Our Impact 2012 strategic plan calls for the Boys & Girls Club Movement to focus on three essential outcomes for Club members: academic success, healthy lifestyles, and good character and citizenship. While they are separate in many ways, they add up to the most essential outcome of all: young people who are prepared to enter the adult world as productive, caring, responsible citizens.

By now, we are all too familiar with the staggering high school dropout statistics across our nation. We must remain committed to helping Club members stay in school and progress successfully from one grade to the next, but we must also be committed to removing obstacles to this goal, such as hunger. What is more immediate to a young person – prepping for that test tomorrow or finding something nutritious to eat tonight?

There are no easy answers to the many complicated issues facing youth today, but one thing is clear: it will take efforts from all segments of society to address them. That’s why Boys & Girls Clubs of America was honored this summer when two corporate citizens stepped up to the plate to help combat the scourge of hunger. Thanks to our friends at Morgan Stanley and The Walmart Foundation, Club members across the country were given the chance to think about something besides their empty bellies. Read about how Clubs are promoting healthy lifestyles – and how the support of friends like Morgan Stanley and The Walmart Foundation is integral to these efforts – in this issue of Connections.

The bottom line is something we in the Boys & Girls Club Movement have always known intuitively: effective youth development is about addressing all needs a child is facing. Academic success won’t occur in a vacuum. Young people won’t necessarily understand the importance of community service without seeing others model that behavior. And no one, especially our children, should go to bed hungry.