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> Evaluation #2 (2006–2008): Boys and Girls Clubs’ Role in Promoting Positive Outcomes for Teens
A Profile of the Evaluation of Boys & Girls Clubs of America
Profile Information
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Program Description
| Overview | Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) provides fun, safe places for youth during out-of-school hours, where they can be involved in caring relationships with adults and peers and feel a sense of membership and connectedness. BGCA provides varied and diverse programming supported by caring staff. |
| Start Date | 1906 as the Boys Club Federation of America (changed name to Boys Clubs of America in 1931 and to Boys & Girls Clubs of America in 1990) |
| Scope | national |
| Type | after school, summer/vacation, weekend |
| Location | urban, suburban, rural |
| Setting | community-based organization, public schools, recreation center |
| Participants | kindergarten through high school students |
| Number of Sites/Grantees | approximately 4,300 Clubs nationally |
| Number Served | approximately 4.5 million children annually |
| Components | Based on the assumption that youth benefit from having safe places where they can come as needed, Clubs traditionally do not require youth to arrive at particular times or attend particular activities. BGCA has devised a variety of targeted programs over the years to reflect shifting policy ideas and public opinion about what types of services and experiences youth need to be successful and which youth most need those services and experiences. |
| Funding Level | $230 million (2009) |
| Funding Sources | public grants, corporations, investment transactions, foundations, Club dues, special events, individuals, investment income, and trust funds/miscellaneous |
Evaluation
| Overview | For the 2005 report, 21 evaluations of BGCA programs and activities over 20 years were examined to determine Club membership’s overall impact and the diverse range of developmental experiences to which members are exposed. The evaluations reviewed cover general Club experiences and three types of targeted programs: delinquency prevention, education/technology, and job readiness. The 2009 report provides findings from the national longitudinal study of Club participants, which aimed to test the degree to which teens’ overall experiences in BGCA might prove to be more than the sum of Clubs’ programmatic parts. |
| Evaluator | Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) |
| Evaluations Profiled |
Beyond Safe Havens: A Synthesis of 20 Years of Research on the Boys & Girls Clubs Making Every Day Count: Boys and Girls Clubs’ Role in Promoting Positive Outcomes for Teens |
| Evaluations Planned | P/PV is conducting a longitudinal evaluation to examine Club experiences and their effects on participants. |
| Report Availability |
Roffman, J. G., Pagano, M. E., & Hirsch, B. J. (2001). Youth functioning and experiences in inner-city after-school programs among age, gender, and race groups. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 10(1), 85–100. Anderson-Butcher, D., Newsome, W. S., & Ferrari, T. M. (2003). Participation in Boys and Girls Clubs and relationships to youth outcomes. Journal of Community Psychology, 31(1), 39–53. Arbreton, A., Bradshaw, M., Metz, R., & Sheldon J. (2008). More time for teens: Understanding teen participation—frequency, intensity and duration—in Boys & Girls Clubs. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures. Available at: www.ppv.org/ppv/publication.asp?section_id=23&search_id=0&publication_id=231 |
Contacts
| Evaluation | Amy J. A. Arbreton Senior Research Fellow Public/Private Ventures Lake Merritt Plaza 1999 Harrison Street, Suite 1550 Oakland, CA 94612 Tel: 510-273-4600 Email: aarbreton@ppv.org |
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| Program | Boys & Girls Clubs of America National Headquarters 1275 Peachtree Street NE Atlanta, GA 30309-3506 Tel: 404-487-5700 |
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| Profile Updated | May 9, 2011 | |
Evaluation 2: Boys and Girls Clubs’ Role in Promoting Positive Outcomes for Teens
Evaluation Description
| Evaluation Purpose | To address the question: What role do Boys & Girls Clubs play in influencing change in older youth outcomes? |
| Evaluation Design | Quasi-Experimental and Non-Experimental: Ten BGCA Clubs across the country were selected for the study based on a set of criteria that included their prior success in reaching and serving relatively large numbers of older youth, location in an urban setting, and utilization of an electronic enrollment and attendance tracking system. Baseline surveys were collected at the 10 Club sites from 422 seventh and eighth grade Club participants. Follow-up surveys were completed by 322 youth whether or not they were still participating in Clubs (76% of the initial 422 youth whom completed the baseline survey) approximately 30 months after the baseline survey, when participants were in ninth and tenth grade. In addition, interviews were conducted with 56 ninth grade youth (selected from surveyed youth) and 86 program staff who worked directly with older youth across the 10 programs. Interviews were conducted both with staff who work with all ages of youth (e.g., Club and program directors) as well as staff who work solely or primarily with older youth (e.g., teen directors or teen advocates). |
| Data Collection Methods |
Interviews/Focus Groups: Club staff interviews were conducted to understand staff’s perspectives on the teen programming provided at the Clubs. Interviews with ninth-grade youth sought to gain a richer and more nuanced understanding of teens’ perceptions of how the Club fit into their lives, what older youth do when they are at the Club, and what they gained and believe they had to gain from participating in its programs. Secondary Source/Data Review: Club enrollment information on the selected youth and daily Club attendance data were gathered from the Clubs. Surveys/Questionnaires: Youth surveys were conducted to understand how older youth use their out-of-school time, what activities they participated in outside of the school day both in and out of the Club, their experiences in the Club, and how their attitudes and behaviors change as a result of Club participation. |
| Data Collection Timeframe | Data were collected between 2006 and 2008. |
Findings:
Formative/Process Findings
| Activity Implementation | The Clubs engaged older youth by offering a broad array of programming, along with a time and a place to hang out with friends, other positive peers, and supportive adults. All of the Clubs had a separate space for older youth, either in the form of a teen-only room or a larger teen-only center. In addition, the Clubs were open long hours after school and over the summer months, allowing older youth to attend at the times that were best for them. Among youth who had been to the Club in the past four months, over half (56%) reported participating in at least four of the following types of activities: informal activities, athletic programs, academic programs, other formal activities like classes or prevention programs, and paid or volunteer work. Among their activities in the Clubs, about three quarters of youth reported using technology such as computers, video, or digital music for fun (74%) and/or for schoolwork (71%); about two thirds reported playing sports (68%); 46% reported doing arts and crafts activities; over a third reported participating in specific leadership programming (36%); and a third attended a class in drama, dance, or performing arts (33%). Of those who had been to the Club in the preceding year, 82% reported participating in at least one leadership role at the Club (such as serving on a youth council or leading an activity) during that time, and half participated in three or more such roles. |
| Program Context/ Infrastructure | Among youth who completed the final survey, 79% rated the level of safety at the Club as 8 or higher on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the highest level of safety. By comparison, only 54% of youth rated the safety of their school as favorably, and only 38% gave a similarly high rating for the neighborhood surrounding the Club. Youth described the Clubs as providing an important space for them where they could comfortably hang out and stay away from unhealthy choices and negative peer pressure. Almost all of the youth surveyed said there was at least one supportive peer at the Club (93%), and that the Club was a place where there was peer cooperation (95%). The youth also reported that the Club was a place where they had opportunities to develop skills (90%), had fun (91%), and felt a sense of belonging (91%). |
| Recruitment/ Participation | Over the 30 months of the study, over half of the youth (52%) attended more than 122 days (roughly once a week), of which almost a third (30%) attended 244 or more days (roughly 2 –3 times per week) and 13% attended 366 or more days (roughly 3–4 days per week). The frequency of attendance was lower for youth when they reached the ninth and tenth grades: these youth attended about one day per week on average, compared with about two days per week when they were younger. In interviews, many youth reported that they combined their Club activities with other pastimes during out-of-school hours. A common theme described by participants in interviews was the feeling that, even if they were not using the Club right now, they could go back at any time. Older youth were likely to participate with greater frequency during the transition from middle to high school if they were fully engaged in Clubs through a variety of activities, had friends who came to the Club, were involved in leadership roles at the Club, and had first become involved in the Clubs as preteens or even younger (p < .05 for all). Relative to those who had been to a Club in the past four months, a significantly higher percentage (p < .05) of those who had not attended reported on the final survey that they were spending time caring for siblings or working for pay. Of those who said they did not plan to go back to the Clubs, the most common reasons reported on surveys were that they had too much else to do (29%), moved (18%), got a job (13%), or were not interested in the activities (13%). |
| Staffing/Training | Almost all of the Clubs had at least one staff person whose time was devoted specifically to working with older youth, and all of the Clubs had several staff who interacted with older youth on a regular basis. Almost all older youth participants said there was at least one supportive adult at the Club (96%) and that at least one adult at the Club set high expectations for them (96%). Staff and youth described the Club as a place where staff built relationships, and said that those individual relationships created the bridge to programming; conversations about character, school, and healthy lifestyles; and opportunities for staff to serve as role models. In interviews, Club staff described how they supported youth’s positive development by paying attention to youth, being there to support them, and providing both formal and informal opportunities for activities and interactions with peers and other staff. In interviews, youth described the importance of their relationships with staff for their learning and positive development at the Club. Both staff and youth reported in interviews that they felt staff were accessible and approachable. |
Summative/Outcome Findings
| Academic | Youth who came to Clubs with greater frequency were significantly more likely than less frequent attendees to report decreases in skipping school (p < .05), increased academic confidence (p < .05), and increased school effort (p < .10) on the follow-up surveys. No significant relationships were found between frequency of participation and the other academic success outcomes (liking school, importance of school, teacher connectedness, report card grades, or school suspensions). More frequent Club participation was associated with increased academic confidence and school effort after a minimum of 52 days of participation (or 1 day every other week). More frequent Club participation was associated with decreases in skipping school after a minimum of 244 days (or 2 days per week). |
| Prevention | Youth who came to Clubs more frequently reported decreased numbers of negative peers as friends (p < .10), decreased numbers of times stopped by the police (p < .05), and decreased levels of aggression (p < .10) on the follow-up survey. More frequent attendees also reported a lower likelihood of starting to carry a weapon (p < .05), smoke cigarettes (p < .05) or marijuana (p < .10), drink alcohol (p < .05), or have sexual intercourse (p < .05). No significant relationships were found between frequency of participation and the other healthy lifestyles outcomes (numbers of positive peers, days of vigorous exercise, arrests, probation, initiation of fights, and initiation of other drug use). More frequent Club participation was associated with decreases in smoking marijuana after a minimum of 52 days of participation (or 1 day every other week). More frequent Club participation was associated with decreases in carrying weapons, being stopped by the police, smoking cigarettes, levels of aggression, and drinking alcohol after a minimum of 122 days (or 1 day per week) More frequent Club participation was associated with lower likelihoods of starting to have sexual intercourse after a minimum of 244 days (or 2 days per week). |
| Youth Development | Youth who came to Clubs more frequently reported increased levels of future connectedness (how much they think about their future and how their current activities help them prepare for the future) on the survey (p < .05). Youth who came to the Clubs with greater frequency were significantly more likely than less frequent attendees to report higher levels of community service involvement (p < .001), increased levels of integrity (knowing right from wrong, p < .10), and decreased levels of shyness (p < .05). No significant relationships were found between frequency of participation and the other character and citizenship outcomes (fairness, open-mindedness, social competence, and problem solving/conflict resolution). More frequent Club participation was associated with increases in future connectedness, community service, and integrity after a minimum of 52 days of participation (or 1 day every other week). |