Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Involving Latino Youth and Families in Clubs
By Santiago Marquez and Carolina Uribe

With a population of 41.3 million, Latinos are the largest minority group and one of the youngest communities in the United States: 14.35 million Latinos are under age 18 and more than 7 million are registered in grades K-12. Latino purchasing power is at $654 billion, and expected to climb to more than $1 trillion in the next decade. Yet Latinos still lag in closing the poverty gap, and Latino youth have some of the country's highest school dropout and teen pregnancy rates.

All these factors call for Boys & Girls Clubs. In keeping with our mission, Clubs nationwide can provide valuable programs and services to a population in need while tapping into a huge growth market of would-be members. Clubs can also diversify and increase their fundraising efforts by bringing the Latino business community into our Movement.

To do so, Boys & Girls Clubs of America has developed a comprehensive effort aimed at Latino youth and families. Launched in January 2004 with support from The Goizueta Foundation, the Latino Outreach Initiative focuses on bringing Latino youth into Clubs (providing transportation is a crucial strategy); hiring and developing talented, bilingual/bicultural staff; offering interest-based programs to attract Latino youth and parents; and ensuring sustainability by integrating the initiative into all levels of Club organizations, especially boards. The initiative is being field-tested in three Georgia Clubs.

Pilot Successes
In its first 18 months, the initiative has already proven effective, bringing in more than 1,100 new Latino members at the pilot sites. All sites agree that the keys to this success involve offering programs of interest to Latino youth and parents, forming strong community collaborations, and hiring bilingual staff.

After consulting with members of the Latino community, it was determined that each site would run three interest-based programs: soccer and Latin dance for youth, and English as a Second Language for parents. Not only have these programs attracted Latino participation in Clubs, they have also sparked the interest of non-Latino members, creating an atmosphere of diversity and understanding.

To develop its soccer program, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta forged a partnership with a local professional soccer team, the Silverbacks. A new soccer league kicked off in September with 500 Club members. Teams have been formed at each Club site, with every player receiving a uniform, ball, journal and coaching from certified volunteers.

The towns of Gainesville (Boys & Girls Clubs of Hall County) and LaGrange (Boys & Girls Clubs of West Georgia) were chosen as pilot sites because of their rapidly growing Latino populations.

In Gainesville, more than 90 percent of students attending Gainesville Elementary School are Latino and more than 70 percent live below the poverty level. Many of their parents work long hours in poultry plants for low wages, and many students do not receive adequate assistance with their academics. This past summer, the Club partnered with the school to provide educational assistance and other traditional Club programming to 138 Latino youth.

The story is similar for Boys & Girls Clubs of West Georgia. Even though there is a large Latino population in the area, the Club did not have any Latino Club members, staff or board members before beginning the initiative. Thanks to the hiring of a local Latino pastor who was an established community leader, a full 30 percent of the Club's membership is now Latino, and it also has two Latino staff and two Latino board members.

Wally West, the organization's chief professional officer, has also formed a community-wide Latino Outreach Task Team comprised of Latino and non-Latino leaders. The team is leveraging dollars from local businesses to create a dedicated position to provide the Latino population with needed social services.

On the National Level
The Latino Outreach Initiative is having a significant impact on national efforts. BGCA has formed a National Latino Advisory Committee, led by BGCA Governor Pedro Lichtinger, president of Pfizer Inc's Animal Health Group.

While the initiative has only been field-tested in Georgia so far, BGCA's heightened focus on this community has already led to a 10 percent increase in the number of registered Latino members nationwide: from 844,000 in 2003 to 924,000 in 2004. The goal is to serve more than 1 million Latino youth by 2006.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America is adding another component to the initiative. Thanks to support from the Sears Foundation, BGCA will roll out the initiative – with an added component focusing on strengthening families – in six new markets: Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Houston, Miami and Puerto Rico. The objective of this phase is to empower Latino families to improve their socioeconomic status. Participating Clubs will be required to serve at least 100 additional Latino families each year for two years.

Get Involved
Your Club doesn't have to be a pilot site to participate in this exciting initiative and reach out to the Latino community in your area. First, visit the Latino Outreach section on www.bgca.net. You'll find presentations, fact sheets (in Spanish and English) and a link to BGCA's new national translation service, AlfaTrad. Clubs can view materials that have been translated into Spanish and submit their own documents to be translated at a discounted rate of 6 cents per word.

BGCA will soon release a resource guide, New Horizons: Best Practices on Reaching Out to and Serving Latino Youth and Families, containing effective outreach and programming strategies from Clubs and other community-based organizations. Every Club will receive the guide as part of a Latino Outreach kit also containing a Spanish/English poster, free one-week membership cards and a cardholder. There has never been a better time to reach out to Latino youth and families. Start today to develop your unique strategy for serving more Latinos in your community.

Santiago Marquez and Carolina Uribe are members of BGCA's Latino Outreach team.

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