Boys & Girls Clubs in Colorado

BGCC exists to support Colorado Boys & Girls Club organizations build capacity and financial stability by:

• Providing strategic and collaborative leadership on statewide youth development programs, initiatives and advocacy;
• Securing resources that result in measurable outcomes for academic achievement, career skill building, workforce development, safer neighborhoods, juvenile crime reduction, prevention of opioid abuse, improved mental health, and positive civic engagement; and
• Galvanizing Colorado’s Boys & Girls Clubs and staff into a single force to help leverage and influence public policy and advocacy efforts that secure state and private funding to make the most significant positive statewide impact across Colorado.

Colorado Boys & Girls Club organizations are supported through the following key programs:

Capacity building and training: In order to help ensure Colorado Clubs continuously educate, nurture, and retain stellar afterschool staff, BGCC aims to train XXX youth development professionals annually on evidence-based and evidence-informed curricula and programs, using a positive youth development lens. Over the last five years, BGCC has trained at least XXX Club staff on a variety of programs including among others SPARK, Triple Play, Positive Action, and PYD. The objective is to identify relevant training topics, through staff surveys, and provide a minimum of XX regional training opportunities per year to a minimum of XXX Boys & Girls Club staff. It is anticipated that by hosting trainings for staff during key school-year and summer breaks, BGCC will maximize its impact. BGCC continuous quality improvement includes training evaluation satisfaction surveys and regular Club outreach to ensure trainings remain relevant and timely. By BGCC providing staff training and capacity building, Boys & Girls Club staff throughout Colorado increase knowledge and confidence in program implementation, leading to more youth achieving significant programmatic outcomes and building stronger connections to their profession and other Club organizations.

Providing leadership on statewide strategic initiatives: BGCC aims to be the leader in advocating for high quality youth development programs during out of school-time by facilitating cross-sector collaboration and sharing of best practices. BGCC does this by convening and leading the annual Colorado Boys & Girls Club CEO Summit for strategic planning and sharing of best practices across Boys & Girls Club organizations. BGCC also works to build relationships with community partners, at minimum XX each year, in the youth development field to heighten awareness of Boys & Girls Clubs and identify new opportunities for collaboration. By facilitating strategic internal and external planning and sharing, BGCC aims to lead advocacy efforts to bring more resources and awareness to all people in Colorado on the importance of high quality out-of-school time programs for youth and the positive impact they have on youth and families across the state.

BGCC is committed to changing lives of young popel. Statewide oversight is conducted by Executive Director Danielle Felder. While Ms. Felder is new to the Movement, she has worked as a Chief Development Officer and a lawyer prior to joining BGCC and is more than capable of overseeing the statewide grants distributed to various member organizations. Program and grant delivery is coordinated by the Grants and Compliance Manager, Christina Simonetti. Ms. Simonetti has worked in youth and victim advocacy as well as in program management, grant writing and reporting, research, and community engagement. She currently oversees five statewide grants and is responsible for program delivery, evaluation, fiscal compliance, and outcome reporting.

By measuring Club youth and teens achievement, BGCC can determine how Clubs are helping Colorado’s youth build great futures. As a capacity and resource building organization, it is vital to continuously survey BGC staff and the Colorado afterschool and education landscapes to assess needs and challenges and be responsive with capacity building opportunities and advocacy. BGCC engages its constituents through surveys, training evaluations, participation in state groups, and in-person focus groups at the BGCC Boys & Girls Clubs CEO Summit held annually to collaboratively address challenges and current and emerging community issues.

BGCC also supports Colorado Clubs in implementing the BGCA’s annual National Youth Outcomes Initiative (NYOI) survey assessing youth behaviors and outcomes. This tool, measuring the impact of Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide, uses a formula incorporating a common set of research-informed indicators of BGCA’s priority outcomes – Academic Success; Good Character & Citizenship, and; Healthy Lifestyles. BGCC is then able to compare Colorado Clubs results to the national BCGA data to get a sense of how Clubs in Colorado compare to their peers across the nation. Moreover, Colorado data is also compared to the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) Survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control which monitors six categories of health-related behaviors that contribute to several youth issues including risky behavior leading to negative outcomes and data provided by the nationally awarded Afterschool Alliance in Washington DC.

Locally, BGCC compares its impact results to the biennial Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) designed to better understand youth health and what factors support youth to make healthy choices and Colorado Department of Education – 21st Community-Centered Learning Centers (CDE-CCLC) state afterschool program data.

As the organization continues to build out its evaluation efforts, BGCC recognizes the need to evaluate its advocacy work and the impact it has on Clubs in Colorado and other out-of-school-time youth-serving organizations around the state.