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rather, they are consistently seeking ways to build upon, enhance and improve existing models in order to serve northern Nevada youth and families at an even higher level. This past year has been one of strategic growth in a handful of key areas:

1Charter School Partnerships: Charter schools offer a distinctive partnership opportunity for Boys & Girls Clubs. Currently, BGCTM rents space to two local charter schools: EnCompass Academy (grades 9-12) at the Pennington Facility on Foster Drive and Mater Academy of Northern Nevada (grades K-6) at the Reynolds Facility on East 9th Street.

These partnerships have allowed the organization to more fully utilize their two largest facilities during a time (the school day) when they would otherwise sit empty. Charter school partnerships have proven so successful, in fact, that plans are currently being finalized to construct a dedicated school facility on the Club’s East 9th Street property. Thanks to a generous lead gift from the William N. Pennington Foundation, the project will begin in early 2019.

Once complete, Mater Academy will move into the three-story school building, which will house 18 classrooms and have a capacity of 500 students. This exciting project will cement the Reynolds Facility property as a true neighborhood center— serving many high-needs youth and families at an even higher level and providing a continuum of enhanced services from school day to afterschool to school breaks.

2Early Learning Centers: BGCTM opened their first Early Learning Center (ELC 1) on Foster Drive in 2008. The center serves infants through age five, and today, it consistently operates at capacity, serving more than 180 children annually with a 100+ child waiting list. With this successful model built over the past ten years, and a clear community need remaining, BGCTM leadership began to seek prudent opportunities for replication.

In January 2018, ELC 2 opened inside the Record Street Family Shelter to provide shelter residents with free childcare services as parents worked to get back on their feet. Building upon this momentum, earlier this year, an opportunity arose to open ELC 3 inside the Step 2 facility in Sun Valley. The center is scheduled to open in January with a capacity of 75 little ones, and they are already on track to have every spot reserved before day one.

Overall, these Early Learning Centers allow BGCTM to better serve whole families, providing an important bridge for young children to their school-aged programs, as well as offering continuity for families with children of varying ages who may utilize both types of programs. Although BGCTM’s primary purpose remains focused on serving school-aged children, their expansion into early learning has become a natural extension of their mission.

3Program Quality: While BGCTM is proud of their long history of impactful programming, they also recognize that continuous improvements are necessary to maintain that level of impact into the future. In response, BGCTM has risen to the forefront within a national Boys & Girls Clubs of America initiative to create the best possible Club experience for kids. This strategy is two-fold: empower Club staff and institute a continuous quality improvement cycle.

This past year, BGCTM invested in an extensive process called Youth Program Quality Intervention (YPQI). This evidencebased model is aimed at providing effective and meaningful training for staff, as well as integrating regular and strategic quality assessments to maintain the highest program quality standards. Nine BGCTM staff are now certified trainers and have begun implementing the YPQI model throughout the organization. In turn, this means better training for all staff, more significant program impact and an even better Club experience among members.

These strategies work to reinforce the organization’s long-held “elements for positive youth development”—that is, those elements that drive program impact and keep kids coming back day after day: a safe and positive environment, fun and a sense of belonging, supportive relationships, opportunities and expectations, and recognition.

All of this ultimately leads us back to Monica and each individual Club member she represents. It was at the Boys & Girls Club where Monica found that place to belong, to feel valued and to find a bigger purpose. As she puts it, “My involvement at the Boys & Girls Club over the past five years has empowered me and given me the strength to pick up the fragmented pieces of my old self to form an ambitious and intelligent young lady.” Through each Club facility opened, program enhanced, and new initiative launched, this is the goal at the Boys & Girls Club. Young lives impacted, changed, transformed. philip nguyen, age 10

brianne, age 9