Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego
Serving Families Through The 2020 Scholarship Fund
For over 75 years, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego (BGCGSD, the Club) has been serving the youth of San Diego County. BGCGSD’s mission is to inspire and enable youth to achieve academic success, build good character and responsible citizenship, and make healthy lifestyle choices. They provide thousands of underprivileged youth across San Diego County with a wide variety of enrichment programs, activities and services in order to transform young people’s lives and help them grow to be caring, civic-minded and successful community members.
Unfortunately, while the Club is usually a reliable source of care and support whenever kids are not in school, the recent pandemic has greatly affected BGCGSD and the youth it serves. In March, the organization had to make the unprecedented move to close all 20 of its locations in the interest of the safety and health of their members and staff.
Thankfully, after several long months of their closure, BGCGSD was able to reopen 3 of its Clubs to begin serving the San Diego community again on June 1, 2020. Reopening has not been simple, and the three months lost over the closure have had a big impact on many Club kids. The staff now have to work harder than ever to get the kids of San Diego back on track to their great future – to stem learning losses and make sure kids who need mentoring do not slip through the cracks. BGCGSD is committed to helping families weather the storm and providing young people with a sense of normalcy until this threat passes. Their mission remains and they are more committed than ever.
Long-term, BGCGSD will be vital to rebuilding the community. During the current Summer Camp programs and into after-school programming in the fall, the Club will save money for parents and families whose funds have never been tighter. It will provide a safe place for children to go while parents are working, in addition to offering free, healthy meals and snacks. The low costs of BGCGSD’s programs, however, are not attainable for all families, especially when it comes to Summer Day Camp. In 2019, BGCGSD gave out over $600,000 in scholarships to families with a proven financial need. To help support the families that are losing income throughout the crisis, the Club’s scholarship program is now more important than ever. Scholarships allow members to benefit from all programs at a reduced cost while their parents get back to work.
To support their mission, BGCGSD invites you to invest in the future of San Diego’s youth by contributing to the 2020 Scholarship Fund. This fund, designed specifically in response to the pandemic, will help the Club serve the families who have been affected most this summer and into the school year.
For more information on BGCGSD’s programs or to make a secure online donation, visit www.sdyouth.org.
