From Ontario Nonprofit Network blog (June 2020)

Nonprofits are collaborating and innovating to provide stability, a sense of community while people are living apart, and access to supports while families face some of the greatest economic, health, and social challenges in a century.

As Canada’s largest agency serving children and youth, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada works to provide safe and supportive places where children and youth can experience new opportunities, overcome barriers, and develop skills for life.

During a global pandemic, their Clubs are needed more than ever. For many children and youth, the Club is the safest place they have access to. Savannah Lapensee, a youth who was positively impacted by her local Club in Cornwall, ON, remembers “the children who benefitted the most from the after school program … their excitement as well as [her own] when they walked through the doors ready for programming.” She is reminded of the teens who found a place to belong at a Club with others, and who found a new family to be with at their home away from home. It’s easy to forget how much of an essential service Clubs offer. Many children and teens can’t wait to go to the Club to see familiar faces and thrive in ways they may not be able to during this time. And, even though she is not a member anymore, “she can’t wait either.”

Across Canada, youth like Savannah are sharing their stories to highlight the importance of Boys & Girls Clubs in all times, but especially during a pandemic.

Shealah Hart, a youth participant from Botwood, Newfoundland & Labrador, finds that one of the greatest benefits of the Boys and Girls Club in her neighbourhood is that it provides the opportunity to open doors for children and youth. “At the Club, every child is a child of privilege. Each member is treated equally and has the same access to wonderful opportunities to learn, grow, and develop.”

”But COVID-19 has left both parents and post-secondary students without employment, children and youth without school, teachers, and classmates and of course, without their Club staff, programming, and Club friends. In particular, high school seniors are missing a special milestone—graduation. Children and youth are missing their routines. They are missing their “normal.” They are missing opportunities to flourish. Some may even be missing having full bellies or a safe place to be themselves.”

Staff at her local Club are working diligently and creatively to ensure that these people do not go without. As Shealah says, “For the Club, when there is a will, there is a way.” Club staff continue to adapt, engage members, and provide services both through mail and online. In addition to programming and services for members, staff are also dedicated to distributing food hampers and hot meals to shut-ins and seniors. It is clear for Shealah and her community that the Boys and Girls Club provides much-needed security, community, and opportunity to develop skills for the future.

Like the Club in Botwood, Boys & Girls Clubs across Canada continue to find new ways to support youth and Ontarians during the pandemic, including everything from providing sanitary care packages to virtual cooking programs to phone video counselling. To continue supporting youth and communities when they need it most, Boys and Girls Clubs across Canada need a stabilization fund.

Laurette Jack-Ogbonna, the Children’s Program Coordinator for the Eastview (Toronto) Boys and Girls Club, shares how a stabilization fund for the sector would enable the Club to continue providing impactful programs. “It would enable us to re-hire staff members that have been laid off. This rehiring would mean developing more quality virtual programming, with friendly and familiar staff mentors. The local children miss and require this interaction,” says Laurette. “Most importantly, it would allow [the Club] to plan ahead with greater certainty. Given the current climate, a number of our regular and new funding sources will no longer be able to grant [the Club] full funding. These sources, foundations and corporations, are experiencing dramatic decreases in their own income.” This, in addition to the nonprofit sector’s challenge to run traditional fundraising events and the cost of implementing new protocols to ensure safety, have substantial financial implications.  

A stabilization fund is necessary to overcome challenges, recover from COVID-19, and maintain vital programming for youth and communities across Ontario. 

Share your story on social media using #680millionreasons. 

By Owen Charters

*this op-ed was recently published on toronto.com

The gymnasium echoes with excited voices as volunteers and Boys and Girls Club members begin tearing boxes open and pulling out bicycle parts.

It’s August in Toronto, and I’m at our Boys and Girls Club in East Scarborough. I’m on hand for the Mondelez Canada Bike Build, an event that pairs Mondelez Canada employee volunteers with young Club members to assemble 50 bicycles. Two days earlier and a little further west, another 50 bicycles were built at Eastview Boys and Girls Club in Greektown.

The best part? Each young person that takes part in assembling a bike gets to take one home. For me, the entire enterprise is summed up by the look on a child’s face as they grip the handlebars of their newly built bike; a combination of immediate joy, future rides unfolding in their imagination, and the pride of ownership that comes from building the bike themselves.

These events are a spinoff of Bicycle Factory, a Mondelez Canada initiative that encourages Canadians to build bikes online. The virtual bikes are then turned into real bikes for kids in rural Ghana, making it easier for them to get to school and gain a valuable education.

Bringing a similar project to Canada only made sense; although bikes are a common sight in Toronto and its suburbs, in reality they are a luxury that many families in our city can’t afford. The gift of a new bike opens up a range of opportunities for a kid, from simply getting around the neighbourhood, to spending quality time with their family, to getting the physical activity they need. And these bikes will stay in the family for years to come, passed down from one sibling to the next.

Sustainability is the key. Not just in the long-term use of the bikes or in the self-esteem and leadership traits instilled in the youth, but also in the community building that takes place at each event. Mondelēz employees get a chance to volunteer in the communities where they work and live, the local Toronto police division runs safe riding workshops, and bike experts from Velofix are onsite to check the mechanical function of each bike before the kids take them home.

The Bike Builds are part of a larger community-based Mondelez Canada program called Cool Moves. Run at Boys and Girls clubs across the country, Cool Moves encourages kids to adopt healthy, active lifestyles through two different streams: Eat Smart, where young people are taught how to make healthy eating choices, and Play Cool, where they are introduced to a variety of physical activities.

And it’s working. To date, nearly 22,000 children and youth in 50 communities across the country have benefited from Cool Moves. And in the Toronto area, we’ve built and donated 400 bikes.

It’s a ripple effect — healthy kids make for healthy communities. And that’s good for everyone.

Adaja Stephenson, a member of Boys & Girls Club of East Scarborough, works on putting together her new bike as part of the Mondelez Canada Bike Build program.

New bicycles assembled by children and their mentors are lined up at Eastview Boys & Girls Club in Toronto.

Martavia Martin, a member of Boys & Girls Club of East Scarborough, gets some help from volunteers to assemble her new bike.