Message from Erin Antrim, Interim Chief Professional Officer

This is a very special year for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme. On June 11, 1954, we opened the first Boys and Girls Club in Oxnard. We are celebrating 60 years of inspiring and enabling all young people in this community to realize their full potential as productive, responsible, caring citizens. We are proud of what has been established for our youth but we still have a lot of work to do, we need your help to continue serving those youth who need us the most!

We believe that every child deserves a great future; we provide programming in health and life skills, sports fitness and recreation, education and career development, character and leadership and the arts to allow our members to have a positive and enriching experience when the school bell rings to put them on a path to success.

There is a very scary trend here in Ventura County, only 26 percent of economically disadvantaged kids in the third grade score proficient or above in English on state tests, compared to 66 percent of non-economically disadvantaged kids ( kids data.org). That is a 40 percent skills gap. The good news: there is something being done about this. When school is out, BGCOP is in to lessen this growing achievement gap by providing enriching academic programs and much more, all for only $20 a year! Our kids are proven to have great results, 96 percent of our kids graduate from high school (Damooei economic impact study 2010).

There are 72,000 kids between the ages of 6-18 in Oxnard and Port Hueneme, we are currently serving 9,000. We need your help to serve more kids and lessen these startling achievement gaps; these gaps have a long lasting economic impact on our communities. For every dollar invested in our clubs, there is a $17 return on investment. There is no better investment than that for our Kids!!

 

With passion for kids,

Erin Antrim

 

 

 

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