These initiatives or programs focus on meeting significant, specific needs that have been identified within the Boys & Girls Club Movement. Because their scope is broad, they relate to or complement several or all of the five Core Program Areas.

Targeted Outreach

Services To Teens

Club Tech

YNet

Youth for Unity

Embracing Inclusion

Family P.L.U.S.

About Club Tech

Targeted Outreach Strategic Approaches
Targeted Outreach is a set of community-based strategic approaches for reaching out to young people ages 6-18 at high risk of delinquency and gang involvement and directing them to positive alternatives. Clubs collaborate with local partners to mobilize community resources, use special strategies for recruiting hard-to-reach youth, mainstream targeted youth into appropriate Club programming and monitor targeted youths’ progress through individualized case management.

In the Delinquency Prevention Initiative, Clubs help targeted youth create customized plans for making positive changes based on the risk factors unique to them. These youth select “Success Teams” to protect them from negative influences and support them in achieving their goals. The Delinquency Prevention Initiative is sponsored by Entertainment Software Association. Gang Prevention through Targeted Outreach provides training, resource materials and technical assistance to Clubs and their community partners to keep young people from becoming involved in gangs. Gang Intervention through Targeted Outreach supports Clubs in helping gang-involved youth leave that lifestyle. Targeted Re-entry supports Clubs in helping youth who have been incarcerated to make a successful transition into society. The Gang Prevention, Intervention and Re-entry initiatives are sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Services To Teens
BGCA’s Teen Services Initiative provides program resources, grant funding, training and technical assistance to Club staff and boards so they can better meet the interests and needs of teens in their communities. Teens are not simply “older children”; they have reached a developmental stage that requires a different strategic approach to recruitment, retention, marketing, staff interaction, space utilization and programming. In addition, the needs and developmental abilities of younger teens (13-15) vary from those of older teens (16-18). Clubs that have not served teens previously are sometimes daunted by the challenge of actively seeking a teen membership population. Other Clubs are serving teens well, but may want to approach it more strategically or improve their outreach. The Teen Services initiative helps Clubs increase their outreach to teens and serve them more effectively.

Club Tech 
Club Tech is an ambitious, multi-year initiative to provide all Boys & Girls Clubs with state-of-the-art software; an extensive array of programs and resources to help Club professionals build members’ computer skills and integrate technology in all Core Program Areas; and ongoing training for Club professionals. The Club Tech initiative is generously sponsored by Microsoft Corporation.

YNet
YNet is a fun, secure, age-appropriate Web site that promotes youth development outcomes, fosters inter-Club collaboration, expands Club resources and empowers youth as content developers and monitors of their online community. YNet is generously sponsored by Microsoft Corporation.

Youth for Unity
To help educate young people across the country about the importance of tolerance and diversity, Boys & Girls Clubs of America has joined forces with The Allstate Foundation to develop Youth for Unity, a diversity education program designed to combat prejudice and intolerance. Youth for Unity promotes and celebrates diversity in an effort to prevent bigotry and discrimination. Youth for Unity is the umbrella title for a comprehensive set of programmatic interventions that will allow Clubs to help members appreciate and understand our society’s diversity, recognize unfairness and take personal leadership in confronting bias. Under this initiative, an additional diversity module will be developed for the Street SMART Program.  Download the fourth module called Valuing Differences, to use with your Club members.  

Embracing Inclusion
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an estimated 12.7 percent of young people ages 6-14 have a disability (2001). Unfortunately many of these young people have limited access to after-school programs that provide fun and engaging opportunities for social and personal development.  This initiative, funded by the Mitsubishi Electric Foundation, provides Club professionals with tools and resources to enhance their services to youth with disabilities within fun and safe environments.

Family P.L.U.S. (Parents, Leading, Uniting, Serving) Initiative
Family P.L.U.S. is the new name for the Family Support Initiative funded by Kimberly-Clark Foundation. Kimberly-Clark’s generous support provides an opportunity for Clubs to receive pass-through funding to continue or initiate family inclusion activities and events in their Club community. The Family P.L.U.S. Initiative consists of six components from which Clubs select their focus. Each component is designed to fit specialized area(s) of need of Club families. These components are:

Social Networks and Family Cohesion – help families connect with formal and informal resources that provide support and information to prevent community isolation.
Kinship Care – includes providing knowledge and resources to extended family members (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) who have taken on the parenting role as primary caregivers.
Father Involvement – Clubs provide support and promotion through programs, activities, training and services to help increase the positive involvement of fathers in the lives of their children.
Economic Opportunity – focuses on empowering families to build their employability skills for finding and keeping jobs with increased earnings.
Outreach/Recruitment/Retention – will builds the capacity of Clubs to effectively recruit and retain the involvement of parents and caregivers as partners in the development of their children.
Family Advocacy Network (FAN) Club – is a scientifically proven model of group support for parents and caregivers of Club members who are participating in the SMART Moves program. Through FAN Clubs, parents and caregivers receive empowerment through leadership, educational and social activities and individual support.

About Club Tech

Computers and the Internet have dramatically changed how people live, work and play. Information access is faster, easier and less expensive -- but only for those who can take advantage of these powerful tools. Millions of America’s at-risk, disadvantaged youth are in danger of becoming victims of the “digital divide.” These youth are at a disadvantage in the classroom, in the job market and are ill-equipped to take their place as productive members of society.

In 2000, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) approached Microsoft with a comprehensive and strategic technology plan. The objective of the plan called for eliminating  the gap between the digital "haves" and "have-nots." Thus, the finished product would be developed with this simple vision: to create digital opportunities for Boys & Girls Club members and, by extension, millions of other young people.

With Microsoft's support, BGCA has developed a comprehensive, technology-focused program for implementation within its nearly 4,000 Clubs worldwide.