The Boys & Girls Club Story

Mississippi

This was a very special and important few days in my life and in my short tenure at BGCA. Special for so many reasons and significant due to the internalization of the work we all do. 

The economic downturn of the past several years has brought hardships to many Mississippi Boys & Girls Clubs, not dissimilar to what Clubs across the nation have faced. Still, the resilience and commitment of every board volunteer and staff member I met came through loud and clear. I couldn’t help but see the despair and challenge in the eyes of Club members, but also the hope and opportunity they hold so close for a brighter future. Clearly, the fortitude of these youth and their sheer tenacity to overcome obstacles of almost insurmountable magnitude was impressive. My heart was heavy, but lifted at every interaction by the local community’s efforts to make a difference. 

Kelton Holman, Youth of the Year, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Delta.

It was a thrill to join the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Delta for their 10th anniversary gala at the Alluvian Hotel in Greenwood. The organization also recently doubled its number of board volunteers using a recruitment plan modeled on the Formula for Impact. Chief Professional Officer Jeremy Deming welcomed the significant crowd that came to reaffirm their commitment to our youth and the future. Kelton Holman, the Club’s Youth of the Year, gave me a full overview of challenges and opportunities facing area teens. We also did a TV interview together for a local news station. Later, Kelton introduced me to several Club teens, an impressive group of kids who clearly have the potential for great futures. 

Incidentally, Greenwood is where the movie The Help was made, a source of considerable local pride. I rented the movie the following weekend and found it profound and moving. I encourage you to view it if you haven’t already. 

The city of Batesville was the next stop for a focus group with area board volunteers, staff members and community leaders. Their strongest point: the need for Clubs to be America’s #1 agency and advocate for child protection and safety. I could not agree more. We also discussed sustainability, training, technology and outcome measurement – all priorities for BGCA. Special thanks to Belinda Morris, executive director of the NW Mississippi Club, for hosting this meeting.  

Youth of the Year Wilmonique Huff, Boys & Girls Club of Washington County.

The day’s final visit was to the Boys & Girls Club of Washington County, where local Youth of the Year Wilmonique Huff greeted me with a phenomenal drum solo! She and longtime member MaKendrick Todd then showed me around the facility. It isn’t new or very big, but the care and love poured into every square foot this Club is obvious and tremendous. Director Joan Rowe is a treasure. She’s run the Club for years and is like a surrogate mom to these kids. And after experiencing her hospitality and cooking, I think she’ll be my surrogate mom, as well. 

The optimism, energy and commitment of our Club leaders and kids never fail to inspire hope in me, for our nation and its next generation of citizens and leaders. Thank you to my hosts for this enriching experience. Great futures are most definitely being developed in Mississippi!

A Year of Service. A Lifetime of Character.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America has a rich tradition of developing good character in youth through service. Clubs provide opportunities for youth to identify relevant issues and construct meaningful service activities to address them. When young people learn to give back, they develop their capacity for compassion and trust, and increase their feelings of connectedness. They are also empowered by the positive changes they make by serving others.

Clubs use service opportunities to help youth gain a basic understanding of civic responsibility and civility. By learning about citizenship and contributing through service, young people develop pride in their communities, and understand the importance of civic responsibility. By combining civics education and volunteer service, Clubs help young people become productive, caring, responsible citizens.

To inspire service throughout the year, Boys & Girls Clubs of America created the “Year of Service” campaign. This campaign elevates the importance of service, provides fun and engaging volunteer opportunities, and challenges young people to plan and implement service projects to positively change their communities. Right now, Club members are participating in BGCA partner Nickelodeon’s “The Big Help” campaign by planning a variety of projects to improve the environment. Nickelodeon’s on-air talent helps generate excitement and inspires young people to serve. As a result, youth are planting trees and gardens, coordinating recycling and energy conservation projects, and cleaning beaches and green spaces in communities across the country and on military bases overseas.

And because we know how critical positive affirmation is for young people, we recognize their service contributions. For example, Nickelodeon acknowledges the service of Club youth through online and on-air shoutouts. Another critical partner, Points of Light Foundation, provides opportunities for Clubs to formally recognize youth volunteers through the prestigious President’s Volunteer Service Award. The award program encourages long-term service, and bestows bronze, silver and gold recognition to young people who complete increasing amounts of volunteer service. Each recipient receives a congratulatory letter signed by the President of the United States.

Romero Brown serves as BGCA's Vice President, Program & Youth Development Services.

This dual approach – inspiring youth to serve and recognizing their contributions –  has been remarkably successful. In the past year, some 167,000 Club youth have provided more than 1 million hours of volunteer service. This equates to more than $11 million dollars in economic impact to local communities.

Our Year of Service campaign is helping to start great futures for young people. By engaging thousands of children and teens in service, we are inspiring a generation of civically-engaged youth and making our nation stronger.

Do Hovering Parents Help or Hinder on the Playing Field?

“You don’t want to be last,” I admonished a lacrosse player who seemingly was not putting forth his best effort.  “You can always tell when a coach’s son is on the team,” another coach chimed in.

Parenting lessons learned on the playing field.

It’s true.  The player I was “encouraging” was my 9-year-old son Na’im.  He was bringing up the rear in a sprint drill.  My blood was slowly starting to boil.  How could my son, who days earlier was awarded a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, be one of the slowest kids on the team this particular day.  I heard a voice in my head say, “He should be one of the fastest kids out here.”

Truth be told, the situation said more about me than it did him.  What was it that got my blood boiling?  If I’m honest with myself, it made me feel like a failure as a parent.  It made me view Na’im as a possible failure.  I had that sinking feeling that my son’s life might not “turn out right” if he doesn’t give his best effort – always – every time – perfectly. 

Before my wife and I had a child, I used to cringe when I heard the over the top football dads or soccer moms being out of control.  Now I understand.  It’s not about living vicariously through your kids, although sometimes that happens.  It is the weight of unrealistic expectations of perfection.  Parents have a picture of ideal children and parents. When those expectations are not met, and they rarely are, there is upset and frustration.

I’m like all most parents.  My kid is smart, gifted, witty, athletic, strong, compliant, coachable, fast and the list is endless.  I want to help him maximize all of those attributes.  I think if my son listens to me (and all of my wisdom), he will have nothing less than success.  When he doesn’t listen, it’s like casting pearls before swine. 

This is the age of helicopter parents.  Can you imagine the stress our kids feel?  It’s non-stop correction.  It’s no wonder that most young people quit participating in organized sports by the age of 13.  Young people have the challenge of being perfect.  It’s the challenge of living up to the huge expectations of their parents. 

When I was a kid, we organized our own games without a parent in sight.  We found the baseball gloves.  We picked teams equitably.  We settled our differences.  There was no one there reminding me to hold my elbow up while at the plate.  There was no one to exhort me to run faster.  There was no one shouting incessant instructions. 

Wayne B. Moss is BGCA's senior director of Sports, Fitness and Recreation.

There’s no wonder that skateboarding and other extreme sports are gaining popularity.  Where else can a young person make a mistake and get acknowledged?  After trying a double half-pike and wiping out, coming close to losing a few teeth and some broken bones, the response from an on looking friend is likely to be – “Dude, that was wicked!!!”

Parents, give your kids – and yourself – a break.  As best I can tell, we turned out okay without helicopter parents.

Club Leaders Convene for Kids

It was great to see the more than 500 Boys & Girls Club professionals and board volunteers at our Southeast Leadership Conference in Myrtle Beach, S.C., last week. These gatherings give Club leaders a great forum to share ideas and strategies on how to best serve youth. 

Jim Barker, president of Clemson University and a member of our Alumni Hall of Fame, was a featured speaker for the general session, “Key Performance Indicators Can Drive Impact.” Jim spoke about his Club Experience, as well as the characteristics of leadership. His contrast of two leaders especially resonated: Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s actions in 2009 to crash-land a passenger jet in the Hudson River near Manhattan; and Capt. Francesco Schettino’s command of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Italy coast last January. Captain Sully and his crew did all the “right things” to make sure the 155 passengers safely evacuated the plane. Conversely, Schettino abandoned ship leaving 4,252 people on board a sinking vessel. What a stark difference leadership can make! 

The conference included a meeting of our Mentor Recruitment Collaborations and Strategy Task Force. Over two days, task force members discussed how Clubs can better utilize partners and volunteers to recruit mentors. It resulted in terrific ideas and plans to develop. The meeting also featured Ahkeem Hollimon, our 2011/12 Southeast Region Youth of the Year, who spoke about his life’s journey. His address was moving and reminded us of the significant role we play in so many lives. Yes, this is about transformation. But it is also about the power of the Club Experience and a caring staff. Ahkeem made me think about our relevance to contemporary youth and why members come back every day. 

The Formula for Impact continues to be top-of-mind, as Clubs work to increase their impact on kids. Among topics Club leaders learned about: the vital nature of donor databases, key performance indicators, and what the National Youth Outcomes Initiative means for Clubs. It was inspiring to hear of plans at the local level to grow Average Daily Attendance and fill Clubs.

There were also tremendous discussions on how local organizations are internalizing the Formula. One board, for instance, has divided into three sub-groups for each outcome area: Academic Success, Good Character and Citizenship, and Healthy Lifestyles. At each board meeting, they spend time in breakout discussions to determine what was accomplished to drive outcomes in these core areas. 

I also heard feedback on where we need to help strengthen local Clubs. As we look at our service delivery model, I encourage you to share your thoughts with your regional service director, BGCA Sr. V.P. of Field Services Lorraine Orr, or myself. Please also help neighboring Clubs or others that could use your thoughts and ideas. 

It was a pleasure to meet Club and board leaders from all over the nine-state region. With four regional Leadership Conferences to come in 2012, I look forward to meeting more of the dedicated Club professionals and board volunteers who make Boys & Girls Clubs great.

Imagine

Imagine all the people, sharing all the world.
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one.

(Imagine, John Lennon)

As we’ve heard many times before, imagination is a powerful thing. Because of the imagination of inventors, engineers, scientists and countless thinkers and dreamers, we live in a world that rockets to the stars, wipes out diseases, feeds billions of people, and communicates instantaneously to allow cultures from all over planet Earth to learn from each other. There are countless forms of music, art, drama, literature, architecture and entertainment that come from the imaginations of people devoted to making the world a more beautiful place. And imagination drives us in small ways too as we look around our communities, imagine them even better and take up the mantle of civic engagement and responsibility.

Boys & Girls Clubs believe in imagination. We make real opportunities for our members so they can use their imaginations to become caring and productive citizens of our nation and of the world. We spark imagination throughout the Club with fun, high yield activities and targeted programs that help young people see the potential of their future and to begin that future now. Boys & Girls Clubs provide young people with fun activities in science, technology, arts, engineering and math so that they become engaged with these subjects now and can imagine these opportunities for their futures in these fields.

Sparking imagination doesn’t just happen. It takes dedicated staff to provide opportunities to Club members to use their imaginations. It takes creative activities and programs that are fun and engaging. And it takes partners to bring their expertise and resources to Clubs so that Clubs can bring them to members. To help spark imagination, Boys & Girls Clubs has partnered with Time Warner Cable through an innovative contest to engage members to make the world a better place through using their imaginations. .

Dan Rauzi is BGCA's senior director of Technology Programs.

The “Wouldn’t It Be Cool If. . .” (www.wouldntitbecoolif.com) contest allows Club members to imagine how the world could be a better place and then determine what science and technology is needed to make this new invention work.

Maybe our members come up with a car that flies or an anti-gravity skateboard! It’s really up to their imagination. By sparking that imagination, our Club members will be ready to be the scientists, engineers and artists that will help the world to live as one.