By Owen Charters, President & CEO, BGC Canada

December 8, 2023

Positive effects start even after a few visits, but after 150 visits Clubs have significant impact on the lives of children and youth.

In January 2020, I visited BGC Winnipeg as they released a much-anticipated study delving into Club impact.

About the Winnipeg study

Conducted by the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy at the University of Manitoba, researchers looked at 12 years of data. They studied 8,990 children and youth who participated in the programs of the BGC Winnipeg, as compared to 69,980 children and youth who lived in the same postal codes and encountered similar life events and demographics—but did not participate at the Club.

The Winnipeg study examined education, social (justice), and health outcomes. The first thing to note is who goes to the Club. The data shows these kids experience more adverse life events and experiences than most of the population, at a very significant rate.

• About 44% had a mom who was a teenager when she had her first baby, compared to the Manitoba provincial average of 6%.

• Almost 49% had a mom who had seen a doctor for a mood or anxiety disorder vs the provincial average of 20%.

• Nearly 49% were from families who had received services from Child and Family Services vs the provincial average of 9%, and 20% were from families who had previously had a child taken into care of Child and Family Services vs the provincial average of 4%.

• 55% were in the lowest quintile for family income in the province.

You can find a summary of the full report here.

Let’s look at what happens when these children and youth attend the Club. First, the optimal Club experience happens around 150 visits, or less than one school year of attending the Club almost daily. Positive impacts start even after a few visits, but at 150 visits and more, the positive effects impact attendees significantly.

• Education: Club kids demonstrated that they were performing academically at the expected average for their grade. 
• Health: The more a young person participated in the Clubs, the lower their risk of having a teen pregnancy or getting a sexually transmitted infection.
• Justice System: The more a young person participated in the Clubs, the lower their risk of becoming involved with the justice system. 

BGC Club impact today 

BGC Canada launched the Learning and Impact Project in 2022 to prove and improve the impact of Clubs. The project includes an annual deployment of a national outcomes survey and deep-dive interviews with members to explore the impact of Clubs in four key areas: positive relationships, lifelong learning, healthy living, and leadership skills. The participation from Clubs has been astounding and the study is already one of the largest of its kind in Canada.

In the first two years of the Learning & Impact Project, Clubs have already surveyed 12,570 children and youth. The quantitative data show that youth are more confident and resilient, and make better choices because of a Club.

• 96% of kids say they have more people they like to spend time with because of a Club

• 92% of kids say they are more excited to try new things because of a Club

• 91% of kids say they are more accepting of others because of a Club

• 90% of kids say they are a more positive influence on others because of a Club

• 91% of kids say they are more physically active because of a Club

• 90% of kids say they make better choices because of a Club

• 91% of kids say they are more confident in their abilities because of a Club

• 94% of kids say they take more initiative because of a Club

(Source: 2023 BGC Member Survey Results)

Learn more about our national outcomes survey results here.

So far, 858 members from 32 BGC Clubs have been interviewed. Here’s what Club kids told us:

These are kids who need the Club, there’s no doubt. 

The qualitative portion of the project is also giving us insight into how the approach of Clubs is creating impact. Members told us that it’s through opportunities to explore new things, the safe and welcoming environment of Clubs, and the relationships with staff and other kids that are making the difference.

You can find a summary of the key data here.

This data is important. It underlines what we already know from anecdotal outcomes – the work of Clubs changes lives. In my remarks in Winnipeg, I noted that we rely a lot on the stories of how Clubs have impacted the children and youth served. And we always will. With this work, we also have the proof—both quantitative and qualitative—of the impact of Clubs on the lives of children and youth.

It’s time to share our stories and the invaluable proof that BGC Clubs make a difference—that opportunity changes everything.

BGC Winnipeg (formerly known as the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg) works in collaboration with their local Old Navy and their This Way ONward program to teach BGC Club youth important skills for the workforce and prepare them to land their first job at Old Navy

Old Navy has been a proud partner of BGC Canada since 2005, helping prepare the next generation of leaders for workplace success. Old Navy’s This Way ONward program helps Clubs provide youth with job readiness training, by offering real-world work experience with on-the-job skill building, alongside one-on-one mentorship and coaching. This program aims to help young people unlock their career potential and can help youth get their first job or prepare them for the next step in their career. This Way ONward provides a safe space for young people to learn the skills necessary to build a more secure future and successful career.

On Thursday, April 28, 2022, at BGC Winnipeg’s Annual General Meeting, the Club honoured volunteers from their local Old Navy with the ‘Community Spirit Group Award’, which is given annually to a corporate partner that provides exceptional support and goes above and beyond to assist their local BGC Club.

This Way ONward has been in high demand among youth at BGC Winnipeg since its inception three years ago. Since then, 30 of the 50 young people from the Club who applied for jobs have been hired at Old Navy or Old Navy–related stores.

Program participants are granted a job interview with Old Navy, but BGC Winnipeg staff shared that the real magic of the program actually happens before.

Club and Old Navy staff help the youth prepare by hosting activities like workshops and practice interviews. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Old Navy would also invite Club youth to tour their stores and get behind-the-scenes glimpses of the work that goes into running them. Club youth get a chance to sit down with Old Navy staff members and learn about their work experiences in the retail industry.

In Winnipeg, this local partnership has been a win-win situation for everyone involved: the local BGC Club, Club youth, and the Old Navy store. Old Navy was an obvious choice for BGC Winnipeg when choosing their Community Spirit Award recipient because they have been working together for decades. In fact, when considering which corporate partner to recognize, BGC Winnipeg’s Community Engagement Director, Heather Black, pulled out pictures of Old Navy staff at the Club from the early 2000s.

This Way ONward seeks to remove barriers to employment for youth and meets them halfway to assist based on their needs. These opportunities have been important for the youth, Jocelyn said, because “it’s one thing for us to tell the youth about employment…and work with them on resumes and such but it’s another when you say ‘ok, the store manager is going to come, and they want to spend some time with you’”. Overall, she would say the program has been “a really positive experience for a lot of our youth” and has “made a big impact, over the last few years especially”.

The program allows Old Navy staff to build authentic connections with the youth at the Club, where they feel most confident removing the typical power dynamic in a standard interview situation. The participants already knew their co-workers when they got the job from the workshops and had mentor-like relationships with them that eased them into the workforce. Jocelyn said that these experiences “show youth this is what your first job could be like, you can do it”.

Old Navy staff are very active at the BGC Winnipeg Club, and BGC participants become well acquainted with them. Not only are they active in community events such as family barbeques, Christmas, clothing donations, and food drives but they also spend hours playing games with the youth and getting to know them personally. These relationships have not only helped the clubs operate and provide services to the community, but it has helped BGC youth in the long run. For many of the participants, this was the first time they had gotten a job. While this could have made some of the teenagers nervous, their nerves were alleviated by the close relationship many of them built with the Old Navy staff before completing an interview.

One of the youth participants of the program, Jeremy, seconded this. Jeremy was a member of the BGC Winnipeg club for approximately 10 months. He was looking for a job in Grade 11, when his school guidance counsellor connected him to Jocelyn at BGC Winnipeg and he joined This Way ONward. He describes his overall experience in the program as “very fun” and noted that the program helped him gain confidence in his ability to get a job. He worked at Old Navy for nine months and said, “every single one of them [employees and workers at Old Navy] was great”. He even gained “quite a few friends” from his time there and helped his friend get a job there as well.

Jeremy felt that the skills he gained from the program “has prepared me for a lot more in the rest of my life”. He learned to write a resume during one of his BGC workshops, which he still uses now, and gained practical skills such as how to fold clothing, planning, training other people how to do the job, and how to be a leader. The experience taught him “a little bit about myself, and a little bit about others too”.

The This Way ONward program has been particularly popular with older teens at BGC Winnipeg, who are seeking their first job or a seasonal position, to help build their work experience. But Jocelyn also shared that there is demand amongst younger teenagers, who are 14 or 15, and eager to join the program, but need to wait until they are 16 to participate. This is great news for Old Navy, because there is a steady stream of prospective employees who have been trained in job readiness at their local BGC Club. Those who are old enough to apply, and have been chosen, are always able to stay on for longer periods of time if they wish to. Stephanie Mclean, who is an Old Navy Community District Leader, said there is always room for talent at Old Navy.

Overall, working together on the This Way ONward program has been positive for everyone involved. Both Jocelyn and Stephanie repeated that working with each other “never felt like work” and Stephanie mentioned that because BGC is “an organization that really cares about young people”, she felt she was “making a difference in someone’s life”. When I asked Jeremy whether he would recommend this program to others, he responded, “Absolutely, yes. 100%”.

Working with their school’s BIPOC committee and the Lead UP group at their Club, which provides youth with opportunities to engage in service initiatives that address community needs, BGC Winnipeg young leaders Busayo and Faith led a schoolwide initiative to raise awareness about Black History Month, important Black leaders, and Black culture in Canada and the U.S. 

With support from Heather, a staff member at BGC Winnipeg, they applied for BGC Canada’s Anti-Racism Initiative Microgrant to help support the initiative.

BGC Canada’s Anti-Racism Initiative Microgrants, sponsored by Hyundai Canada and Best Buy Canada, were created to support youth-led initiatives from Club members across Canada.

The microgrants aim to elevate youth voices around anti-racism, especially in BIPOC communities. BGC Canada is committed to removing barriers for youth and instilling the confidence they need to achieve their best selves. Stories like this one are what we mean when we say: No. More. Barriers. 

Everyone involved spent the fall of 2021 and winter of 2022 preparing for the event. The group organized online activities (like Kahoot!) to be delivered in classrooms at Dakota Collegiate and created posters for the entire school, incorporating an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens in the messaging. Busayo also led a video production, where people of all ages were interviewed and spoke about their experiences with racism and what they were hopeful for in the future. 

You can view the video here: https://vimeo.com/513578469 

Busayo says it was her “favourite project so far,” one that she will remember for a long time.  

“I never thought I could lead such a big project.”