling to make ends meet.

Over the last forty years, childhood obesity rates have more than tripled, putting today’s youth at a higher risk than ever. In the United States, 18.5% of children ages 2-19 are obese. Unhealthy eating and lack of exercise cause many of the conditions that lead to heart problems and other health issues for children in the future.

92% of our members qualify for free or reduced school lunches, and many depend upon school lunch as their primary source of food each day. We believe all kids should have access to healthy food that can sustain and nourish them. That's why our Kids Café Healthy Meals program provides nutritious meals to our youth each evening during the academic year, and both breakfast and lunch during the summer months in order to ensure that they receive the nutritional support they need.

It's not only important that our members are free from the worry of not knowing where their next meal will come from, but also that they learn how to make healthy choices when they are away from our Clubs. That’s why, in addition to daily meal service, we work to teach our members how to choose healthy foods when they are not at our Clubs and to make the connection between eating well and feeling well and healthy.

Our Healthy Lifestyles programs teach members about the entire cycle of their healthy choices. Members grow fruits and vegetables in our Club’s garden and then harvest them for use in our “Young Chefs” elective cooking program, wherein kids can learn to prepare healthy meals following along with recipes. With more than two-thirds of our members being a part of single-parent households where a guardian is working long hours or multiple jobs, learning to prepare healthy meals gives our members the tools they need to be self-sufficient and make responsible choices over convenient ones.

Aside from diet, exercise is also an extremely important aspect of healthy living. For kids, exercise means playing and being physically active. That can be a real challenge for low-income urban youth who may not have safe play to play in or outdoors. Today, kids spend more time than ever before indoors and front of screens, but it’s extremely important for them to exercise every day. It is recommended that children and adolescents get at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day. Lack of play and increased screen exposure can cause many harmful effects on a child’s development and health. The benefits from exercise range from developing stronger bones, to lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. But exercising also helps children sleep and focus better during the day, as well as handle life’s challenges.

Only 21.6% of 6 to 19-year-old children and

adolescents in the United States attain 60 or

more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical

activity at least 5 days per week.

Many children rely on our Clubs as a safe place where they can run and play. Daily physical activity is not just important for kids because it keeps their bodies healthy - it also keeps their minds healthy. Daily physical activity is shown to increase a child’s mood and self-esteem, as well as help them overall in school. Students who are physically active tend to have better grades, school attendance, cognitive performance, and classroom behaviors. Children need a variety of structured and unstructured exercise to keep them on top of their game on and off the field.

At our Clubs, we offer a variety of options for members in our Healthy Lifestyles programs that keeps them active and having fun. Whether it’s in Triple Play, where members experience a higher level of physical activity through Daily Fitness Challenges, by participating in organized team sports like basketball, soccer, and volleyball, or just playing in the gym, there’s a way for every member at our Clubs to get up and get moving.

Health and fitness are extremely important for a child’s mind and body. It is important to educate our youth about the tools they need to succeed while they develop mentally and physically. The key to success is maintaining positive behaviors and a lifestyle that promotes their success. Helping kids on their way to becoming independent and successful adults is the role of places like Boys & Girls Clubs.

#AmericanHeartMonth serves a reminder that good health is something we need to take an active role in to achieve. Small, incremental changes to diet and activity level can make a big difference over time. When youth feel empowered to take control of their health, they feel empowered to take control of their lives. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South are committed to helping our members lead healthy, productive lifestyles so they can go on to achieve #greatfutures.

Mentoring Matters! In After School Programs it’s the People Who Make All the Difference

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 15:46:37 GMT

January is #NationalMentoringMonth and serves as an opportunity to focus national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities, and nonprofits can work together to increase the number of mentors nationwide to help ensure positive outcomes for our young people. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South, we work year-round to provide valuable, life-changing mentoring through our after school and summer programs. Mentoring is a crucial part of positive youth development, and we work to empower our members to make decisions and connections that set them on the path to great futures.

But what does “mentoring” really mean and why it is so important? The basic definition of mentoring is a relationship between an older, more experienced person and a younger person who relies on them for ongoing guidance and encouragement. Multiple studies show that mentoring makes a huge difference for positive youth development, but different children require various types and levels of guidance based on their individual needs and differences.

There are two main categories of mentors, formal mentors and natural mentors. Formal mentors are assigned to youth through official mentoring programs or after school programs like those at Boys & Girls Clubs. While mentoring programs have been proven to be extremely beneficial to a child’s development, only 5% of American children have a formal mentor. Natural mentors are adults who young people look up to and go to for advice without having been officially assigned as a child’s mentor. This could include but is not limited to extended family, neighbors, teachers, and coaches.

Despite the fact that 75% of children

nationwide claim to have a natural mentor,

there is a large opportunity gap based on social class.

At-risk youth have been found to be less likely to

have access to this extra support.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South are located within geographic areas that have a Community Disadvantage Index rating of 10 out of 10. This index measures poverty level, crime rates, and barriers that inhibit children and their families from succeeding. The types of community disadvantages that Brockton and Taunton face can have a profound impact their youth. Academic achievement past high school is often not expected or promoted within many of these families. Access to caring mentors at our Clubs helps raise expectations and provide opportunities for educational support to ensure that our kids can succeed, regardless of their circumstances.

Mentoring isn’t just beneficial for mentees… the mentor and the mentee alike can learn from the other’s perspective and see the world in a new way. Mentoring is also a way to give back to one’s community. Most of us can reflect on our lives and think of advice we wish we had when we were younger. Mentors are an important voice for youth to have as they have gone through similar challenges already and can provide guidance based on real-life experience. Providing this encouragement is a powerful way to invest in the next generation. There is so much potential that may not be realized without that extra push. Mentors can celebrate the talents of youth to empower them to set up goals and achieve them. This is an invaluable opportunity to change someone’s life for the better. If you ask anyone about their success, a mentor of some sort is often cited as who got them to where they are today. Sometimes, a child just needs someone who believes in them. As a mentor, you may be the only positive and stable relationship a child has.

The impact of mentoring is monumental in improving educational achievement. Many mentoring programs are focused on improving academics as it is seen as a tangible measures of success. At the Boys & Girls Club of Metro South, we work to provide all of our members with high-quality programming that is safe, fun, and makes a measurable difference, with an ultimate goal of imparting to them the skills needed to achieve success in the 21st Century. With the help of our staff of youth development professionals, our members engage in educational programs and receive support services that assist in improving their academic performance, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Daily tutoring and homework help is provided to our kids between the ages of 5-12 through our “Power Hour” program, and members ages 13-18 receive their own homework support services in our teen centers. Overall, youth participating in mentoring relationships have better school attendance, a better chance of going on to pursue higher education, and better overall attitudes towards school.

Mentoring is also impacts positive social and emotional development in youth. Children who have an example of a positive relationship in their mentor will have better attitudes towards school, their peers, and other social relationships. Mentoring improves perceptions of self-worth. If a child has someone who believes in them they will more likely believe in themselves and be more confident in achieving their goals.

Our Clubs are committed to developing our community’s youth by instilling a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging, power and influence. We want our members to feel proud and confident knowing that they are a valued member of our community and that their voices are heard. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South host a number of mentoring programs that foster the personal growth of our members. Our Passport to Manhood and SMAR T Girls programs engage adolescent boys and girls in discussions and activities that reinforce positive behavior as they build strong character and leadership and develop healthy relationships. We also have a weekly Buddy Chat program, wherein our members get together to discuss their attitudes and values about a multitude of topics that help them define their characters. Buddy Chats are a chance for our mentors to help youth develop leaderships skills and foster positive relationships.

Young adults who were at-risk for falling off track but had a mentor are 55% more likely to enroll in college, 78% more likely to volunteer regularly, 130% more likely to hold leadership positions, and 90% are interested in becoming a mentor themselves. Young people who have mentors to thank for their success often want to return the favor and help others in their community. Even while they are still at our Clubs, our members are already giving back to their community. Our Torch Club and Keystone Club empower members to support and influence their Club community, sustain meaningful relationships with their peers, and act as role models for younger members. Our caring staff provides mentorship that helps kids develop a positive self-image and learn to respect their own and others’ cultural identities.

Of all the many characteristics that make up a successful mentoring relationship, the most crucial is sustained contact. Especially since at-risk youth may not have many other stable relationships in their lives, it is so important that mentors can be counted on as a consistent presence in order to build trust. While mentoring is crucial all year long, National Mentoring Month in January is a time to reflect on how we can best support the next generation, especially those who need us most. As a mentor, YOU can make all the difference.