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Developing Resources for a Strong Future
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For almost fifty years now, the Boys & Girls Club of Moncton has been providing children and youth with programs and services designed to help them leave the dimensions of dependency toward interdependent lifestyles. The Club is not only a home away from home for hundreds of children, but also a focal point within the community that everyone can identify with. The Club’s main focus is centered around community outreach and prevention programs, networking, and youth development; however, our physical setting has become a second home for many children, a meeting place, and a recreational center for the whole community. The Boys and Girls Club of Moncton plays an increasingly important role as a source of support particularly as a service provider, and also as a referral agency. We all too often find ourselves being approached first by the client themselves, even before alternatives can be explored. |
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We realize that the present perception of the Club in the eyes of the public will depend on what it has seen or heard about us, and that is where it gets a bit complicated. Depending on where you are from in the South Eastern New Brunswick area, our name could, and often does, conjure up visions of “a summer camp for kids”, “a recreational program”, “a group home”, “a school age childcare service”, “a drug counseling program”, “a self-help program for parents of acting-out teenagers”, “a leadership development program”, “peer counseling”, “a support program for single mothers who have challenged children”, “a hot lunch program for kids”, “a midnight prevention service for children and youth”, “a program that works with school dropouts” or “an outreach and transportation program serving various communities”, - - and, you would be right on all accounts. So, you can see the Boys & Girls Club of Moncton is not just a building, or a particular approach, - what we are, is a community based system of getting important programs and services to children and families who need them most, resulting in energies and time dedicated to the interaction and establishment of programs to meet the unmet needs of kids between the ages of 2 and 18 years. Further, our Club plays an important role as advocate and spokesperson for youth. Back to TopIn recent years, the City of Moncton has centralized many of its recreation facilities, in hopes of making their operations more efficient, in bettering community access and reducing their operating cost. The results of these actions have been in some perspective a positive move forward, especially for high to middle income earners who use these facilities. However, the negative aspects are on the families living in the low income bracket who are not able to access these services. Low income earners make up a considerable number of families living in our service area. This group represents over 75% of our membership and over 1500 new families which will be served by our club in the coming year. One of the most evident inequalities within many of our communities, is income polarization and the number of individuals below the low income-cut–off presently on the rise in urban settings like Moncton, especially so, for the clients we serve. Presently 75% of our Membership, including non members who attend our club for specific services deliveries, come from low income households, earning under $13,000 annually. About 25% of these individuals live in family settings that are presently having difficulties in various areas such as feeding their children, drug and alcohol abuse, finding employment, education barriers, access to recreation and leisure, and appropriate housing and transportation. Back to TopOur program delivery falls within the following categories, and are often provided to the community in direct collaboration with other service providers who share common goals. Our Service Categories Are: 1. Physical Safety 2. Health / Nutrition / Environment 3. Family Life 4. Asset Development 5. Leadership Development 6. Recreation and Leisure 7. Employment and Economic Security 8. Corrective and Developmental Services 9. Education / Vocational Development 10. Conflict Management 11. Pet Therapy For Youth 12. > Interdependent Living 13. Prevention Back to TopProject COMPASS is designed to channel all the necessary resources needed to effectively answer to a child’s needs, by a system of processes which help our agency properly identify social issues within that child’s social environment. The system works by a network of individuals who examine different core areas in relation to the Club’s different service deliveries. The service deliveries encompass items such as physical safety, health and nutrition, family life, leadership, recreation and leisure, etc... The following programs have been designed using the COMPASS initiative and cover a wide range in our service categories. Smart Moveswas created to foster self-esteem and confidence among teens and preteens, enabling them to make better informed decisions about the challenges they face in everyday life, particularly relating to gender and sexuality. Smart Food is a food and nutrition program serving over 70 children and youth weekly. Smart Start is a program that deals with major issues within our community, and compliments the Club’s Compass initiative pertaining to physical safety. This program offers kids programs after hours on Friday and Saturday nights. Stay Smartis a social skills initiative for 9 - 12 age groups. It incorporates resistance skills, stress reduction techniques, communication skills, assertiveness training, life planning, and accurate information about drugs and alcohol use, and adolescent sexuality. Keep Smart is an initiative for parents. It emphasizes communication on skills, and factual information about drug use and adolescent sexuality. Smart Ideas is a comprehensive description of Club-wide community events. It is used to promote the prevention message in a larger community, and to establish an environment that reinforces the use of skills learned in small group programs. Navigator is a fairly new program which is designed to challenge kids to take on goals. The program provides youth with learning tools to help mold future direction. Power Up is a program designed to help kids break down the barriers of learning. Adult leaders challenge young people to set academic goals, and follow the child throughout the process. The child graduates from the program with a certificate which is presented at one of the Club’s major events during the year. Club Cops is an emergency response program for kids in crisis, or in need of advice pertaining to legal issues. Way Points is a program designed to offer educational approaches and ideas for the various activities of the Club, relating to the creation of empowering atmospheres with the community. This strategy helps teens experience affirmation about themselves, guidance related to their personal development and discernment, and support for their own decisions. Source 3: the Odysseyis a program which prepares young people for real life situations through counseling programs, discussion groups, special seminars, and leadership programs. The group participates in clinics, job finding clubs, curriculum preparations, as well as experience in real work environments. Many children in our high schools often find themselves behind in such areas, due to over scheduled lives. The Club helps youth integrate these skills, not as part of their academic life, but as their leisure time. Pawsitive for Kids is a pet therapy program designed to help trouble youth re-connect. Pawsitive for Kids has been recognized internationally by various groups such as the Layton Foundation out of the United States of America, the Canadian and American Humane Association, and by Crime Prevention Canada, as one of Canada’s most avant-garde programs. This program has been used for a model for projects in California and Ontario. Cyber Kids is a computer development program for children and their families. This initiative offers a variety of technical training and activities such as tutoring and home work help. The program also provides parents and youth with special safety training. This program is open to all children from the ages of 6-18 years and their families whether their visiting the area or living in the community. This program also teaches the fundamentals and basics of computer technologies, as well as an alternative to Microsoft products, as we are the only community access center in Atlantic Canada to offer a full Linux based system approach. Youth Action (YA!) is a health and fitness program delivery designed to help kids increase their physical activity levels. This program emphasis's physical activity as a daily part of one’s lifestyle using non traditional sports. “ Ya” is designed to help kids develop valuable leadership skills to inspire fellow youth to achieve their full potential by participating in the community, and becoming more physically active while incorporating better choices in their everyday eating habits. Cool Movesis an exciting, new community – based program aimed at motivating kids to “Play Cool” by teaching children and youth how to include more physical activity into their daily lives and ”Eat Smart” by becoming more aware of the importance of making healthy choices about the food they eat and by learning about the kinds of foods make up healthy diet. The program aims to encourage children and youth to adopt a healthy lifestyle. REACH is a new program designed to reach children living in areas within our city, isolated by a lack of resources, such as good recreation and leisure facilities, accessible programming and special services for both the child and their family. This project will provide children and youth with programming opportunities in sports, leadership development, arts, outdoor recreation, vocational training, life skills, and health and nutrition programs designed to help the child overcome obstacles related to bad eating habits, smoking, drug and alcohol use and social development barriers. Back to TopThe Boys and Girls Club of Moncton is hoping to increase its base funding by $250 000 in the year 2009. This new added funding base is required to help guarantee existing programs and services. A sustainable funding program will not only help support valuable services in our city, but will also play an enormous role in developing new and essential pilot programs such as our new “REACH” initiative a outreach program serving over 1500 new families and their children, “ME TO” a youth multi culture program for new Canadian children and their families, and “Youth Action” (YA!) a service delivery that encourages the development of sports and leadership among teen girls. As children and youth needs continue to emerge, our program and service base continues to grow. In 2006, the demands on our services extended to a much larger audience, resulting in the creation of various services such as our new outreach program that presently serve an additional 300 children living in 8 communities within the Greater Moncton area. With new programs of course , comes new challenges and additional expenses. Since 2005, our regular annual program cost have increased by 36% ($ 200 000 ) and continues to increase annually due to the types of services we offer and the demands put on our agency to develop new services and to meet emerging community needs. These services range from the set up of new feed and nutrition programs for children, drug and alcohol preventative services, multicultural services for new Canadian children, expanding community outreach services, and just recently, a potential new service for kids dropping out of school. Presently, most of our core funding comes from community fund raising events, concerned individuals, the United Way, various foundations, the City of Moncton, the local business sector and services club support. Most of our funding is on a annual basis and does not guarantee sustainability of any program. It is for these reasons, that the Boys and Girls Club of Moncton is embarking on a sustainable fund raising program designed to ensure the sustainability of present and future programs. The Boys & Girls Club of Moncton program unit cost is projected at $675.00 per child annually and is based on our present membership and outreach registration.
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