Decade of Hope Progress

More Sites, More Days, More Hours

In fall 2010, the Boys & Girls Clubs will open four new sites at Brown Street Academy, Custer High School, Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School and Madison High School. The additions will bring the total number of Clubs to 41.
In December 2009, the Boys & Girls Clubs opened a new site at North Division High School to better serve teens living on Milwaukee’s north side. The Club currently provides more than 350 members with career development activities, academic assistance and community service opportunities.

Enhanced Programs

By expanding our Evening Meal Initiative to 30 Clubs, we will provide more than 1 million meals to central-city youth during 2010. Each day during the summer, we are serving approximately 5,200 meals to make certain our members’ nutritional needs are being met.
This fall, the Clubs are introducing Learning for Early Academic Preparedness, or LEAP, to further promote academic readiness in first through third grade members. This series of enrichment programs will improve the reading and math skills of our youngest members at the most critical point in their learning development.
Stein Scholars is making it possible for more than 100 young people to attend college in the fall. In addition, Stein Scholars will provide 160 high school students with tutoring and mentoring, entrance exam preparation, college tours, as well as assistance applying for financial aid and scholarships during the school year.

Responsible Infrastructure Growth

The Boys & Girls Clubs is piloting a restructuring of our operations to increase our focus on frequency of attendance and outcome-driven programming for youth. This realignment will be implemented at all Club locations by 2011.

Critical Community Involvement

Twelve Boys & Girls Clubs members are working at the new DreamBikes store in Milwaukee, where they are repairing and selling bicycles, as well as providing customer service. The non-profit, used bike retailer provides affordable bicycles and helmets, as well as employment opportunities, to youth from disadvantaged circumstances.

Through a partnership with the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board, the Boys & Girls Clubs is providing 155 summer jobs for World of Work participants between the ages of 14 and 18. Youth workers will be employed at the Clubs, Summer of Peace and Artworks for Milwaukee.

Appropriate Capital Investment

The Boys & Girls Clubs will break ground on a Health and Wellness Center at the Augusta M. LaVarnway Boys & Girls Club next year. The center will provide both Club members and adults from the community with health programming, nutrition classes and preventative care instruction. The center is expected to be completed by fall 2011.

Click on the following to learn more about how Decade of Hope Gifts impact our members, our Decade of Hope Cabinet and our Decade of Hope Leadership League.