Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver

Target demographics: At-risk youth in the metro Denver area between ages 6 - 18.

Programs: Academic and career success (see schedule o)academic and career success:providing a supportive learning environment and promoting academic success are primary focuses of boys & girls clubs of metro denver (bgcmd). The 2011-12 evaluation revealed that club members who attended the club frequently had greater expectations for success in school and felt that they had more resources to plan for college than members who attended less frequently. Other results of the evaluation revealed that:attendance: on average, bgcmd club members attended 93. 4% of school days. 90% attendance is considered the threshold for a student to have the best chance at succeeding in school. Behavior: club members had significantly fewer behavioral misconduct incidents at school compared to nonmembers. On average, club members had 36 misconduct incidences in the school year and nonmembers had 42 incidences. Coursework: club members who frequently attended a program for homework assistance tended to have higher gpas than club members who did not receive assistance (mean gpa = 2. 49 vs. 2. 04). A higher proportion of club members who attended the club frequently scored proficient or advanced on the tcap math test than club members with low or medium attendance rates. The clubs have weekly games and activities to reinforce basic math skills. Club members had a higher median growth percentile on the tcap math test in comparison to nonmembers. In other words, club members improved more relative to their peers than did nonmembers. Education and career development programming enables youth to become proficient in basic educational disciplines, apply learning to everyday situations and learn skills to achieve success in a career. We also offer a variety of programs in arts and technology that have been proven to develop skills that lead to academic and career success. Examples of programs in this area include:project learn is a comprehensive program strategy that reinforces and enhances the skills and knowledge young people learn at school during the hours they spend at the club. Project learn is based on dr. Reginald clark's research showing that students do much better in school when they spend their non-school hours engaged in fun, but academically beneficial, activities. Through project learn, club staff use all the areas and programs in the club to create opportunities for these high-yield learning activities, which include leisure reading, writing activities, discussions with knowledgeable adults, helping others, homework help and tutoring and games like scrabble that develop young people's cognitive skills. Project learn also emphasizes parent involvement and collaboration between club and school professionals as critical factors in creating the best after-school learning environment for club members ages 6-18. Power hour is a daily program designed to help club members be more successful in school by providing homework help and tutoring and encouraging members to become self-directed learners. Accelerated reader is a year-round reading program. Reading coordinators are hired to work in the clubs to run a reading program utilizing the renaissance learning web-based software. Youth read books, take short quizzes to check comprehension, and receive incentives for participation. The arts programming enables youth to develop their creativity and cultural awareness through knowledge and appreciation of the visual arts, crafts, performing arts and creative writing. Technology (stem) programs develop 21st century skills for career success and supports members' academic performance by challenging youth to "think beyond the screen" through science, technology, engineering and math (stem) programming. Inquiry-based learning projects, targeted programs and high-yield activities build problem-solving and presentation skills, teamwork strategies, creativity and innovation, technical skills, and information/media literacy and ethics. The community schools model addresses the educational, health and social needs of youth and their families through a variety of school-based services. Community schools are proven to improve student achievement, increase parental involvement, increase student and teacher attendance, improve school climate, decrease special education referrals and improve students' mental and physical health. A community school is a set of partners working with and on behalf of youth and families to provide a comprehensive, seamless array of direct and indirect services to promote positive outcomes for youth, families and communities. Service areas span education, health and social services that are realized both during and outside of the traditional school day. Pace (promoting academics and character education) is an intervention program serving middle school-aged youth (grades 6-8) with significant behavior problems or who have been suspended or face expulsion from denver public school district (dps) schools. Common behavior problems among youth served by the program include fighting, carrying a weapon, drug involvement, truancy, threats/intimidation and habitual classroom disruption. A unique, proven approach to responding to problematic behaviors of students, this 15-day intervention provides youth with support and instruction by compassionate staff members who help youth to identify the causes of their behaviors as well as recognize their strengths and values. Youth are also linked to other supportive services as needed, including counseling, educational testing and family services. The ultimate goal of pace is to help students identify their strengths, limit their negative behaviors and increase students' chances for graduating from high school. Junior staff career development is a program designed to guide youth, ages 14-18, toward careers in youth development or human services by nurturing their leadership skills and providing guided, practical experiences. While working at the clubs, youth learn valuable job skills for future careers while they run the front desk, support programming, and maintain the membership tracking system. Money matters promotes financial responsibility and independence among club members ages 13-18 by building their basic money management skills. Participants learn how to manage a checking account, budget, save and invest. They also learn about starting small businesses and paying for college.

healthy lifestyle (see schedule o)healthy lifestyle:club members report regularly engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors. Specifically, members report exercising multiple days a week, diets that include fruits and vegetables, low levels of drug and alcohol use and little sexual activity in comparison to peers. 95% of bgcmd members reported exercising more than 60 minutes on one or more day(s) a week and more than half of bgcmd members reported exercising for at least an hour most days of the week. The proportion of youth engaging in substance use is much lower among the bgcmd members than among comparable youth. The majority (66%) of bgcmd teens reported that they had never consumed alcohol. Bgcmd teens consumed less alcohol over a 30 day period than teens surveyed in colorado. Bgcmd teens smoked cigarettes less over a 30 day period than teens surveyed in colorado. Bgcmd consumed less marijuana over a 30 day period than teens in colorado. Only 28% of club members reported that they had ever used marijuana. The majority of club teens (73%) reported never having engaged in sexual intercourse. Of the 27% of teens that did report having sex, most (75%) reported having used a condom. In contrast, only 60% of colorado high school students reported abstaining from sex. Health and life skills programs develop young people's capacity to engage in positive behaviors that nurture their own well-being, set personal goals and live successfully as self-sufficient adults. Bgcmd offers a variety of health and wellness programming year-round. Examples of programs in this area follow:triple play: through the triple play experience, bgcmd challenges members to become healthy and active by learning new ways to manage stress, maintain healthy fitness levels and form positive relationships with peers. Triple play program components will increase young people's understanding of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, improve their physical fitness through enhanced daily, physical activities and competitive sports leagues and build their pro-social skills and character. The triple play comprehensive strategy addresses the minds, bodies and souls of club members through specific curriculum and activities in the following areas: healthy habits, youth sports initiatives and social recreation. Sports leagues include:football: bgcmd offers 3 football teams (ages 7-8, 9-11, and 12-13) for boys and girls, sponsored by the denver broncos. Teams compete in inter-club games and the older teams participated in city-wide championships. All players are recognized for their contribution to their team and receive trophies at the end of the season football banquets. Indoor soccer: each club offers female leagues for two age groups (10-13 year olds and 14-18 year olds). Teams compete in inter-club games and in city-wide championships. This program is offered each fall for a 7-week season. Basketball: each club offers leagues for all age groups (6-8 coed, 9-11 boys, 9-11 girls, 12-13 boys, 12-13 girls, 14-15 boys, 14-18 girls, 16-18 boys). The owen branch hosts five of the six state basketball tournaments each year. The program is offered in the winter for a 10-week season. Outdoor soccer: each club offers leagues for boys and girls in three age groups (6-9 coed, 10-13 boys, 10-13 girls, and 14-18 coed). The program is offered in the spring for a 7-week season. Teen girls volleyball: each club offers female leagues for 14-18 year olds. Teams compete in inter-club games and in city-wide championships. This program is offered in the spring for a 7-week season. Baseball/softball/t-ball: the colorado rockies provides funding for our baseball/softball/t-ball program. In addition, the rockies have built a baseball field at the owen branch and provide funding each year for a part-time rockies coach at each club. Play60 is the nfl's initiative to encourage youth to engage in physical activity 60 minutes each day. Locally, the denver broncos partner with the american heart association, mile high united way (mhuw) and boys & girls clubs of metro denver to offer this program to club members. The 9-week play60 fitness program is offered daily at the clubs, includes several special incentives for participants, and is offered every fall. Smart moves is 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 features engaging, interactive small group activities designed to increase participants' peer support, enhance their life skills, build their resiliency and strengthen their leadership skills. The program's components include:smart kids, for children ages 6-9start smart, for youth ages 10-13stay smart, for youth ages 14-15wyman's teen outreach program - to address the issue of teen childbearing at a local level, boys & girls clubs of metro denver has partnered with the denver public health department at the denver health and hospital authority to provide wyman's teen outreach program, a nine-month positive youth development and teen pregnancy prevention program, to youth, 14-18 years old, at eight clubs as part of a five-year federally-sponsored research study. Through this program, bgcmd has expanded availability of teen-centered programming, established new organizational partners, gained access to program-level process and outcome data, and created a new mechanism through which teens are recruited to be members. In the first year of implementation, bgcmd enrolled 245 teens in the study, surpassing goal of 200 youth, and supported top youth in completing more than 3,300 hours of community service learning. Other partners include colorado youth matter, university of colorado denver, the wyman company, and emc consulting. Gates camp: at camp, club members, ages 8-13, are challenged to utilize their heads, their hearts and their hands to explore who they are through the lens of our "five pillars": leadership, enthusiasm, respect, cooperation and honesty. For just $10, youth participate in a week-long, gender-specific session that includes hiking, canoeing, rock climbing, archery, hands-on environmental games, and other outdoor activities. Gates camp also offers a counselor in training (cit) program for teens. Basic needs support: research shows that children must have basic needs met so they may develop into healthy adults. Many of the youth served by bgcmd reside in low-income neighborhoods and face economic distress, such that, many youth may not have access to proper food, clothing, shelter and health care. Bgcmd collaborates with dozens of partners to bring these services to the youth and families we serve. Kids cafe: in partnership with the food bank of the rockies, hot nutritious meals are served every evening in the school year and daytime in the summer to members at no additional cost at 10 of our sites.

character & leadership (see schedule o)bgcmd offers a variety of leadership programs and service-learning opportunities for youth. Club members have the opportunity to develop leadership skills in many ways, such as by serving as a peer mentor or committee officer, working with adults in the community and demonstrating their moral character. Service-learning combines service experiences with structured opportunities to reflect on the activity to further develop an understanding about the process and the impact of the project. Service-learning engages youth academically and civically, and encourages positive character development. Club members who participated in leadership programs reported greater feelings of emotional support, belonging and safety at the clubs than members who were not in leadership programs. Teens who participated in leadership programs were significantly more likely to engage in community service activities than teens not in these programs. Club members who participated in service programs had a significantly higher proportion of proficient/advanced scores on the tcap reading and math tests than club members who did not participate in service programming. Club members who participated in service learning programming had significantly fewer misconduct incidents at school than club members who did not participate in service learning. Character and leadership development programming 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. Some examples of programs offered in this area follow:leadership groups:keystone clubs are boys & girls club most dynamic teen program. Keystone clubs are chartered small-group leadership and service clubs for teens ages 14-18. Keystone members elect officers, plan and implement service projects, and fundraise to attend leadership conferences at a local, state and national level. Torch clubs chartered small-group leadership and service clubs for youth ages 11-13 focusing on character development. A torch club is a powerful vehicle through which club staff can help meet the special needs of younger adolescents at a critical stage in their development. Torch club members learn to elect officers and work together to plan and implement activities in four areas: service to club and community, education, health and fitness and social recreation. Youth of the year (yoy) a recognition and awards program that acknowledges outstanding members in the clubs. The yoy program helps youth to develop their leadership and communication skills through an extensive application and interview process that is held during the annual competition. 10-12 year olds, junior (13-15 years old) and senior (16-18 years old) youths of the month can compete at a club and city level. Senior winners can advance to the state, regional, and national competition. Youth empowering youth - youth empowering youth (yey) is a program in which club teens are trained to lead programs for other youth in the clubs. Yey is made up of several programs and partnerships that include peer leader positions, including reading buddies, power hour helpers, techsperts, youth for unity (yfu), smart-girl, and smart moves. We have partnered with smart-girl to develop a youth leadership training for all teen peer leaders. The 20-hour training includes information on positive youth development, group process, facilitation skills, skills for working with diverse groups, and stages of child development. Youth for unity to help educate young people across the country about the importance of tolerance and diversity, boys & girls clubs of america developed "youth for unity," a diversity education program designed to combat prejudice and intolerance. Youth for unity is a program that promotes and celebrates diversity in an effort to prevent prejudice, bigotry and discrimination. Youth for unity is the umbrella title for a comprehensive set of programmatic interventions that will allow clubs to help members appreciate and understand our society's diversity, recognize unfairness and take personal leadership in confronting bias.

technology education (expenses of $914,494) provided services to youth with access to technology, develops youth technical skills, promotes workforce readiness by increasing career options and supports youth academic performance. Summer camp (expenses of $423,372 and revenue of $6,502) funds an eighty acre residential camp which provides additional opportunity for youth to explore outdoor recreation. The camp serves almost 600 youth, ages 8-13, each summer with one full-time camp director and up to twenty-one part-time workers. Recreational facilities include a 3 acre lake, fishing dock, archery range, challenge course, rock climbing wall, volleyball and basketball courts. Recreational activities consist of hiking, canoeing, backpacking, fishing, rock climbing, archery, horseback riding, and other outdoor adventures. In self awareness and improvement, activities reinforce the concepts of leadership, enthusiasm, respect, cooperation, and honesty.