&#x;&#x;

Agenda for
California’s Youth

SERVING YOUTH
DURING AND AFTER THE CRISIS

California’s 115 Boys & Girls Clubs serve more than 644,000 kids each year at our 500+ sites statewide. We provide academic, health & wellness, and leadership development programs for youth, and help to create great futures!

Critical Services Currently Offered:

All-day programs for the children of essential workers

Including academic and leadership development programs for the children of medical personnel, nursing home and elder care workers, National Guard members, and police officers and firefighters. The Clubs serving their communities in this way are in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Vacaville, Kern County, Greater Conejo Valley, West San Gabriel Valley, Burbank, Long Beach, and Huntington Valley.

Support for school district partners

Most Clubs are:

  • distributing Grab N’ Go meals,
  • doing telephone wellness checks on families,
  • providing virtual courses, reading sessions, and small group meetings,
  • checking out musical instruments so youth can practice at home, and
  • giving out academic, craft, cooking, and exercise activity packets to youth that lack reliable internet access.

Some Clubs, such as in the LA Harbor Area and Mid-Central Coast, are continuing to provide virtual college preparatory counseling for high school-aged youth.

Online clinical counseling sessions

Two Clubs are providing online one-on-one clinical mental health counseling for hundreds of youth and families. Without them, vulnerable youth might have no access to mental health services during this crisis.

The Clubs offering these services are in Malibu and Garden Grove.

HOW LAWMAKERS CAN HELP:

PROVIDE SB 89 FUNDING TO OPEN UP MORE CLUBS FOR THE CHILDREN OF ESSENTIAL WORKERS

Clubs have created special coronavirus operating protocols, which are costly given necessary low staff-to-youth ratios, curbside health checks, use of PPE, and frequent deep cleaning. Clubs estimate that it costs about $55,000 a month to run a site to serve approximately 100 kids safely per day. Several more Clubs would like to open for day-long programming to serve the children of essential personnel their communities, but require some financial assistance to implement the necessary protocols.

ENSURE THAT SOME OF THE $13.5 BILLION IN ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND–AS AUTHORIZED BY THE FEDERAL CARES ACT–GOES TO AFTER SCHOOL PROVIDERS SUCH AS CLUBS.

As California moves forward from this crisis, kids will need assistance as they play academic catch-up. This is especially true for youth who currently lack access to internet service or devices at home.

Every day, Boys & Girls Clubs provide youth with homework help, STEM education, workforce readiness and college prep assistance, nutritional education, physical fitness programming, and in a time when many school districts have to had to make cuts, arts and music programming. Clubs will be critical partners to school districts in making up these gaps and providing low staff-to-youth ratio programming to ensure every child gets the help they need.

PROTECT ASES FUNDING LEVELS

After this crisis, students will need additional help recovering from academic lost time, as well as the trauma of this experience. Academic and social-emotional wellbeing programs run by after school providers such as Boys & Girls Clubs will be essential in mitigating the many negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on our youth.