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BGC South East delivers year end update with growth as a focus · North Shore News

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  BGC Southeast, formerly the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston, shared its year-end update
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  with Loyalist Township Council.
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  The update focused on BGC's growth this year as well as going forward as the partnership
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  continues.
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  The township entered into a five-year agreement with BGC Southeast in 2022 for the delivery
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  of day camps.
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  This year summer day camps were offered in Amherstview and Bath, but not in Odessa due
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  to a lack of a suitable location.
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  Chief Executive Officer with BGC Southeast Harold Parsons explains how they're looking
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  to grow next year.
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  Although we're making some headway, we know there's more to do, and we're happy that
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  since we changed our name to BGC Southeast, that Amherstview is very much in the fold
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  of where we see as a service delivery opportunity.
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  That combined with expanding our big brothers and big sisters to a lot of different smaller
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  communities and schools will continue to be our strategic plan over the next year.
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  Parsons notes how the Big Brothers Big Sisters program has grown.
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  We oversee finance admin and fund development for big brothers and big sisters, so every
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  employee that works for that organization is frontline and service delivery.
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  As a result, we've seen more than triple the numbers of children served.
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  We've more than tripled the budget for the organization, and we've now been able to go
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  into communities that the Boys and Girls Club were not able to before, and we've in particularly
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  expanded Big Brothers Big Sisters and Loyalist Township through in-school mentoring.
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  That's been great to see in the synergies and working with families and children that
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  have greater needs for support as well.
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  Parsons explains that day camps are still part of their plans.
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  We do know that summer camps are still needed and in demand, and we know that Odessa in particular
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  has been some challenges because of school renovations and so on over the last couple
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  of years, but certainly in our plans this year would be programming for summertime in
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  Bath, Amherst View and Odessa.
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  We also know that we're getting feedback from Amherst Island as well about what can we do
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  there and how do we support children that live on the island.
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  Parsons describes how the partnership has helped the aquatic programs in the area.
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  We stepped up when the swimming pool was down for renovations, and we're really happy to
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  have Loyalist Township as a partner for aquatics.
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  We see the partnership here as great as we do any other municipality, and because of
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  our proximity, we're again more than happy to see the number of families we've been
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  able to serve.
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  Parsons spoke about the success of day camps this year in Loyalist Township.
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  This year's summer camp in Amherst View and Bath have been very successful, almost 93
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  to 94 percent filled.
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  We've had 19 staff, the majority that live in Loyalist Township work for us in those
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  areas, and we've been able to provide a lot of families with subsidies, almost $20,000
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  to make sure those children can attend a camp at either no fee or a greatly reduced fee.
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  Parsons notes the programs that BGC offers and their impact.
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  We talk about impact, we start to say, okay, you know, at what point do you go from having
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  all these children after school to how can you start to measure what you're doing in
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  your communities that you're delivering services to.
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  We go back to a few things.
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  We think that there's some critical opportunities that are lacking.
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  One of them is in literacy.
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  So we actually have partnered and we now have acquired the reading clinic, which is a one
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  on one multisensory literacy approach for children that are dyslexic or below the reading
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  curve, and we've been doing that for about six years now, and we implement that into
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  all of our programs so that children that come to the club as early as kindergarten have
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  been giving an advantage to reading.
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  Parsons describes what the club does for families and touches on the growth they've experienced.
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  When you look at the club, you think about what parents may need if they need daycare
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  because they're going to work or they're in school, if they're looking for a place after
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  school for their children for the same purposes or for enhancement for programs for their
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  children as well.
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  Our programs consist of physical activity, of some education supports, and health and
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  nutrition.
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  And, you know, I'm pretty happy to talk about our numbers and our growth because they've
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  been continuing to expand year after year.
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  Parsons speaks about their decisions as a business and fees that they help families cover.
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  Although we're an incorporated not-for-profit, we also very much look at ourselves as a business
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  and we look at our programs that we deliver and the only qualifier we have is that no
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  child is denied access due to inability to pay.
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  But we provide services and we charge fees that are different depending on what they
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  might be.
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  Parsons describes a service that BGC Southeast decided to not continue.
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  Since 2014, we moved into the new space in the Fronach Mall.
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  We've been providing transportation for families from three local schools in Amershew on our
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  busing system to come to the site.
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  And that's been great.
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  And you know, we would have as many as 20 to 40 children come.
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  But we also are talking about expansion and growth and serving communities as well.
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  And then we thought, well, how can we take children from a community, bring them into
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  another site, then try to develop programs in that community?
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  It just really doesn't make sense.
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  Parsons explains why they ended this service.
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  This past year, it wasn't necessarily a popular decision, but we did decide that for this
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  school year that we would no longer provide transportation from Amershew to Kingston,
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  so we would deliver an afterschool program in Amershew.
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  And it took us a lot of work to get it started, but we think the potential and the growth
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  will be substantial.
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  So we're happy to be in Amershew Public School and we have children from the three local
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  elementary schools being served there.
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  But we can only see that as growing in the future.
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  But again, mindset of if you want to develop in a community, then you have to be in the
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  community.
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  And we made that happen this year.
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  This provides a breakdown of the club and their programs.
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  Our club is broken down in sort of two ways.
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  One is that we operate licensed programs, New Area with LARC, who does a great job and
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  provide licensed child care and afterschool programs.
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  We do that in two locations in Kingston.
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  We also are the early on provider in Kingston as well in partnership with ACHC.
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  But where we come into play here is that we've also started to look at what we call, refer
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  to as authorized recreation.
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  And that is in communities that either have high priority needs that may not need a licensed
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  program or a daycare setting, but there's opportunities for children from ages four
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  to 18 to be served and provided services.
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  Our authorized recreation programs, they include two high priority schools in Ruda Heights in
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  Kingston, in Joyceville, in Harrow Smith, and in Amershew.
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  And that's a way that we're able to start delivering afterschool programs at a low-feed
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  appearance, but also start to meet some of the needs in the community as well.
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  Parsons noted the local public response they've received.
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  A lot of the families that are accessing that are residents in Loyalist Township, they certainly
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  are letting us know that they appreciate programming and additional programming in their community.
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  Parsons speaks about the partnership with Loyalist Township.
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  We have a great relationship with the recreation department and we're here to support and to
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  do as much or as little as I think Council or Loyalist Township staff would see us.
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  But we're a resource there and we're here to support the community and we believe that
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  children, it doesn't matter where they live, it's our mission vision to support as much
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  as we can.
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  Parsons provides a history of the club.
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  The start of the 1993 incorporated primarily for the highest needs that the community of
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  the Kingson established at the time, which was primarily the DeRio Heights community.
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  The club started to help children and youth that were disadvantaged, whether that meant
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  financially or in a household that didn't have the same resources and opportunities
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  as others in the community.
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  It's also seen as a way to reduce crime by giving mentorship and new opportunities to
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  be in a safe environment.
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  Councillor Paul Pratorek spoke about his experience with the program and how it's been important
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  locally.
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  One of the first programs started at St. Pat's in 1993 and I was the principal at the time
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  and to see the growth is amazing.
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  And I think the most important thing I get out of it is that the number of kids, at least
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  from that St. Pat's community that became sort of mentors and I think that's what makes
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  the program unique and the reading clinic from an educator's point of view, that's unbelievable
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  because I know schools at this time, it's hard to support those things.
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  Mayor Jim Haggadorn shared his support for the partnership and appreciation for the work
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  they're doing to grow.
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  It's great to see the new programs.
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  I toured, I guess it's been a couple of years now since I toured it and some of the photos
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  that I saw there, they were still in the dream spot, I guess at that time and working towards
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  them.
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  So it's really great to see them come to fruition and being utilized.
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  For the 2024-2025 school year, BGC Southeast is offering a new afterschool program at Amherst
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  View Public School, available to all children ages 4 to 12 years of age.
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  For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
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  This is North Shore News.