Boys and Girls Club Atlanta, Assuring Students Success within The Community

Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta -Promotion video

Living in a city with myriad troubled youths struggling to find success and productive living is an endemic problem in the Atlanta community that needs immediate solutions to. Organizations such as Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta offer such solutions and they have made it their mission to assure success of its students and engender intellectual foresight in them also.

Boys and Girls club of Atlanta-Promotion video

According to statistical review provided by Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta, one hundred percent (100%) of seniors that attended Boys and Girls Club in the 2018 academic year successfully graduated high school; eighty nine percent (89%) enrolled in college courses, and the overall graduating teens who attended the club where awarded over 1.7 million dollars in scholarship money. These statistics are some of the impressive reasons that parents have their children enrolled in the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta.

Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta has played a pivotal role in the lives of many students academically. Participating in Boys and Girls club can be essential for growth and leads to higher test scores. As of 2016, fifty five percent (55%) of students attending Boys and Girls club of Metro Atlanta improved in their math skills, while for some students who view the program as a place to go after school and hang out with friends also witnessed positive growth in their academics and personal lives as it kept them away from trouble by participating in the sundry activities at the club that are resourceful.​

Boys and Girls club is associated with multiple programs from career launch to diplomas and degrees. One of such programs, ‘Project learn’ has been confirmed by institutions such as Harvard in helping students achieve academic excellence. Studies indicate that students enrolled in the program missed fewer days of school while involved in the program and they achieved better grades over a period of a month after the program.

“Working for Boys and Girls Club we buckled down on students and made sure they were getting their homework done each week,” said Joshua Jackson, a current employee at Boys and Girls Club in Metro Atlanta. “We paid close attention to their overall grades and test scores, that helped us determine what subjects the kids needed to be tutored in,” explained Mr. Jackson.

The staff and board members of Boys and Girls Club are esteemed highly for their contributions to the academic and personal growth of the students. One of such dutiful staff members: Valerie Rita who has been a part of the organization for several years has been overly praised for her extensive knowledge of childhood education and her expertise in fostering path geared towards academic/personal proficiency in children.

At an early age of seventeen, Valerie worked in the young adult’s ministry at her local church in Orlando, Florida. It was then that her unmatched passion to help children in need was birthed. She furthered her passion by pursing a degree in psychology at Valencia community college. Through all of her academic accomplishments she claimed attending boys and girls club in her teen years left a great impact on her life and helped her strive to accomplishing her goals.

Upon graduating from College, Valerie began working at a local boys and girls club in Florida before transferring to Georgia, she originally started working there as an art director and quickly became counselor for many students at the after-school program. She would spend countless hours tutoring and mentoring the children even after her normal work hours.

Her ability to tackle issues and develop the kids’ self-esteem did not go unnoticed by members of staff, parents alike and the community at large. She was quite popular and well-liked by the kids in the community and valued as a staff member at the club. Valerie also played basketball and ran tracks at middle and high school while attending Boys and Girls club Florida. She would often come in on days she did not have practice to play basketball with other teens and kept them engaged in extracurricular activities while doing the same.

Valerie when asked on her opinion of the program expressed,

" I myself was a member of boys and girls club as a teen," said Valerie.

I owe all my success in life to this organization because they kept me on

the right track and motivated me to go to college. Many of my friends who

went to boys and girls club with me went on to be successful and graduated

college as well, so yes Boys and Girls club makes a difference in children's

lives. I am a living testimony, and now it's my time to give back.”

Another great asset to Boys and Girls club is Christy Willkie. Mrs. Willkie is a therapist and specializes in working with children, especially troubled children from the ages of 5-20 years. She has worked with several kids throughout the years in various roles and one of those roles was the “Dakota Boys and Girls club”. She has been admired for her passionate and inexorable role towards the kids and for her unflinching support in seeing the kids through no matter how disgruntled and insouciant they are. They offer a range of services to assist the troubled children to become better. This gives credence to her enthused personality when she said: “it’s because they have so much potential and so much skill, and they don’t know how to funnel it. I am persistent. I don’t give up on kids or their families.” Mrs. Willkie is also an advocate for Boys and Girls club and believes it leaves a lasting impact which is accommodating and positive to children from troubled homes.

According to Tramon Palmer and Sidney Johnson, both of whom currently volunteer at Boys and Girls Club summer camp in Metro Atlanta, things are changing for the better. “A lot of students have changed for the better during the previous school year,“ said Mr. palmer. “Boys and girls club is more than a place for fun, it’s a place where kids from troubled homes and different backgrounds have hopes for a better future.” Sidney explained.

Conclusively, the Boys and Girls Club plays an emphatic role in the formative years of inner city youths who are crippled with the negative vagaries of life as it shapes and improves on their attitude and makes them more knowledge cognitive on the path of intellectual success and fulfillment.