Whatever It Takes - CLUB STRONG!!!
CLUB STRONG - Ensure that when we come out of this crisis, we will emerge stronger and ready to meet the needs of our youth and families who have been most severely impacted by this pandemic.
As the spread of the COVID-19 continues to challenge everyone across the globe, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tar River Region once again stands up for the challenge. While we’ve made the decision to shut our sites down, our organization is not closed. Day after day, the Club shows our club members and families that we are here standing in the gap and doing whatever it takes to build Great Futures.
We are a critical resource for our community’s most fragile families. In a world of uncertainty, BGCTRR is a trusted organization upon whom our community depends.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Tar River Region is offering a continuum of care for young people that; is keeping them connected to their support systems, bringing routine and normalcy to their lives, and facilitating continued learning and advancement. We have repurposed and restructured our model to meet the needs of our students, families, communities, and our staff. Everything from providing club members daily lunches, to delivering fresh cooked healthy meals five days per week for dinner. We have added fun and challenging virtual educational learning experiences to correspond with daily wellness phone calls.
When the clouds eventually lift, we will be ready to go full speed. As the pandemic continues, if our stakeholders’ needs change, we will modify our actions in response. We are staying focused on what we can do right now.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Tar River Region has had to respond to a massive change in how we offer our services during this shelter-in-place mandate. Our staff has been creatively finding ways to continue supporting our Club Members. We are moving to a virtual programming model where staff are connecting with Club Members by phone, internet, video and text. Our priority is to maintain relationships between staff and Club Members, as well as between peers, to help the Club Members avoid a sense of social isolation, to keep them feeling connected, and to realize that people care about them. Club Members will likely experience more stress as this social distancing continues, and we will continue learning how to keep in touch with them.
What we need from our donors now is your continued partnership, so we can remain a trusted and dependable community servant. We need multi-year, long term, unrestricted support. This is what allows us to weather short-term storms like Floyd in 1999, Matthew in 2016 and soon to be COVID-19 in 2020. This is what allows us to reallocate resources to meet changing needs. This is what allows us to support our Club Members, families and staff through the hard times. We are a family and this is what will allow us to emerge from this stronger than ever.
BGCTRR is launching a $150K fundraising drive to sustain our organization. The Whatever It Takes | CLUB STRONG Campaign seeks to raise all the critical funds needed. Our work is developing young people through their academic success, health and wellness, and good character and citizenship. This takes years. Our youth need long term, trusting relationships, not programs. Our work is not project based; it’s always on going. When we emerge from this pandemic and face the social and economic challenges that await us, the Club will again be standing CLUB STRONG!