Every weekday after school, children across the Brazos Valley spend a few hours at one of four Boys & Girls Clubs before they head home for the evening. Some crack open their textbooks, some head outside to play, and some chow down on provided snacks. With each club — in Brenham, Bryan, Burton, and Caldwell — the programs vary, but all work towards the mission of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America: “to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.”
From the outside looking in, each club is similar — especially during the school year. Children and teens ages 6 to 18 either hop on a school bus or walk over to their club that’s on-campus, where they are grouped by school and age. Then, “the kids go through rotations of time on the computer, getting homework help, in the gym, and outside — each with a designated staff member, classroom, and equipment,” says Stephanie Wehring, executive director for Boys & Girls Club of Washington County. Here, children and teens play and meet positive role models, says Marsha Kocurek, the Caldwell representative on the Boys & Girls Club of Brazos Valley board. “We look at what the kids need, and then we match that,” Kocurek says.
That’s where clubs differ. The national organization provides a range of programming, and each club chooses what to focus on. Sometimes, that results in club-specific programming. For example, because most local schools don’t give homework on Wednesdays, Caldwell club kids initially found themselves with less to do on those afternoons, not needing homework help like usual. “So, we started Wonder Wednesday,” Kocurek says. “Now, community members come and talk about things happening in town or careers the kids can go into.”
Most clubs in the Brazos Valley host the Passport to Manhood and Smart Girls series that is specific to each gender. “Within the same after-school time frame, an hour period a couple of days a week, we get to really pour into these kids,” Wehring says. For their program, boys participate in interactive activities, focusing on a specific aspect of character and manhood each session, and complete a service project. Meanwhile, girls are split into small groups. Here, they have dynamic sessions of their own, that includes field trips and adult, female mentorship, according to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America website. At the end of the series, every student that participates is honored with a graduation, diploma and all, Wehring says.
“It’s all about access; kids don’t know what they don’t know, and their parents may not know how to expose them to it,” says Vice President of Community Relations Nancy Paschal, Boys & Girls Club of Brazos Valley. “When I did a teen work readiness program, half of the teens that I took had never been to Texas A&M University, and they live right here in Bryan. But if they know about it, they can grow about it, and it’s our job to make sure that happens.”
With COVID-19, having a limited amount of space has forced every club to reduce their numbers, Paschal says. It’s also initiated a crackdown on health and safety regulations, with temperature screenings and a brand-new safety committee “full of people from the Brazos Valley Council of Governments and various police departments in town,” Paschal notes. Ironically, Wehring says she thinks COVID-19 has improved the clubs overall. “We’ve been given the grace and latitude to experiment a little, and we’ve learned things from that,” she explains. “It’s really helped us to have a better-quality program as we continue to be creative and reevaluate. We’ve had food drives, partnered with local restaurants for hot meals, and reinstituted organization-wise programs.”
“Everything we do goes back to one of our core values of academic achievement, healthy lifestyles, and character and leadership development,” Wehring continues. “In today’s day and age, the youth who need us most is every kid out there. They all need our support and encouragement.”
For more information, visit bgca.org. To donate, visit bgcbv.org/donate or bgc-brenham.org/donate.