Spend Your Summer with BGCMLA!

College & Career

College Bound (Elementary - High School) - Introducing a beginner's guide to college prep, designed to broaden horizons and open doors for our young members. Through colorful and engaging lessons, participants delve into the world of academia and career possibilities. From exploring different professions to understanding college life, our tailored program offers a visual journey into the future. The goal? Equipping our youth with the knowledge and skills to navigate the path towards a college-ready future, one milestone at a time.

Money Matters (Ages 13+) - The new Money Matters curriculum features 25 fun and engaging facilitator-led sessions. Money Matters was designed using the latest research on financial education, behavioral economics and youth development. In our new curriculum, teens develop financial literacy skills that can lead them to workplace readiness, lifelong financial stability and overall success.

Money Smart (Ages 6 - 12) - a program geared at helping youth learn the basics about money and finances. Members will learn to create realistic expectations about spending and how money is earned. Guides allow staff to engage members in topics including saving, setting financial goals, prioritizing spending decisions, and staying safe online.

Career Launch (6th - 12th Grade) - CareerLaunch is BGCA's job-readiness and career preparation program for teens. It provides fun and interactive activities for youth ages 13 to 18 to explore a broad range of career areas, match their interest to career clusters and identify the skills and education needed for their particular career path. CareerLaunch is designed to support youth in preparing for their first job, internships, summer employment and so much more! The program offers multiple implementation 

Diplomas to Degrees (Ages 13 - 18) - Diplomas to Degrees encourages teens to explore their interests and potential careers, helps them map the steps to gaining entry to a postsecondary institution that meets their needs, and develops in them the skills and attributes necessary to succeed after high school.

Education & STEM

Exact Path (Ages 6 - 11) - Edmentum’s Exact Path is a web-based learning tool providing students an opportunity to work on specific areas of need in math, reading, and language arts as determined by the systems adaptive diagnostics and individualized learning path. Exact Path ensures the delivery of precise instruction to accelerate students to grade level and beyond. 

Rhymes with Reason (Ages 12+) - Rhymes with Reason helps students learn important English words by showcasing their existence in widely known music lyrics. By using popular music, a bank of vocabulary known to people of all economic and racial backgrounds, this program provides an engaging and equitable solution to vocabulary access. This culturally relevant, music-powered approach to closing the vocabulary and reading gap serves as a refreshing learning experience for all.

Summer Brain Gain (Ages 6 - 12) - Summer Brain Gain is a summer learning loss prevention program developed specifically for Boys & Girls Clubs. The program is comprised of one-week modules with fun, themed activities for elementary school, middle school and high school students. Each module takes a project-based learning approach: youth engage in a process of learning through discovery, creative expression, group work and a final project or production. As a result, kids develop higher-order thinking skills through the Summer Brain Gain modules while staying on track for the coming school year.

STEM (All Ages) – Locally grown programs aimed at inspiring youth to pursue STEM interests, skills, and careers. Focus on programs like computer science, coding, and STEM topics based on interest are meant to provide or enhance what is offered during the regular school day. The goal of the program is to equip members with skills and experiences that will prepare them for success in STEM courses in high school. Youth are the leaders of learning in stem guiding the questions about how the world works, why something is, and how to enhance the world we live in.

Leadership & Service

SMART Moves (All Ages) - Core is a targeted program in BGCA’s Health and Wellness core program area that supports Healthy Lifestyles. It builds the foundational social-emotional and health skills that will enable youth to make healthy decisions. People with better social-emotional skills report participating in fewer risk behaviors, including substance use and smoking. To address this, successful prevention programs should focus on building the social-emotional skills that serve as protective factors in youth and support them in avoiding risk behavior. Programs should focus specifically on self-control, emotional awareness, communication and problem solving.

Cultural Awareness (All Ages) - A locally developed initiative the Cultural Awareness program allows staff to spark youth’s curiosity about their cultural identities and those of others by discussing and learning about traditions, foods, and customs from around the world. The program aims to increase member’s cultural competence and acceptance of diversity to prepare them for a 21st century world.

Torch Club (Middle School) – small-group leadership and service clubs for boys and girls ages 10-13. A Torch Club is a powerful vehicle through which Club staff can help meet the special character development needs of younger adolescents at a critical stage in their development. Torch Club members learn to elect officers and work together to implement activities in four areas: service to Club and community, education, health and fitness and social recreation.

Keystone (High School) – Keystoning is the Boys & Girls Club Movement’s most dynamic teen program. It affords teens an opportunity to gain valuable leadership and service experience. Teens conduct activities in four areas: academic success, career exploration, community service, and teen outreach. Aaron's Inc. sponsors the Keystone Club program as part of a multi-year teen initiative; a strategic partnership between Aaron's Inc. and BGCA provides Clubs with the tools and resources to create a positive place for teens as well as for kids.

Health & Wellness

Triple Play: Healthy Habits (All Ages)- Triple Play, BGCA’s comprehensive health and wellness initiative, strives to improve the overall health of members, ages 6-18, by increasing their daily physical activity, teaching them good nutrition and helping them develop healthy relationships. The program is made of three components Mind, Body and Soul.

Triple Play: Social Recreation (All Ages) - Triple Play, BGCA’s social-emotional learning curriculum that builds skills a young person needs to make healthy choices, including their relationship with themselves, relationship with others, emotional regulation skills, and responsible decision-making skills.

Healthy Habits (All Ages) – A locally developed initiative to ensure members have the opportunity to learn about healthy eating and making healthy snacks. Activities align with components of Triple Play but also use staff inputs and creativity to enhance the experience for members through fun recipes they can try at home.

SMART Girls (All Ages) - SMART Girls is a small-group health, fitness, prevention/education and self-esteem enhancement program designed to meet the developmental needs of girls in three age groups. Through dynamic sessions, highly participatory activities, field trips and mentoring opportunities with adult women, Club girls explore their own and societal attitudes and values as they build skills for eating right, staying physically fit, getting good health care and developing positive relationships with peers and adults.

Passport to Manhood (All Ages) - Passport to Manhood promotes and teaches responsibility in Club boys ages 8-17. Passport to Manhood consists of 14 sessions, each of which concentrates on a specific aspect of manhood through highly interactive activities. Passport to Manhood represents a targeted effort to engage young men in discussions activities that reinforce positive behavior. Passport to Manhood is an excellent complement to SMART Girls.

Journeys: Paths to Adulthood (Ages 10 - 15) - Growing up isn’t easy. Journeys: Paths to Adulthood is a targeted identity exploration program built to give young people the space, support and tools they need to navigate the journey of adolescence as they grow to emerge as strong, healthy young adults. Journeys: Paths to Adulthood is meant to help young people reflect on their own sense of self in relation to aspects of their identity. Clubs support identity development in all kinds of interactions and experiences, but because adolescence is a key milestone for identity formation, this targeted program is intended for young people ages 10-14. Providing young people with the support they need during these formative years helps them develop healthy attitudes and lifestyles that they will carry into adulthood.

SMART Moves (All Ages) - SMART Moves is a suite of health promotion programs, focused on building the key attitudes and skills necessary for youth to make decisions about their health. Although health education is typically considered a school-based topic, health education requirements, content and quality vary amongst school districts. Some of the biggest gaps in content are related to risk behaviors such as substance use, tobacco use and sexual health. The program provides content aligned with the most important social-emotional skills necessary for healthy decision-making. This is reflected in the name of the program: SMART is an acronym for Skills Mastery and Resilience Training. 

Sports & Fitness

SPARKs (All Ages) – SPARK curriculum is dedicated to creating, implementing, and evaluating research-based programs that promote lifelong wellness. SPARK strives to improve the health of children and adolescents by disseminating evidence-based physical activity and nutrition programs that provide curriculum, staff development, follow-up support, and equipment to teachers of Pre-K through 12th grade students. SPARK is committed to providing outstanding customer satisfaction through timely delivery and exceptional service. SPARK believes in fostering a positive working environment that values professional growth, upward mobility, and opportunities for people to work together toward common goals.

Tennis Academy (Challengers Club Only) – Members practicing tennis are taught the basic fundamentals of the sport from how to hold the racquet to how to move to the ball and even play some games. Members have options according to age group and skill level. Beginners will practice recreation tennis focusing on introductory lessons that also support building character, respect, confidence, and resilience. As youth progress and develop a skill and passion for the sport they can practice with the Junior Tennis Team who focus on live play, friendly competitions, and skill drills. 

The Arts

Fender Play (All Ages) - Fender will be working alongside the BGCMLA team on curriculum development towards the goal of performing one song in genres like rock, pop, blues or Latin. Students will learn 10 important chords and how chord progressions work; understand the history of several genres; write an essay about the genre; solve real-world math problems related to guitars; and learn digital recording techniques to record music. Fender Play Foundation’s mission is to equip, educate and inspire young players, by working with organizations, educators and artists to support communities through equipment donations, access to personalized instruction and artist experiences. Operating under the belief that music is a universal language that empowers self-expression and community building everywhere, the Fender Play Foundation strives to place these powerful tools in the hands of youth who aspire to play.

Inner City Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (Ages Vary by Club) – through a partnership with ICYOLA and BGCMLA they provide teachers that support members by providing them opportunities to learn and perform music in the most magnificent settings of our community. They prepare our members for advanced study and high caliber success in music and otherwise. They also instill the ancillary benefits that music instruction provides: problem-solving skills, critical thinking, self-reliance, self-confidence, self-discipline, and the crystallization and pursuit of meaningful purpose.

Art Expression (All Ages) – Program, which enables Club youth to develop their creativity and cultural awareness through visual arts. Aimed to support youths’ wellbeing in our Clubs and communities, we continue to offer our most highly utilized arts experiences for youth are encouraged to share their creative expressions by participating in a series of art galleries and showcases.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

Mindfulness Half Hours (All Ages) – offered as a 30 - 45 minute block of program at the start of the day summer day and at the transition during lunch. This program is trauma-focused providing self-regulation techniques for youth. The goal is to practice the 5 habits of self-regulation to provide youth with the tools to do this both inside as well as beyond the Club doors.

SEL Workshops (Ages Vary by Club) – programming offered by case managers for the club students receive the opportunity once a week to engage in a variety of sessions to discuss and review practices around de-escalation, communication, relationship building, and much more.

Positive Action (All Ages) -  is a program grounded in the broader theory of social and emotional learning and development. This program obtains broad and long-term effectiveness in improving both school performance and other desired student outcomes by addressing the influences on behavior in a holistic way. Positive Action is a proven program for Boys & Girls Clubs and other afterschool programs. For more than 15 years, local clubs have found the Positive Action philosophy and its materials complement the mission of Boys & Girls Clubs and help local clubs streamline their program content.