Use the following links to support the BGCLAH's Summer Program! As long as you are community stakeholder, you can vote for each of these communities to receive these grants. Let's make sure San Pedro, Wilmington, and Harbor City get enough votes to help ALL 480 KIDS!
Harbor City - bit.ly/BGHarborCity
San Pedro - bit.ly/BGSanPedro
Wilmington - bit.ly/BGWilmington
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The Great Summer Comeback, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor
On Monday, May 10th, Councilman Joe Buscaino opened up voting for his community grants program. The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor was selected for three different grant opportunities in 3 of our local communities – San Pedro, Wilmington, and Harbor City.
This year has been extremely tough on our kids, and we wanted to find a way to help get them ready to return to everyday life. “The Great Summer Comeback – Helping Kids Succeed” is the theme of this year’s summer program at our Clubs. Every year we strive to provide a fun and positive summer experience for the kids of our communities. This year, however, we will be providing our fun and engaging activities while helping kids combat learning loss and reverse the negative effects on their social-emotional health caused by months of distancing from their peers and mentors.
Our grant proposal is to provide 480 free summer program scholarships to the kids who need us most.
But to do that, WE NEED YOUR VOTE!
Use the following links to support the BGCLAH's Summer Program! As long as you are community stakeholder, you can vote for each of these communities to receive these grants. Let's make sure San Pedro, Wilmington, and Harbor City get enough votes to help ALL 480 KIDS!
Harbor City - bit.ly/BGHarborCity
San Pedro - bit.ly/BGSanPedro
Wilmington - bit.ly/BGWilmington
REMEMBER!
WHEN YOU GET TO THE VOTING PAGE LOOK FOR: “The Great Summer Comeback – Helping Kids Succeed, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor"
Proposal Description: The Great Summer Comeback is the theme of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor’s traditional summer day camp program for 2021. Each year, hundreds of children join us for a summer to remember. This year, however, we are on a mission to help kids come back after a devastating year of setbacks. Because of the pandemic, our kids have faced new challenges in their development. Education, socialization, and health & fitness have all declined as kids have spent months of isolation at home. This school year alone, kids have clocked in over 1,200 hours of screen time. This does not include extra time spent on their mobile devices or playing video games. Even though distance learning comprises the bulk of this new screen time, learning has been a challenge for a majority of kids in our most impacted communities. Over 60% of teachers say their students are not ready for the next grade level (Source: Gates Foundation/ RAND Corporation).
Families in general have been hit hard by the effects of the pandemic. Parents who used to work in the hospitality or service industry have received little in the way of relief as it relates to monetary resources. With families struggling to put food on the table and pay the rent, extra activities/ services are just out of reach for so many who need them most.
This summer, we at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor believe that our kids are ready to make a great comeback! With our traditional social recreation programs such as sports, games, field trips, and outdoor activities (all done safely and to Health Department recommendations), we know we can help kids recover from the months of being distanced from their peers. Our nationally recognized education assistance programs and activities will close the learning gap and give kids the tools they need to be successful in the new school year.
With the grant funds, we will provide full scholarships to 480 well-deserving kids from the LA Harbor Community who need this opportunity. The program will be based out of our Wilmington Boys & Girls Club, San Pedro Boys & Girls Club, Harbor City Boys & Girls Club, Mahar House Boys & Girls Club locations and will run for 8 weeks, providing 400 hours of summer enrichment. Even before the pandemic, our kids were facing some very tough circumstances. Poverty, violence, and a sense of fear have always plagued our under-served communities. As we look forward to beating this virus in the months ahead, we must not forget our children. They have been through a lot and it will take all of us to help our kids recover from this challenging year. With your help, we can make this their best summer ever! (Free of charge!)
Organization Description: The mission of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles harbor is to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens. We achieve this through a commitment to quality programs and services in an environment that is safe, nurturing, and inspiring.
As our mission articulates, we have dedicated ourselves to providing quality programs and services to youth ages 5 – 19. We operate 20 locations in the communities of San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, and Lomita. In addition to providing a safe place, the BGCLAH prides itself on helping children to reach their full potential with our nationally recognized and groundbreaking programs.
When the covid-19 pandemic shutdowns were implemented in March of 2020, our organization recommitted itself to our mission and pivoted our programming to include meal distribution. In May 2021, the BGCLAH will be serving its one-millionth meal since our relief efforts began. To this today day, we are committed to serving our families by providing food through our weekend wellness program which distributes over 40,000 meals to 1,200 families every Friday.
In addition to food distribution, the Club has gone above and beyond to help kids thrive. Our nationally recognized College Bound Program never stopped operating and helped over 600 students finish high school and enter into higher education. This year, we are poised to replicate that success even with children being out of school for the past year.
We have worked closely with the LA County Health Department to open our facilities and assist elementary students with their online schooling. Starting in September of 2020, the BGCLAH opened 7 of its sites for full-day programming (a first in the organization’s history.) Students had access to wifi and the BGCLAH staff who acted as tutors and mentors during the school day. As students struggled, our staff was there to encourage the kids to persevere and do their best.
Finally, our organization believes that positive self-expression through the arts is key to healthy childhood development. Through the pandemic, we hosted virtual fine arts and music classes to give kids a way to express themselves during these difficult times. Art supply kits were distributed to our club members (over 5,000) to help them to sharpen their artistic skills and our music teachers distributed 100 ukuleles and taught “zoom” music lessons to kids who craved a musical outlet.
As we look to a more positive future, our commitment to our kids will only strengthen. We will continue to provide the services needed to help them to become the best they can be. Whether we are distributing a million meals, helping high school seniors get into college, teaching kids to find themselves in the arts, or providing a safe place for sports and social recreation – The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor will always be there, doing whatever it takes for our kids to have a better future.
Proposal Categories: Recreation/Youth Programming