Author: Sarah Durham

Boys & Girls Clubs of Washington State (BGCWA) has developed and completed two years of a three-year pilot program to provide behavioral health staff support and trauma-informed training within their Clubs in partnership with WA state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, PAXIS Institute and the Norcliffe Foundation.

In the first year, the pilot launched three strategies to support Clubs’ work in promoting youth mental health: Behavioral Support Specialist staff, PAX Tools trauma-informed care training, and social and emotional programming.

In the second year, the pilot deepened staff competencies in mental health promotion by offering additional training and development to Behavioral Support Specialists and youth-facing staff alike. Under the guidance of a trained researcher from PAXIS Institute, Club staff conducted a year-long evaluation of programming, with results showing significant growth in positive behaviors, especially among youth who need us most. BGCWA staff conducted an extensive communications and outreach work to promote the work of Washington Clubs and to socialize the idea of behavioral health promotion in an out-of-school space.

Click here to read the full report.

For the seventh year in a row, Boeing is partnering with Boys & Girls Clubs to raise funds for Clubs and supplies for Club kids ahead of the back-to-school season. 

During the month of August, Boeing’s internal campaign “Liftoff for Learning” encourages its employees to donate to our Clubs, with every donation over $25 matched by the company, and volunteer hours are also rewarded with additional investments in the Clubs. Additionally, Boeing’s Global Engagement team distributes links to the Amazon wish lists of the five organizations located near a Boeing facility, so that employees can support our Clubs with purchases of learning supplies, snacks and play items. Over the previous 6 years, this campaign has raised over $100,000 thanks to the generosity of Boeing’s employees. These funds ease the Clubs’ efforts to provide learning opportunities and homework assistance to Club members every day after school. 

The Summit for America’s Youth (SAY) conference is an annual event at our nation’s capitol where youth from around the country gather to meet with members of Congress and participate in valuable trainings. This year, a couple of the Washington organizations that participated were Boys & Girls Clubs of King County and Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County.

A part of SAY is its Advocacy Expo where teens participate in a “Think, Learn, Create Change” (TLC) initiative and showcase an issue that’s at the forefront of their minds. Youth from Boys & Girls Clubs of King County chose to focus on how gun violence is affecting their community. They created a poster board that showcased their concerns and presented it at the expo.

We asked youth about their experiences. Carter of Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County stated his most memorable moment was “getting to see the U.S. Representatives and Senators and talk with them about local issues that actually impact us.” Gavin, also from Skagit County, stated “it was an awesome experience meeting with Congress and learning about teen advocacy and meeting new people.” Jana, from Boys & Girls Clubs of King County, described her favorite time in the following way: “In the games room you would meet a lot of people throughout all the activities and had opportunities to strike up conversations. In the general sessions, you got to celebrate achievements and hear from different speakers.”

One influential session offered at SAY was the Power of Your Name session. Teens were able to better understand the importance of their names and those around them. For Jana and Nadia (who’s full name is Nadezhda), both of Boys & Girls Clubs of King County, this conference offering stood out among the rest. For Jana, it allowed “me to evaluate the shared struggle of understanding of teens’ names around us. As someone with an often mispronounced name, I felt heard throughout that session.” Nadia loved it too “because it allowed me to bond with others who had experienced the same struggles I had and allowed me to feel a bit prouder of my name.”

When talking about their favorite issues addressed at the SAY Conference, Zoey from Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County said, “All of the topics covered in the TLC projects because it was cool to see teens my age doing something so big.” River, also from Skagit County, shared that they found it very inspirational and uplifting about why we shouldn’t let the barriers get in our way of sharing our ideas and making a difference.

Carter summarized: “The conference taught me that the young people of today are the change makers of tomorrow.”

Well said, Carter. We couldn’t agree more! We’re so thankful for the opportunity the SAY conference offered our youth to continue advocating for themselves and their fellow teens.

Tanzil from Boys & Girls Clubs of King County won the 2024 WA State Youth of the Year in March.

She went on to the Pacific Regional Youth of the Year in late May, representing youth from Washington. Tanzil is a high school senior and Keystone Club president. Her platform focuses on equity in Clubs, ensuring all youth have a voice in their Club programs, as well as access to high quality afterschool programming. She is the first youth from Boys & Girls Clubs of King County to move onto the Pacific Regional Youth of the Year in over a decade. Although Tanzil is not moving on from the regional competition to the national event, we’re incredibly proud to have her continue to represent Washington as our WA State Youth of the Year!

From June 5th to 7th, CEOs and senior leaders of WA Clubs convened at Cedarbrook Lodge in SeaTac, WA, for their fourth annual leadership retreat.

This year’s focus was on growth, encompassing both the organizations and personal and professional development. The integration of Artificial Intelligence into Club administration and operations was a key topic, with insights from Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact team and ChatGPT coaching from Neesh.ai. Chief operating officers joined Club executives in a session aimed at optimizing operational effectiveness, learning from case studies presented by Boys & Girls Clubs in Skagit County and Southwest Washington, which have implemented Lean Six Sigma and the Entrepreneurial Organizational System, respectively. 

Club leaders exchanged best practices, successes, and challenges, marking over a year of deliberate collaboration with #culturedrop coach Galen Emanuele. This partnership has led BGC organizations to design and establish a well-defined, purposeful culture within their teams. The initiative is set to influence employee behavior, mindset, and experiences, thereby enhancing engagement, team performance, trust, retention, and accountability. Adopting Galen’s “Clarity, Commitment, Consistency” framework, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Washington State are embedding this cultural work into their daily operations, resulting in a more uniform and positive employee experience, healthier leadership, improved relationships and communication, more unified teams, and greater overall success in fulfilling their mission to support youth and families.

The retreat continues to be our Club leaders’ favorite networking, collaboration and relationship building event of the year. Both in the learning sessions and during fun team-building activities and dinners, Club leaders are continuously evolving the Clubs’ culture and vision for every Club kid, teen and family.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Washington State wants to take a moment this month to recognize and highlight the amazing Behavioral Support Specialists (BSS) we have working across our state.

Thanks to our Mental Health Promotion grant program, each of our 14 traditional club organizations have been able to hire at least one full-time specialist that is able to dedicate 100% of their time toward promoting mental and behavioral health programs, resources and training within their Clubs and Club communities. However, in addition to creating, building and promoting programs, our BSS are also committed to their own professional growth. 

All lead BSS meet once a month to share best practices, ideas and problem solve together. This past year, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) launched a Mental Health Professionals Association which many of our BSS are now members of, such as our BSS from Benton and Franklin Counties and Whatcom County, allowing them to collaborate with others across the nation and participate in additional training and continuing education credits hosted by NYU. Recent training sessions were “Ethics & Boundaries for Behavioral Health Professionals” and “Behavioral Therapy for Depression and Anxiety.” Whatcom’s BSS just recently chaired the association’s meeting and led a learning session with the group on how to utilize BGCA’s intranet page. 

BSS from our South Puget Sound organization became certified to train teens in Mental Health First Aid and are leading a community effort to provide this training to teens during the school day. They have been able to train over 3,300 teens to date in Pierce County! Several of our BSS, like the one in Lewis County, maintain a formal partnership with an outside certified mental health professional whom they meet with regularly for coaching and professional development feedback. Others are working toward additional degrees and certifications, like those in King County and Bellevue who will complete their master’s degrees this year!

Many of our BSS such as those in Clarkston, Skagit and Thurston Counties just recently completed a learning session with BGCA content experts regarding their National Trainers Initiative (NTI). NTI certification allows them to conduct their own training and collaborate with other local organizations to host learning events and is a first step toward completing BGCA’s Trauma Informed Care Specialist certification. Trauma-Informed Specialists act as subject matter experts, providing consultation, training, and support to their Club, and Clubs across the nation.

All of this is just a snapshot of the work our incredible BSS are doing every day to create a positive impact on the youth, teens, families, and communities our Clubs serve.

Please view our Year 2 Mental Health Promotion Pilot Report here for further information.