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Serving as a second home for local youth, the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula aims to close the opportunity gap for many families in Silicon Valley through education, athletics, mental health and more.
“There are so many school-age children who have got hard-working families that live a very different reality here in Silicon Valley, and the many opportunities and resources that can make this community such an enriching place to grow up are out of reach,” said Jenny Obiaya, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula.
The local chapter of the national organization is currently serving 6,700 children across 30 different sites from East Palo Alto and Daly City. The Boys and Girls Club offers free after school and summer programming, academic support, mental health services and extracurriculars.
While Silicon Valley is often associated with prosperity and opportunity, there are 29,000 students living below the poverty line in San Mateo County, said Obiaya.
“At BGCP, we understand that talent is equally distributed across the Bay Area, but opportunity is not and so our work is to level the playing field,” said Obiaya. “We empower young people with equitable access to opportunities that are going to help them thrive in the classroom and beyond.”
The organization provides daily tutoring services for students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade. The program highlights the importance of teaching young students the fundamentals of literacy and math and continuing the lesson outside of the classroom.
For high school students, the Boys and Girls Club offers support through its Career Pathways and Future Grads program, which focuses on career exploration and college readiness.
Obiaya recalled the successful achievements of one student who had been a Boys and Girls Club member since he was in the fourth grade. After graduating with an engineering degree from San Jose State University, Sal Rodriguez returned to the Boys and Girls Club as a volunteer while searching for a job. While volunteering, he met a Boys and Girls Club supporter who helped him secure the job that he currently works in today.
Rodriguez recently joined the board as the first alumni board member of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, said Obiaya. She added that other alumni have returned as staff members, donors and coaches.
The Boys and Girls Club is supported by over 400 staff members who Obiaya calls the “secret sauce behind our impact.”
“Kids wouldn’t keep coming back if it weren’t for our really talented and passionate staff that find ways to connect with kids and make them feel safe physically, but also provide a sense of belonging,” she said.
While serving thousands of youth, the organization is also navigating its way through post-pandemic challenges around mental health, learning loss, increased demand in services and financial stability.
Before the pandemic, the Boys and Girls Club contracted mental health providers for its students on a small scale, but after COVID-19, demand for mental health support increased, and it decided to build its own team of 10 in-house, certified clinicians. With this team, students have access to one-on-one therapy, group sessions and peer-to-peer support groups.
The organization also saw a few of its locations struggle to provide the level of services that the community needed. This led to a takeover and merger of clubhouses in areas such as South San Francisco, San Mateo, Daly City and Foster City. The Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula has doubled in size over the past three years, said Obiaya.
“We’ve been trying to grow to meet more of the needs and with that comes a bigger budget,” she explained. “And so financial sustainability is really on my mind, and we couldn’t do this without the support of our broader community.”
Members of the public can contribute to the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula by volunteering, donating and spreading the word, said Obiaya.
For more information, visit bgcp.org.
The Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula is one of the beneficiaries of The Almanac’s Holiday Fund. Donations are divided equally among this year’s 11 nonprofit organizations and 100% of the funds raised go directly to the recipients. Donations to the Holiday Fund can be made at almanacnews.com/holiday_fund.
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