Ralph & Betty Engelstad Club

Club members ages 6-18 years engage in high-quality organized flag football, basketball, and soccer programs. ALL STARS aims to increase opportunities for physical activity, social interaction and recognition through high-quality structured sports programming.

Focused on social and emotional learning, the BE A STAR program gives Club members ages 11-13 the tools they need to enhance their learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, and mental health.

Summer Brain Gain provides engaging, hands-on, project-based experiences to spark youth’s curiosity for learning and encourage them to explore their interests. A key Academic Success program, Summer Brain Gain is comprised of one-week modules that offer fun, themed activities for elementary school, middle school, and high school students to ensure youth avoid summer learning loss.

Youth ages 6-15 learn how individual health behaviors are influenced by personal beliefs and exposure to positive modeling. In addition to nutrition education, activities focus on helping youth assess, practice, identify, consider, and recognize health behaviors and messages.

A year-round program for Club members ages 6-18, ImageMakers helps youth learn the art and science of photography through multiple categories: Culture and Tradition, Portraits, Nature and Surroundings, Fashion and Style, Editing and Filter. This National Photography Program is designed to help youth go beyond snapshots and develop skills to take impactful photographs.

Youth of the Year (YOY) and Junior Youth of the Year (JYOY) are comprehensive national leadership development programs that take place over a four-month period each year. At the intersection of community building, workforce development and leadership training, Junior YOY (youth 12-13) and YOY (14-18) programs give youth the opportunity to share their personal stories while cultivating skills like communication, goal setting and teamwork. These individuals exemplify the Boys & Girls Club mission and are proof of the impact Clubs make in transforming and saving kids’ lives.

MyFuture provides members with a safe, fun digital platform where they can showcase their work and earn recognition in the form of stars, badges, and master badges. It’s a space where kids can interact with each other – free from the prospect of cyberbullying – learn new skills and share their accomplishments. By using MyFuture with their members, Club staff can help youth make friends and build a positive self-image through online achievement.

This year-round program encourages artistic expression among Club members ages 6 to 18 through drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, mixed-media and sculpture.

An evidence-based program for youth ages 6-18 that works to build self-esteem, interest in learning, and promote pro-social behaviors in youth. The Thoughts-Actions-Feelings Circle (TAF) illustrates how this works in life: our thoughts lead to actions and those actions lead to feelings about ourselves, which in turn lead to more thoughts. The essence of the program is to emphasize those actions that promote a healthy and positive cycle.

PowerHour: Making Minutes Count helps Club members achieve academic success with engaging homework help, tutoring and high yield learning activities (HYLA). This program encourages members of all ages to become self-directed learners.

A prevention and education program that addresses problems such as drug and alcohol use and premature sexual activity. Using a team approach involving Club staff, peer leaders, parents and community representatives, young people ages 6 to 15 engage in discussion and role-playing to analyze media and peer influence, practice resilience and refusal skills, develop assertiveness and strengthen decision-making skills.

Torch Clubs are chartered small-group leadership and service clubs for youth ages 10-13. A Torch Club is a powerful vehicle that helps Club staff meet the special character development needs of younger adolescents at a critical stage in their life. Torch Club members learn to elect officers and work together to implement activities in four areas: Service to Club & Community, Education, Health & Fitness, and Social Recreation.

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.