FY 23-24 Program Report

Agency Name: Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County Program Name: Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County Equity Dimension: Income

Condition: Lifelong Learning & Education Tier: Medium Budget: $94,500.00

Annual Goal FY 23-24	Annual Goal FY 23-24
Unduplicated Participants     Total Unduplicated Participants 1395 180	How Many Activities/Services Will Be Provided?     ​700 high-yield learning activities. 700 107
Annual Goal FY 23-24 Age     0-5 0% 1% 6-18 100% 99% 19-59 0% 0% 60+ 0% 0% Unknown 0% 0%	Annual Goal FY 23-24 Language     English 88% 81% Spanish 11% 18% Other 1% 1% Unknown 0% 0%
Ethnicity     African American 2% 2% Asian 2% 3% Latino 19% 34% Multi-racial 23% 15% Native American/Alaskan 0% 1% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 0% 1% White 53% 42% Other 0% 1% Unknown 0% 1%	Gender     Female 49% 44% Male 50% 54% Transgender- Female 0% 0% Transgender- Male 2% 0% Other 0% 1% Unknown 0% 1% Nonbinary 1% 0%
Location     Capitola 2% 2% Santa Cruz 30% 36% Scotts Valley 17% 13% Watsonville 4% 2% Unincorporated Mid-County (e.g., Live Oak, Soquel, Aptos ) 37% 29% Unincorporated North County (e.g. , Davenport )  1% 1% Unincorporated San Lorenzo Valley (e.g., Ben Lomond ) 8% 11% Unincorporated South County (e.g., Freedom ) 1% 0% Unknown 0% 5% Out of County 0% 1%

Annual Goal FY 23-24   Annual Goal FY 23-24 How Well Did We Provide Service?     How many participiants did you survey? 1395 168 80% of program participants report being either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with program services as measured by a one-question participant survey that will be completed by June 30th of each FY. 80% 81%

Annual Goal FY 23-24   Annual Goal FY 23-24 Is Anyone Better Off?     80% or more of participating youth will self-report receiving mostly A’s and B’s in school, as measured by the BGCA National Youth Outcomes Initiative survey (administered annually in March). 80% 84%

Additional CORE Questions  (The maximum length is limited to 1200 characters in the below boxes)
1. Briefly describe any progress and/or successes your CORE program achieved implementing its activities during FY 2023-2024. (Recommended 2-4 sentences)	Over the past year, we delivered “Project Learn,” an evidence-based practice that strives to improve students’ educational outcomes by increasing their interest in learning, enhancing their academic abilities, and improving their grades. Our primary activities were “Summer Brain Gain” and “Power Hour” programs, delivered during summer camp and afterschool programs, respectively. Every day at our Clubs also includes high-yield learning activities via fun physical activity and creative arts programs. Data from our 2024 BGCA National Youth Outcomes Initiative (NYOI) survey indicate that 97% of our youth think they’ll graduate from high school, and 98% of our youth are on grade level for their age. This field is required
2. (Optional, Success Stories) Please share a short story about the experience of a participant or family that received services funded through this contract during FY 2023-2024. Please state the specific activity that was provided and the impact or positive change that occurred as a result of the service(s) provided. *Please make sure to change any identifying information, such as names.*	In December 2023, we acquired our first-ever Club vehicle thanks to a grant from Bridgestone Tires. Having our own van has allowed us to offer an afterschool van shuttle service to transport students who attend DeLaveaga Elementary school to our Downtown Santa Cruz Clubhouse (unlike most other school that we serve, DeLaveaga is too far to walk). Notably, many students who attend DeLaveaga participate in the “Dos Alas” Spanish-language immersion program, and many of these students are able to get bilingual homework assistance at the Club. As one parent explained, “The DeLaveaga van service to the Downtown Boys & Girls Club has been a game changer for us. It has allowed us, a west side family of working parents invested in bilingual education, to keep our daughter at DeLaveaga in the Dos Alas “Two Way” Immersion Program, and to continue working. Until the van was made available, we spent nearly 2 hours a day commuting to school and back, and access to the van and the Club has more than halved that. I cannot stress enough how thankful we are for this service and the downtown club in general. Without it, I don't think we could have kept our daughter in the Dos Alas Program."
3. Please describe any challenges your agency experienced in implementing its CORE funded program.	We have not experienced any significant challenges in implementing our CORE funded program during this reporting period. This field is required
4.Have you encountered challenges in collecting CORE program or participant data?	Yes No This field is required
5. If you answered yes, what challenges did you experience? (Recommended 2-4 sentences)	We participate in several rigorous data collection initiatives supported by Boys & Girls Clubs of America, including the annual National Youth Outcomes Initiative (NYOI). Unfortunately however, we can’t append our own questions into the BGCA NYOI survey. In addition, while some of our program participants attend the Club for an entire school year or summer, others come and go based on their family’s schedule. This means that gathering CORE satisfaction data from all participants can be challenging. Thus, as in years past, we gathered our CORE satisfaction data via a standalone, anonymous point-in-time survey conducted near the conclusion of our 2023-24 afterschool program, rather than as part of our larger NYOI process. This allowed us to capture data from the 168 youth who were in attendance at each of our Clubs that day. We feel that this is a representative sample, however we acknowledge that we did not receive responses from 100% of our youth participants.
6. What technical assistance can HSD or the CORE Institute provide to support your data collection activities?	The greatest challenge we face regarding data collection is simply staff capacity. Our budget is tight, and we prioritize investing in frontline program staff who directly support our youth members. Our small administrative team does the best we can to collect and interpret data related to our participants and their experiences at the Club. This field is required
7. During FY 2023-2024, did your CORE program staff participate in a CORE Institute event (e.g., Coffee Chats or Conversations)?	Yes No This field is required
8. During FY 2023-2024, how did your CORE program engage its staff on issues of equity?	Our mission is to inspire and enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. We talk frequently as a staff about how the circumstances surrounding a young person’s home life, such as financial hardship or trauma, impact their behavior while at the Club. Over the past year, we held several all-staff trainings focused on trauma-informed care and youth mental health, to better equip our team in supporting our youth. This field is required
9. In the CORE RFP, your program indicated an equity issue your program would address. How has your program impacted this equity issue in FY 2023-2024?	Our project is focused on the equity issue of income inequality. 63% of the youth served live in households whose income falls below the County’s median income of $101,068 (according to DataShare SC County), and 90% participate in their school’s Free or Reduced price lunch program. One of the objectives in our proposal was that “Low-income youth participating in Project Learn will respond “very true” to the statement “I enjoy learning new things” at the same or higher rate than the population overall, as measured via the NYOI survey.” We came close to achieving this, with 50% of low income members answering “very true” vs. 52% of our overall population. This field is required