Sports, fitness and recreation

Triple Play
To teach youth how to make healthier choices, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) has teamed up with The Coca-Cola Company and Kraft Foods, Inc. to present Triple Play: A Game Plan for Mind, Body and Soul. This national program takes a holistic approach to educating boys and girls about good nutrition, making physical fitness a daily practice and developing individual strengths and good character. In addition to components for the mind and body, the Triple Play program gets at the soul of the Club experience — the gamesroom. Each Mind, Body and Soul program component can stand alone, yet integrating them allows Club members to reap more powerful, lifelong benefits.

Social Recreation
The gamesroom offers pool, ping pong, bumper pool, foosball, and PlayStations. Competitions and tournaments will be conducted.

The gym will be where sports, games and fitness activities will be conducted that will include basketball, indoor soccer, volleyball, aerobics and fitness classes. The fitness center will have weights and aerobic equipment.

The Arts

National Fine Arts Exhibit Program
This year-round program encourages artistic expression among Club members ages 6-18 through drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, mixed media and sculpture displayed at local and regional exhibits. A panel of distinguished judges selects works of inclusion in the National Fine Arts Exhibit, which is displayed throughout the ensuing year at BGCA events, including the annual National Conference. Each winning artist‘s work is featured in a virtual gallery on BGCA‘s Web sites.

ImageMakers National Photography Contest
This year-round program encourages Club members ages 6-18 to learn and practice black-and-white, color, digital and alternative process photography. ImageMakers has three components: a photography programming resource guide full of fun, creative activity ideas for three skill levels; small grants for Clubs to start or strengthen photography programs; and an annual photography contest that provides local, regional and national recognition. Club members‘ photographs selected at the contest‘s national level are exhibited at the BGCA National Conference and at other events and venues. Winners in the portfolio category receive college scholarships. Each winning artist‘s work is feature in a virtual gallery on the ImageMakers Web site, www.imagemakersbgca.org. The Web site also features resources, tools and fun interactive activities, such as a virtual camera and online photo contests, to further enhance Club members‘ experience with photography.

Digital Arts Suite and Festivals
Club Tech‘s suite of self-directed digital arts courseware consists of Web Tech (Web page design), Design Tech (graphic design), Photo Tech (photo illustration) and Music Tech. Movie Tech contains detailed instructor materials for teaching members to write screenplays and facilitating the hands-on process of filming and editing digital movies.
Once Club members have participated in these programs, they can submit their digital artwork to the annual Digital Arts Festivals competitions. The festivals celebrate Club members‘ creativity in five areas — Web design, graphic design, photo illustration, music composition and movie making — and provide Club members with recognition at the local, regional and national levels. Winning digital artwork is featured on the Digital Arts Festival Web site.

MusicMakers
BGCA, along with NAMM, The International Music Products Association, is proud to announce the release of MusicMakers, a new music education program resource for Clubs. Designed to enhance your interest-based programming, MusicMakers is a flexible program resource for Clubs that includes a helpful guide and four display posters to help you get the word out and generate excitement among Club members.

Recording Studio, D.J. Booth, Dance Floor and Stage

Education and career development

Project Learn
Project Learn reinforces and enhances the skills and knowledge young people learn at school during the hours they spend at the Club. This comprehensive program strategy is based on Dr. Reginald Clark's research showing that students do much better in school when they spend their non-school hours engaged in fun, but academically beneficial, activities.

Skill Tech
Skill Tech is a basic computer skills program that develops Club members‘ proficiency with word processing, spreadsheet and other productivity software through fun, hands-on, engaging lessons and projects for four age groups.

Skill Tech II: A Club Tech Advanced Skills Program
Skill Tech II is designed to teach advanced, yet practical technology skills to Club members aged 13 to 18. Using animated, interactive tutorials on courseware developed exclusively for Boys & Girls Clubs, as well as hands-on, instructor-led group activities, Skill Tech II introduces members to hardware and networking skills and technology-related career opportunities.

Health and life skills

SMART Moves
(Skills Mastery and Resistance Training)

This nationally acclaimed comprehensive prevention program helps young people resist alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, as well as premature sexual activity. SMART Moves features engaging, interactive, small-group activities that increase participants' peer support, enhance their life skills, build their resiliency and strengthen their leadership skills. This year-round program encourages collaborations among Club staff, youth, parents and representatives from other community organizations. The program's components are: SMART Kids, for ages 6-9; Start SMART, for ages 10-12; Stay SMART, for ages 13-15; and SMART Parents.

TRIPLE PLAY
Healthy Habits
Empowering youth to eat right is a generation-changing, life-enhancing program goal, and Triple Play's nutrition component, called Healthy Habits, covers the power of choice, calories, vitamins and minerals, the food pyramid and appropriate portion size.

Character and leadership development

Youth of the Year
Youth of the Year is BGCA's premier youth recognition program for Club members. All members can benefit from participation in this program, which promotes and celebrates service to Club, community and family; academic performance; moral character; life goals; and poise and public speaking ability. The Youth of the Year program is most effective when used as a year-round tool for fostering young people‘s character, personal growth and leadership qualities. Local Clubs recognize members ages 14-18 who were Youths of the Month and select a Youth of the Year, who then participates in state competition. State winners, who each receive $1,000 scholarships, participate in regional competitions. Five regional winners each receive an engraved plaque and a $10,000 scholarship and compete on the national level. The National Youth of the Year receives an additional $15,000 scholarship and is installed by the President of the United States. Reader's Digest Foundation has sponsored the Youth of the Year program for 60 years.