THE BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE SUN CORRIDOR INC
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Mission Statement
To inspire and enable all young people, to realize their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens." In addition to after school and school break programs, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Sun Corridor provides youth sports leagues and special/outreach events for the youth of Casa Grande and surrounding areas. Our primary focus is providing a safe, fun and positive environment for kids ages 5 through 18 during hours they are out of school. We offer six after school programs, one in Arizona City, four in Casa Grande and one in Maricopa. Summer and school break programming is offered at our Nap Lawrence Branch.
About This Cause
History of the Organization The Boys & Girls Club of Casa Grande was formed in 1998 as an after-school program that met at Saguaro Elementary School. At that time, the organization had approximately 50 members. In 1999, the club moved into the city owned building at 798 N. Picacho Ave., the old Casa Grande Union High School Gym. This move allowed us to serve more young people on a daily basis. In 2002, our organization took over operations of the local youth soccer league. In 2004, our organization opened its second after-school program at Toltec Elementary School in Arizona City. When then changed our name from Boys & Girls Club of Casa Grande to the “Boys & Girls Clubs of the Casa Grande Valley”. Attendance at our Casa Grande program continued to grow until it forced our organization to start looking for more space in 2006. In August 2006, we opened our third after-school program (our second program in Casa Grande) at Ironwood Elementary School. In August of 2015, we opened our fourth Club (third in Casa Grande) at McCartney Ranch Elementary School. This decision was made so that we will be able to serve more young people more effectively. By opening another Club, we projected to serve an additional 100 Club Members each day (which increased our Average Daily Attendance to 550). In August 2016, we partnered with the Casa Grande Union School District and Vista Grande Library to open our first club dedicated to teens. Since teens would be unlikely to participate if they had to pay, membership in The Lounge is free. Teens participate in programs specifically for their age group, receive tutoring, learn life skills and have fun with their friends. Again, this club is available during after school hours. With the partnership of the City of Casa Grande and Parks and Recreation, in May of 2019 we moved out of the old high school gym into the new Casa Grande Recreation Center located at 1950 N. Peart Rd. This new multi-generational Community Recreation Center was long awaited since 2006 voters approved bonds for this project however, because of the Great Recession it put this on hold until the economy recovered. Serving more kids, more often in the new facility has allowed us to double the space and attendance. At this point our average daily attendance is almost 700 youth with over 4400 memberships for the year. For the last 22 years, our organization has worked diligently to provide high-quality and high-impact programs to the youth of our community. And while the year 2020 has been difficult for everyone, our organization has risen to the challenge and continued to serve the young people who need us most. Here are some of the highlights: After closing for a few days over Spring Break to figure out how to move forward, we re-opened the Nap Lawrence Branch in late-March with limited capacity and many new safety precautions for critical healthcare and first responder families. In April, we expanded The Lounge’s (our Club for high school students) Facebook Group into a virtual Club using Discord. In May, we expanded our partnership with the City of Casa Grande and began offering a temporary all-day program at Len Colla Recreation Center. In August, we opened our first Club in Maricopa at Santa Cruz Elementary School. And when we opened this Club, we changed our name to Boys & Girls Clubs of the Sun Corridor (we want our name to represent all of the communities that we serve). Later in August, we partnered with the Casa Grande Elementary School District to open two temporary all-day Learning Labs (one at Mesquite Elementary School and one at Palo Verde Elementary School) to support virtual learning. For the remainder of the 2020-21 School-Year, our organization worked with our four school district partners (Casa Grande Elementary School District, Casa Grande Union High School District, Maricopa Unified School District and Toltec Elementary School District) to provide all-day programs when these districts were using virtual learning and after-school programs when they were using in-person learning. As of today, all four partner districts have returned to in-person learning and we are operating all six of our permanent Clubs. (Prior to this pandemic, our organization had never operated more than one all-day program at a time. But, at different points throughout the past year, our organization operated four such programs!) Current Services Our after-school programs run from 3:00 pm - 6:30 pm, five days a week during the school year. When school is not in session (breaks and holidays), our hours of operation are from 7:00 am - 6:30 pm. Members aged 5-18 can participate in these programs, although currently most of our participating members are 5-13. Once in the club, members go through a set daily rotation in our six program areas. Each member rotates through these areas with their age group. We always have at least one staff member in each area. It is the responsibility of the staff to not only supervise the members in each area, but also to guide them through a learning activity or opportunity. The five areas in our club are the Art Room, the Computer Lab, the Game Room, the Gym and the Zoom Room (Learning Center). • In the Art Room, members get to be creative and work on different art projects. • In the Computer Lab, members are shown how to use computers. They can play games and visit kid-friendly websites. • In the Game Room, members get to play games such as pool, foosball and different board games. We use this as an opportunity to teach kids how to play by the rules and be good sports. • In the Gym, members get to run around and be active. We play games that promote healthy exercise and other skills such as how to work together and play as a team. • In the Zoom Room, kids are given a chance to work on homework or other educational activities. In this area, we run a program called Power Hour, which helps kids develop homework skills and gives them access to adult tutoring.