Boys & Girls Clubs of Grand Rapids has provided meaningful programs and support to children and families in our community for more than 85 years. Our mission is to enable all young people to reach their full potential as responsible citizens through education, recreation, and positive community experiences. Each year, we serve about 1,400 children and youth through our Club after-school programming and summer camps. We strive to provide world-class programs so that success is within reach of every young person who enters our doors, with all members on track to graduate from high school with a plan for the future, demonstrating good character and citizenship, and living a healthy lifestyle.

• What are the primary goals?
• How does this work support children and families?

This grant primarily supports our Be You Wellness program. When CEO Patrick Placzkowski was hired in 2019, he immediately saw the need for social emotional learning and mental health support within the Clubs. In 2020, we were able to launch our Be You Wellness program with a consultant to provide various staff training and engagement events focused on mental health. Through the success of the initial initiative, in fall 2021 we received enough funding to hire a full-time social worker who now oversees 8-10 master and bachelor of social work interns working in each Club, focusing on social emotional learning and mental health. The grant from the Steelcase Foundation helped to grow the program by devoting funding for Program & Behavior Specialists to focus specifically on this work, and adding these positions has been extremely impactful in the overall daily operations in the Clubs. The goals for this program are to increase awareness of mental health needs and treatment among staff and Club members, teach young people how to name their emotions, manage their stress and their reactions in stressful situations, advocate for their mental health needs, strengthen trust and psychological safety between children/youth and our staff, and improve the overall mental health and wellbeing of Club members.

This grant also supports our Workforce Readiness program, which includes a nine-week career curriculum followed up by the opportunity to work in the Clubs as junior staff members. The ultimate goal of the Workforce Readiness program is to close the opportunity and job readiness gap for youth by preparing them for success in their first job. The program helps youth develop a plan for pursuing the career of their dreams by encouraging young people to explore their interests and passions, develop their employability skills, and apply their knowledge in real-world work experiences.

Be You Wellness Program

Activities for staff – Staff participated in multiple trainings throughout the year. Topics included trauma-informed care, de-escalation techniques, self-care, and mindfulness exercises. In addition, all new staff completed onboarding training.
Activities/services for students – Our students benefited from various activities in the Be You Wellness program. First, every member who enters our doors has access to our program components. Having our staff trained in trauma-informed care, de-escalation techniques and other social emotional learning subjects ensures that every child is treated with these concepts in mind. All members have access to our cool down corners to learn coping and calming techniques to name and manage their big emotions. Second, students can participate in group sessions of the Skills Mastery and Resilience Training (SMART) Moves Emotional Wellness curriculum that includes topics of self-awareness, self-management, and social awareness and is designed to help youth develop healthy decision-making skills. Lastly, youth who need extra care participate in one-on-one case management meetings with MSW interns on a weekly basis.

Activities/services for parents/families – Our family resource nights have become an integral part of our Be You Wellness program. Families love being involved and learning about what their children are doing in the Clubs. The family resource nights also help connect families to other resources in our community through partnerships with organizations such as Family Futures, Home Repair Services, Cherry Health, Grand Rapids Public Library, Consumers Energy, West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology, Women’s Resource Center, and many more.
Workforce Readiness Program

We have successfully completed three cohorts of workforce development classes. Thirteen students then went on to complete junior staff positions within the Clubs, and we are currently working on hiring nine more. Junior staff helped complete activities with younger kids, serve meals, and keep supplies organized.

Future work
We are hoping to continue to grow both programs to be able to offer more support and opportunities to all of our members. In the Be You Wellness program, we are focused on consistently maintaining MSW and BSW interns at each of our Clubs, continuing to evolve our cool-down corners, and increase our case management capacity. In Workforce Readiness, we are planning to try some new strategies with each Club to help with recruitment and completion of the program.

We have learned through both programs that you don’t have to start out knowing everything, but just getting started is a big step. With the Be You Wellness program, we had to start small with a consultant and eventually were able to grow it enough and see the impact to be able to hire a social worker and manage multiple interns. In Workforce Readiness, we also started with a consultant and are now able to devote staff time to managing the program in-house in order to grow it. With both programs, we tried things that ended up not working, so we shifted strategies to something that would work better and be able to serve more members. Consistent evaluation has been helpful in shaping both programs into what they are today.

We feel that both of these programs give children the tools to thrive in multiple ways. The Be You Wellness program provides the support needed to teach young people how to name their emotions, manage their stress and their reactions in stressful situations, skills that are vital throughout life to not only cope, but thrive. The Workforce Readiness program teaches them the basics of job searching, writing resumes, and interviewing, as well as gives students a positive first work experience so they are better prepared for joining the outside workforce and thriving in whatever they pursue.

We are so grateful to the Steelcase Foundation and all of our supporters who make these vital programs possible!