Health and Life Skills

Programs in this area develop young people’s capacity to engage in positive behaviors that nurture their own well-being, set personal goals and live successfully as self-sufficient adults.

Cavity-Free Zone

SMART Moves

SMART Leaders

F.A.N. Club

SMART Girls

Act SMART

Street SMART

Passport to Manhood

TRIPLE PLAY

Cavity-Free Zone
Cavity-Free Zone aims to increase young people’s awareness of good oral hygiene and improve their dental health. Cavity-Free Zone was developed in response to a recent Surgeon General’s report on oral health, which revealed a silent epidemic of oral disease in the country, especially among disadvantaged youth. The Cavity-Free Zone program materials feature fun, engaging sessions and activities for Club members ages 6-9, 10-12 and 13-15. Club members can also log on to the program’s Web site to participate in games and other interactive activities that reinforce their learning about oral health. Crest sponsors the Cavity-Free Zone program.

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. SMART Leaders, a peer leader/booster program for older teens, and F.A.N. Club (Family Advocacy Network), an educational and support group program for parents and caregivers of SMART Moves participants, are also available through a partnership between BGCA and Pennsylvania State University, which developed these two programs to increase the scope and positive impact of the original SMART Moves.

Access BGCA’s SMART Moves User’s Guide online (view in MS Word). This brief, easy-to-read guide will help you and your Club’s stakeholders make decisions about whether and how to implement SMART Moves. Based on lessons learned from Clubs that have implemented BGCA’s SMART Moves program model, the user’s guide also contains practical tips to help you in your program planning. 

SMART Leaders
SMART Leaders is a booster program to SMART Moves.  This program keeps teens involved in the SMART Moves program after Stay SMART, reinforces skills and knowledge youth learned in SMART Moves and prepares teens as leaders to help their peers resist using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, and postpone sexual activity.  The program is available through a collaborative effort among The Pennsylvania State University, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.  Importantly, SMART Leaders is a CSAP Model Program.  

F.A.N. Club
F.A.N. (Family Advocacy Network) Club is a parent involvement program designed to empower parents, strengthen families, and prevent youth from using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, and from engaging in early sexual activity.  It should be offered to parents of youth participating in the SMART Moves program.  The F.A.N. Club is available through a collaborative effort among The Pennsylvania State University, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.  Importantly, F.A.N. Club is a CSAP Model Program.  

SMART Girls
SMART Girls is a small-group health, fitness, prevention/education and self-esteem enhancement program designed to meet the developmental needs of girls ages 8-12 and 13-17. 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 the build skills for eating right, staying physically fit, getting good health care and developing positive relationships with peers and adults. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation funded the recent revision of SMART Girls.

Act SMART
Act SMART is an HIV/AIDS prevention program designed for Club members ages 6-17. The program features age-appropriate units and activities that focus on health, decision making and communication skills needed to practice healthy behaviors. Act SMART can be presented in small groups and can be offered year-round. BGCA collaborated with the American Red Cross to develop Act SMART.

Street SMART
Street SMART counteracts the negative lures of gangs, violence and “street” influences on young adolescents ages 11-13. While building awareness and resistance skills, participants develop the confidence and knowledge to make intelligent choices. Street SMART’s four modules teach young people how gangs work and how to resist being recruited, how to recognize and resolve conflicts peacefully, how to become positive peer helpers and how to recognize and respect the similarities and differences of others. Participants reinforce what they have learned and share it with others by organizing community events that promote the program’s positive messages. The Allstate Foundation sponsors Street SMART.

Passport to Manhood
Passport to Manhood promotes and teaches responsibility in Club boys ages 11-14. Passport to Manhood consists of 14 sessions, each of which concentrates on a specific aspect of manhood through highly interactive activities. Each Club participant receives his own “passport” to underscore the notion that he is on a personal journey of maturation and growth. Passport to Manhood represents a targeted effort to engage young boys in discussions activities that reinforce positive behavior. Passport to Manhood is an excellent complement to SMART Girls.

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.