The Boys and Girls Club of Milwaukee implemented many new programs and activities over the past year due to COVID-19. Although they had to shut down for a number of weeks last March, it didn’t take much time to jump back into the new changes that were being placed.
The brief shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed the organization to put policies in place and clearly outline what the future interactions were going to look like. Some of the policies that were set include social distancing, temperature checks and health screenings.
Amid the chaos of reopening, the Boys and Girls Club decided to offer both in person and virtual activities. The reasoning behind the decision was so essential workers would have somewhere to take their children.
“We opened up about 70% of the club to serve and provide for the Milwaukee community,” said Area Director for the Boys and Girls Club Tamera Key. “We wanted to work in both settings so we could serve the young people who need us most.”
The Boys and Girls Club wanted to ensure that the children and individuals around the community would be cared for. During the summer of 2020, they launched a meal distribution program where they served over 480,000 young people within the community. This program was open to all young people within the community, not just the families in the club.
Along with the meal distribution program, the organization dispersed and delivered about 6,000 books into the community. Also, they developed and curated more than 1,000 hours of educational books for grades K-12.
Key discussed how the number of virtual activities increased over the year. The virtual activities that were and are available to the young individuals include online family nights, health and fitness classes, cooking classes, academic enrichment, character service and more.
“We made sure that we had well-rounded program offerings so that each child would be able to participate,” said Key.
“Even though I volunteered before the COVID-19 pandemic, I applaud The Boys and Girls Club for providing a helping hand to the community when they needed it most,” said Alyssa Hildebrandt, a former volunteer.
“The Clubs are grateful that the community has continued to step up in supporting our essential services with generous donations through the pandemic” said Nicole Gulatz, Vice President of Development in a statement. “COVID-19 led us to cancel two of our signature events— which meant our event fundraising proceeds were down nearly 40%. Thankfully, many event sponsors stepped up in other ways and we were able to leverage matching gifts to inspire new donors to support our important work. We closed the year ahead of our projections and hope this strong support will continue just as our service to the community will!”