FACT SHEET

MISSION:

The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast exist to inspire and enable all young people living in Pinellas County, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.

FIVE CORE PROGRAM AREAS:

Character & Leadership Development, Education & Career Development, Health & Life Skills, the Arts and Sports/Fitness/Recreation

HIGHLIGHTED PROGRAMS:

Project Learn – Extension of school learning through after-school activities with an educational focus

Computer Learning Centers in every Club; Microsoft software and age appropriate lessons

Junior RBI – In partnership with the Tampa Bay Rays and Major League Baseball, free baseball & softball leagues for kids ages 8-12

WHO WE SERVE AND WHERE WE SERVE THEM:

• 5,500 + annual members
  
• 11 Club locations (Chi Chi's, North Greenwood, Northside, PARC, Pinellas Park, Royal Theatre, Tarpon Springs, Wellington, West Minister, Wingate, Wood Valley)
• Serving Pinellas County Florida (Clearwater, Oldsmar, Pinellas Park, St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs)

HISTORY:

• Boys & Girls Clubs of America founded in 1860
• Boys & Girls Clubs of America at Pinellas Park founded in 1959 (first club in Pinellas County)
  

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE PROVIDE:

• We provide a positive place where every child can participate, regardless of race, religion or financial situation while feeling safe & welcome.
• We are a facility-based youth service organization that provides daily access to a diverse set of programs designed for ALL kids aged 5-18! Clubs are open during out of school time including summer day camp.
• Full-time professional staff that serve as positive role models.
• We are a membership organization; children pay a nominal fee to join.  No child is turned away, regardless of ability to pay for services. Annual membership remains affordable, ranging from $1 to $25; we provide over 2000 “scholarships” and fee waivers annually.
• We work with a proven youth development strategy that fosters a sense of belonging, competence, usefulness and influence._* We make all decisions in the context of what is best for the children.
• Our goal is to put a membership card in the hand of every child that wants to belong.

Mission Statement

To inspire and enable all young people living in Pinellas County, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.

Vision Statement

To give children and youth a wide range of positive possibilities and positive opportunities so that each one will live a life knowing how to be the best, how to care for others, and how to lead their community.

Goal Statement

We prevent juvenile crime
We graduate youth
We develop leaders

Boys & Girls Clubs of America had its beginnings in 1860 with several women in Hartford, Connecticut.  Believing that boys who roamed the streets should have a positive alternative, they organized the first Club.  A cause was born. The Boys & Girls Clubs of America movement came to Pinellas County in November 1959 with the founding of the Boys Club of Pinellas Park by Police Chief Maurice L. MacTarsney. The Club began operating in January 1960 in an old frame building leased from the City of Pinellas Park with its 1st executive director, James S Hart Jr.

The Boys Clubs of Pinellas, Inc. was chartered in August 1967 when its second club opened at the Northside location in St. Petersburg.  In May 1970, at the urging of both the United Way and the Boys Clubs of America, the Boys Clubs of Pinellas County, Inc. was organized.  In 1991, the Boys Clubs of Pinellas County opened its programs to all youth, forming Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast, as we know it today, now with nine locations and four teen centers throughout Pinellas County.

BGCS under the leadership of Carl R. Lavender, Jr. has the goal “to influence the behavior and the attitudes of each individual boy and girl in a wholesome manner.”  As members of the Boys & Girls Clubs, girls and boys ages 5 through 18 find a wide array of activities available to them in five core areas: 1) Character and Leadership; 2) Education and Career Development; 3) Health and Life Skills; 4) The Arts; and 5) Sports Fitness and Recreation.

The sole purpose of Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast is to provide children, youth, their families and the community opportunities for safe, structured, well supervised after school and summer youth programs, with an emphasis on leadership, education and self sufficiency. The organization has proven its commitment to service for children and community members with innovative and progressive programming and opportunities.  Supporters of Boys & Girls Clubs include government politicians, law enforcement agency representatives, financial institutions, and education boards, among other concerned citizens.

The Boys & Girls Club experience nurtures young people’s well-being and helps them reach their full potential through one-on-one relationships with caring adult professionals and fun, age-appropriate, well-rounded programming. What are the hallmarks of overall programming excellence in Clubs? What makes Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s national programs so effective? Our programs:

    * Meet members’ interests as well as their needs
    * Build on members’ strengths
    * Are staffed by qualified, caring adult professionals
    * Provide members with challenging, interesting activities
    * Promote learning and healthy development throughout the Club experience
    * Focus on achieving specific outcomes
    * Are carefully researched, designed and field-tested
    * Are continually assessed and evaluated
     
Please feel free to read on to see what methodolgy's are used to insure the effectiveness of our mission.

Programs in this Core Program Area empower youth to support and influence their Club and community, sustain meaningful relationships with others, develop a positive self-image and good character, participate in the democratic process and respect their own and others’ cultural identities.