Boys and Girls Clubs of Pawtucket

Core club programs: since 1900, the Boys & Girls club of Pawtucket has been a lifesaving agency to youth and families in Pawtucket and surrounding communities. We currently serve more than 3,000 children annually in our 58,000 square foot building where we have the space for quiet learning, indoor exercise, art and music studio space, and most importantly, a place where kids know they will be warm and safe after school. We also benefit from a unique park like setting in urban Pawtucket where youth can learn about nature and participate in a wide variety of sports and other activities on our fields and forested land. The club offers the following diversified programs. In keeping with our mission, we provide a wide variety of daily programs focused in four areas to help our members realize their full potential. Our priority areas are:academic success: young people who drop out of high school are significantly less likely to secure a good job, earn an adequate salary and have a promising future. As such, high school graduation is an important goal for all of our members. To help in their progression toward this goal, we offer a variety of programs including: homework help, tutoring in math and reading, science programs and activities, lessons in our technology labs and much more. We also offer workforce development to help teens transition into successful adults. Youth in the workforce development program engage in classes exploring 21st century skills, professionalism, and building a post high school graduation plan. However, in 2020-2021, amidst the covid-19 pandemic, our programming changed a bit. When we opened our physical doors back up in september 2020 for the school year, our programming looked different. Our program team worked directly with members for full-day programming to help them with their school work when they couldn't attend school in person.confident self-expression through the arts: our art programs provide members with both a creative outlet and exposure to a wide variety of artistic forms and influences. The club was able to partner with hasbro to support training of club staff members to deliver the peace love art program. Peace love promotes mental wellness by using creativity and expression to inspire, heal, and communicate. Our youth have also been exploring musical instruments and using them as a tool for mental wellness through the guitar, drumming, and other forms of musical expression. The exposure members get to a wide range of art programs helps them to understand the incredible and diverse world in which they live. The club enables youth to develop their capacity and cultural awareness through knowledge and appreciation of the visual arts, crafts, performing arts, and creative writing. Good character and citizenship: good citizenship is integral to a young person's ability to become a productive, caring and responsible citizen. We strive to empower youth to support and influence the club and our community, sustain meaningful relationships with others, develop a positive self-image, participate in the democratic process and respect their own and others' cultural identities. Several of our programs which support this goal are: torch & keystone Clubs, peer and adult mentoring programs, and our youth of the year program. Our youth of the year program went virtual again this year, to ensure the safety of everyone involved. Additionally, we run specialized programs which help raise awareness and understanding of current events and the role youth play in the world around them on a local, national and global level. Healthy lifestyles: the health habits and self-care practices developed in childhood and adolescence affect an individual's health and quality of life throughout adulthood. We run several programs to help develop our members' capacity to engage in positive behaviors that nurture their own well-being, set personal goals and live successfully as self-sufficient adults. These programs include: passport to manhood, smart Girls, nutrition education and healthy cooking lessons, triple play activities and sports Clubs. We also offer a wide variety of recreational sports programs which help youth in developing a sense of fairness, positive use of leisure time, skills for stress management, appreciation for the environment and social skills. Recently we have incorporated kids caf as our food service provider. Kids caf offers a healthy, culturally diversified, and youth driven menu that our members have come to love. They also offer nutrition classes to our youth on a weekly basis. A social worker was also added to the staff team to support social emotional wellness of our members and assist families with resources. We were able to open camp ramsbottom this summer, along with our baseball programs. Both were very successful and much needed during these times.

Camp ramsbottom: a scenic, wooded 167-acre property in rehoboth, Massachusetts, has been a summer highlight for thousands of kids since 1966. Youth attending camp ramsbottom experience a variety of engaging outdoor activities including: archery, art, basketball, crafts, fishing, hiking, nature exploration, soccer, swimming, tennis and much more.