EDUCATION & CAREER
Programs focusing on education & career development enable youth to become proficient in basic educational disciplines, set goals, explore careers, prepare for employment and embrace technology to achieve success in a career.
PROJECT LEARN
Project Learn reinforces and enhances the skills and knowledge young people learn at school through "high yield" learning activities at the Club and in the home. Based on Dr. Reginald Clark's research that shows fun, but academically beneficial activities increase academic performance, these activities include leisure reading, writing activities, homework help, and games like Scrabble, which develop youth's cognitive skills. Project Learn emphasizes collaborations between Club staff, parents, and school personnel. Formally, evaluated by Columbia University, Project Learn has been proven to boost the academic performance of Club Members.
POWER HOUR: MAKING MINUTES COUNT
A comprehensive homework help and tutoring program, Power Hour is designed to raise the academic proficiency of Club members ages 5-12. Club members participate in Power Hour everyday to ensure their daily homework tasks are completed and they receive the necessary attention to achieve learning goals.
LITERACY CORPS
Through a partnership with the Robinson Community Learning Center, the Boys & Girls Clubs offer individual literacy tutoring using curruculum that aligns with Indiana state standards. Students are exposed to good literature, and engaging writing opportunities, receiving academic support that challenges them towards excellence. The tutoring program has four areas of focus: guided reading, read aloud, writing, and vocabulary.
JUNIOR STAFF: CULTIVATING TOMORROW'S CLUB PROFESSIONALS TODAY
Junior Staff is a program that assists Club members—ages 13 to 18— to explore a career in youth or human services, particularly Boys & Girls Club work. Young people prepare for future roles as human services professionals by participating in career development activities, discovering the importance of community service, building customer service skills, and completing a Club apprenticeship.
STEM PROGRAMMING
Since the fall of 2006, members at the O.C. Carmichael Jr. Youth Center have been exploring Oceanography and Marine Biology through the Immersion Science Program. With the support of a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Club Members participate in hands-on activities to explore the oceanography field. Two Club Members went to Mystic Bay, Connecticut to participate in four fun-filled days using their Immersion studies in real-life scenarios! At all Club sites members explore their creative side through building with Legos in Lego League. The class is designed to spark the kids' creativity to create, be it as simple as using Legos to make a portrait or as complex as working as a group in order to design a playground. Club Members also participate in NASA Ignite, Indiana's plan for bridging quality hands-on activities and professional development to formal and informal education.
TEEN TECH PROGRAM
We offer a Teen Tech Program where teens learn how to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher and Digital Image Pro through animated lessons and instructor-led group activities. The Teen Tech program is a part of Club’s mission to prepare America's youth for success in school and the 21st Century workforce. The Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County have also partnered with the South Bend Code School to teach members how to code, design and build their own websites as well as create their own apps.
GRADUATE FOR MAS
Graduate for Mas is a program dedicated to igniting teens’ full potential, starting with high school graduation. The Taco Bell Foundation and Get Schooled developed the program so thousands of teens are empowered to follow their path to reach personal, educational, and career goals.