Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County --- applying on behalf of Boys & Girls Clubs across the state

PROJECT PURPOSE

The purpose of this proposal is to help Oklahoma's youth recover from the impacts of COVID, including academic learning loss, delays in social skills development, and especially emotional well-being and mental health setbacks. This statewide proposal includes Boys & Girls Clubs using a Club-on-the-Go mobile Clubhouse program across the state to reach thousands of youth, primarily in rural areas, who currently do not have access to high quality out-of-school time programs. It also includes a number of capital improvement projects that are intentionally located in areas of tremendous need that would allow us collectively to be able to serve thousands more disproportionally impacted youth who are desperately waiting for access to the kinds of programs and services we provide. This statewide proposal includes 17 separate 501c3 organizations that collectively have 64 Clubs throughout the state, that would serve an additional 81 cities through the mobile Clubhouse program if fully funded. No single organization would receive more than $1M in capital investment for the Club-on-the-Go program. Most of the proposed capital projects are also well under $1M, and the larger capital expenditure requests are contemplated with the US Treasury?s Final Ruling for capital expenditure justification in mind.

EVIDENCE

Clubs use reading recovery and other software programs that provide individual and group academic progress data as well as daily emotional check-ins. Evidence-based programs and measurements described earlier, combined with data from schools and third-party surveys, indicate that youth attending Boys & Girls Clubs perform 27% - 42% better in reading and math, are 32% less likely to smoke or drink, and are 36% less likely to get into a fight. Teens who graduate from high school contribute an additional $209,100 benefit to the economy, and BGC teens are 35% more likely to graduate from high school than their peers.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

The pandemic has affected all of us, yet none more negatively than low-income communities, underserved communities, ethnic minorities, and children with high ACEs scores. Youth floundered in their homes without adequate food, supervision or internet access. 75% of our parents lost their jobs at the onset of COVID. While students have returned to school, things are far from ?normal.? Even before COVID-19, Oklahoma youth were experiencing significant mental health challenges. The isolation and anxiety surrounding the pandemic only exacerbated these problems with emergency rooms seeing a 24% increase in mental health related visits from children ages 5 to 11 and a 31% increase in teens. Academically, students in these communities are struggling despite heroic efforts during virtual learning. The ramifications are profound. Statewide testing in 2021 showed Oklahoma grade level proficiencies decreased 26% in reading to only 24.8% proficient, and decreased 31% in math skills to only 22.1% proficient. The youth this program will serve score far below those averages, with most scoring 15 ? 18 months behind grade level. Failure to help these students has the unimaginable consequence of losing a generation to academic loss and emotional trauma.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Initial project performance would be measured by the successful on time, on budget implementation of a statewide Club-on-the-Go program and successful completion of proposed capital improvement projects. Additional success measures would include tracking the number of new and retained youth served through each program, new cities and counties served, and impact measurement through pulse checks, annual National Youth Outcomes Initiative (NYOI), and data and behavioral feedback from school districts.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma