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Programs & Services

Core Programs: The Vehicles To Development:

Clubs provide diverse activities that meet the interests of all youth. Core Programs engage youth in activities with adults, peers and family members that enhance self-esteem and develop full potential. Based on physical, cultural, and social needs and interests of girls and boys, and using developmental principles, clubs offer program activities in five areas.

1. Character development and leadership development.
   Empowers youth to support and influence their club and community, sustain meaningful relationships with others, develop a positive self-image, participate in the democratic process and respect their own and others' cultural identities.
   
   
2. Education and career development.
   Enables youth to become proficient in basic educational disciplines, apply learning to everyday situations and embrace technology to optimize employability.
   
   
3. Health and life skills
   Develops young people's capacity to engage in healthy, positive behaviors, set personal goals, and develop the competencies to live successfully as self-sufficient adults.
   
   
4. The Arts
   Enables youth to develop their creativity and cultural awareness through arts and crafts, performing arts, and creative writing.
   
   
5. Sports, fitness and recreation
   Develops fitness, positive use of leisure time, skills for stress management, appreciation for the environment, and interpersonal skills.

Boys & Girls Club Youth Development Strategy -- Successful Character Development

Club programs and services promote and enhance the development of boys and girls by instilling:

• Sense of Competence -- the feeling there is something boys and girls can do and do well.
  
  
• Sense of Usefulness -- the opportunity to do something of value for other people.
  
  
• Sense of Belonging -- a setting where an individual knows he or she has a place where he or she "fits" and is accepted.
  
  
• Sense of Power or Influence -- a chance to be heard and to influence decisions.

When this strategy is fully implemented, the self-esteem of girls and boys is enhanced and an environment is created which helps them achieve their full potential.

Special Programs:

• Power Hour: A comprehensive after-school homework help and tutoring program. Power Hour is designed to raise the academic proficiency of club members ages 6-12. Word games, geography, reading, and writing are also included in the program
  
  
• SMART Moves: A nationally acclaimed comprehensive prevention program that helps young people resist alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use as well as premature sexual activity. The program includes small group activities and special events designed to increase participants' peer support, enhance life-skills, build resiliency and strengthen leadership skills. Staff, parents, and community-wide support are incorporated.
  
  
• SMART Kids: An extension of SMART Moves for 6 to 9-year-olds, SMART Kids employs a variety of entertaining means to arm young people with the skills and knowledge they need to avoid alcohol and other drug use, and help them in their personal and social growth
  
  
• Start SMART: A resistance skills program for youth ages 9 to 12 that focuses on ways to identify and resist peer, social and media pressures to use alcohol or other drugs, or become sexually involved. It includes age-appropriate material on puberty and friendships.
  
  
• SMART Girls: SMART Girls helps young women develop healthy attitudes and lifestyles leading to the development of their full potential. SMART Girls addresses the enhancement of girls' self-esteem, developing life skills, and health risk attitudes/behaviors and nutrition as part of SMART Moves.
  
  
• Physical fitness -- The Nike Daily Challenge: This series of year-round fitness programs is designed to encourage daily exercise and physical fitness by teaching and testing the athletic skills of club members. Challenges include Jump Rope (October, November, December); Basketball (January, February, March); Michael Jordan Invent-A-Sport (January, February, March); Ken Griffey, Jr. Home Run (July, August, September); and Jackie Joyner-Kersee World Class (January through June).
  
  
• Group activities: Computer training, arts & crafts, game room activities, and tournaments.
  
  
• Summer programs: Recreation, swimming lessons, ecology projects and training, gardening, arts & crafts, reading, computer classes, field trips (educational and recreational), fitness and athletics (baseball, basketball, golf, softball, and soccer).
  
  
• Life Skills Training: Life skills are defined as those skills needed for "surviving, living with others, and succeeding in a complex society." Training includes goal setting, problem solving, decision making, communication, dating, relationships with peers and adults, building resistance skills to the use of cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs, and conflict resolution.
  
  
• Torch Clubs, ages 11 to 13: A small-group club program that constructively meets the needs of young adolescents. Under the guidance of an adult advisor, Torch Clubs meet regularly, elect their own officers, and participate in activities they choose. Each Torch club chooses its own name and develops its own motto, allowing members to develop an all-important group identity. Activities focus on club and community service, education, athletics, fitness, and fun.
  
  
• TEENSupreme Keystone Club: Chartered small group leadership development clubs for young people ages 14 to 18. The program's hallmarks are leadership and service. It is a unique citizenship development experience that meets older adolescents' vitally important needs for a positive group experience. It gives young people the opportunity to develop self-esteem and social, employment and leadership skills; to contribute something of value to others; and to have a voice in how that contribution is made. It gives young people a chance to act on their humanitarian ideals. Through the experience, they build self-respect and strong attachments to family and community.
  
  
• Broader Horizons: Introduces young people to a wide range of career opportunities by taking them to where the action is -- work sites, businesses, government agencies and colleges, universities and vocational schools. Broader Horizons is part of the TEENSupreme program, and provides club members with in-depth knowledge of the education and training required to reach their chosen goals.
  
  
• Job Search Club: A part of the TEENSupreme program, the Job Search Club is a small group program that trains young people in effective job-hunting techniques.
  
  
• Job Ready! provides club members ages 15-18 with the skills and knowledge necessary to enter and compete in today's workforce. It is designed to build the essential skills teens need to find, obtain, keep and excel in a job.
  
  
• Computer Education: Helps kids of all ages become computer literate. Emphasizes computer literacy as the cornerstone of employment readiness. Helps level the playing field for kids without computers at home. Kids also access the internet under supervision.
  
  
• Prevention Services: Special programs targeting youth ages 13-18 at the highest risk of engaging in crime, violence, drug and alcohol use, gang activity, premature sex, and other personal destructive behavior.
  
  
• Athletics:

Basketball (Team & League Play) -- November through March and July through August

Baseball, Softball, and T-Ball (Team & League Play) -- May through August

Swimming -- June through August

Golf -- Seasonal

Judo -- Year 'round

 

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