Boys & Girls Clubs shift operations in Duquesne, Sto-Rox
Facing a changing financial landscape because of COVID-19 and other long-term funding trends — and wanting to work more closely with local schools — the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania will shift activities from its clubhouses in Duquesne and Sto-Rox to school buildings in those districts when in-person activities can resume.
The organization normally serves thousands of local children and teens with after-school programming and summer activities. While most in-person programming has been closed since March to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency has been organizing other relief efforts, delivering supplies to families, and running a day camp for the kids of essential personnel.
Having more partnerships with school districts makes
sense, said Lisa AbelPalmieri, the group’s president and CEO. It already has programming in the Shaler School District and a Penn Hills charter school.
The move to shift operations out of stand-alone buildings to schools was in the works for some time but was accelerated by the pandemic, she said.
In both locations, the change will mean programs can be licensed by the state Department of Human Services, and the nonprofit will be eligible to accept child care subsidies that will make attending free or lowcost for many families.
In Duquesne, the change will mean programs can serve more kids and offer additional programming in areas such as robotics, art and more, according to a statement to parents.
“We’re excited about the opportunity,” said Duquesne schools Superintendent Sue Moyer.
The partnership will mean kids can use the “maker spaces” in the school focused on science and tech learning.
Like many nonprofits, the
Boys & Girls Clubs’ finances took a major pandemic-related hit. It is also facing changing long-term trends in philanthropy, a lack of local dedicated funding for afterschool programming, and a need to diversify its revenues, Ms. Abel-Palmieri said.
An online petition to save the Duquesne stand-alone location has garnered more than 4,000 signatures.
The club “for over 30 years has helped the Duquesne West Mifflin community by hiring residents from the community that understand our children’s needs. This is a place in the community that children do not have to walk through metal detectors or worry about being judged but they feel safe and welcome,” wrote the organizers of the petition.
The club is one of only two after-school programs that operate in Duquesne, according to the petition, whose organizers could not be reached.
The club on North 3rd Street in Duquesne has belonged to the Boys & Girls Clubs since 1989, according to county property records; it was previously home to an ethnic club.
Duquesne has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the region; combined with a financially distressed local government, that has left few options for kids.
“The club is about the kids, not a building. We’re not leaving,” Ms. AbelPalmieri emphasized.
“We are committed to the communities where we are making these shifts,” she said.
The nonprofit also has operations at the Tube City
Center for Business and Innovation (the former Daily News building in downtown McKeesport), the LaRosa clubhouse in McKeesport, Carnegie, Lawrenceville, Millvale, Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship, Scott and Shadyside. It also recently acquired the Boys & Girls Club of Somerset County.