Making Every Day Count - Teens

Conclusions and Implications 37Time spent at the Clubs offered more to teens thanthe “sum of its programmatic parts.”P/PV’s prior review of evaluations of discrete programsat the Boys & Girls Club suggested thatClubs’ implementation of focused programminghas shown promising results in different areas, suchas career development, delinquency prevention andacademic success. Most of the previous evaluationsof Clubs were limited to understanding the outcomesof those discrete programs, however, and didnot take into account the larger ways in which theClub experiences—the staff, the place to hang outand the multitude of opportunities—might influencea positive trajectory for youth. Thus, at theheart of this study was the effort to look at participationin the Club as a whole and learn more aboutthe ways in which teens’ experiences and exposureto the range of Club activities, staff supports, andopportunities might promote healthy developmentat a time of transition in youth’s lives—as they aremoving from middle to high school—when manyyouth, particularly minorities, disengage fromschool and positive activities.In addition to examining the relationship betweenClub participation and changes in outcomes overtime, the evaluation provides insights into howClubs work for teens. The perceptions of staff andyouth are that the experiences and exposure towhat the Clubs have to offer is bigger than whattakes place within any one or two activities atthe Clubs. It involves the relationships that teensdevelop and the opportunities they are exposed tomore broadly, as well as the formal programming.Teens noted specific Club programming and informalinteractions with staff and peers as helpful insupporting them over time. The Clubs provideformal, discrete programs that are designed to helpyouth build character, achieve academically andmake healthy choices. The number of activities ineach of these outcome areas ranged from Club toClub, with more formal opportunities in the healthylifestyles area, fewer in the academic area and thefewest in the citizenship and character developmentarea. Informal programming includes the leadershipopportunities that abound at the Club (beyondspecific leadership programs such as Torch Cluband Keystone), where teens have opportunities toprovide input and serve as leaders, and where thereis the expectation that they will be role models foryounger youth. The teen rooms or teen centers thatall of these Clubs offer provide a space for informaldiscussions and “teachable moments.”More importantly, staff and youth described theClub as a place where the staff build relationships,and said that those individual relationships createthe bridge to programming; to conversationsabout character, school and healthy lifestyles; andto opportunities for staff to serve as role models.In our interviews, staff described how they supportyouth’s positive development in the three outcomeareas by paying attention to youth, being there tosupport them, and providing both formal and informalopportunities for activities and interactionswith peers and other staff. Teens similarly describedthe importance of the relationships with staff forlearning and positive development at the Clubs.And both staff and youth perceived the staff asaccessible and approachable. The teens also foundsupportive peers at the Club; and they describedthe Clubs as a place where peer pressure was not anissue, the way it could be for them at school.Implications for Serving Teens inOut-of-School-Time ProgramsIn addition to this evaluation’s specific findingsabout the strategies and achievements of Boys &Girls Clubs, several important lessons about servingteens effectively during the out-of-school hoursemerged from the qualitative and quantitative datagathered for the study. These lessons apply to Clubsas well as to other organizations that are striving tofill the needs of teens in low-income communities.Providing a safe, supportive and engaging environmentmatters for all ages in out-of-school-time programs.But it matters more for keeping teens—who“vote with their feet”—involved.Funders, policymakers and practitioners are allinterested in successful strategies for recruiting andretaining older youth in positive out-of-school-timeactivities. The findings from this evaluation echoand validate other research about what must be inplace to attract and sustain teens’ participation inout-of-school-time programs: a variety of meaningfulactivities to engage youth’s interests; accessible