BGCA created myclubmylife.com to provide an online opportunity for teens to engage in Club programs, access positive, pro-social content, participate in skill-development and civic engagement opportunities, and share their own voices. Myclubmylife.com reaches teens where they are – online. This site is broadening BGCA’s reach to teens outside Club walls and enhancing the teen programming that takes place within the Club.

• In the last several years, technology use among teens has exploded.
  93% of teens use the internet. (“Teens and Social Media,” Pew Internet and American Life Project, December 2007)
  
• Young people 13-17 years old are spending an average 11.5 hours each week online. (The Center for Media Research, Teens Learn from Advertising on Social Sites, 2008)

Teens are drawn more and more to the internet to communicate, connect, create and learn.  For BGCA to effectively serve teens, we need to reach them and communicate with them through online mediums and technology.

“More than the type of media platform or even how much time is spent using media; the content is what determines whether the impact is positive or negative…  We propose meeting youth where they are – riding the airwaves – with positive messages that compete with and offer attractive alternatives to the negative, unhealthful, or illegal messages that others offer.”  (Hirschhorn Donahus, Haskins and Nightingale, Princeton-Brookings, Children and Electronic Media, The Future of Children, vol. 18, no. 1, Spring 2008)

Content on myclubmylife.com is designed to provide positive online information for teens while remaining relevant and savvy for this audience. Fun, interactive content elements and celebrity interviews are mixed with information on academic achievement, setting goals, job search tips and financial literacy. Contests are designed to further engage teens in existing Club programs and youth development strategies. 

Teen-created content is promoted widely on the site as well as content about teen experiences in the Clubs.  Myclubmylife.com features stories produced by teen reporters, content developed by teens for their peers, contests and voting/polls on topics of interest.