JCPenney and Clubs Make the Grade

Boys & Girls Club of America
Monday, 28 January 2002

For thousands of Boys & Girls Club members across the country, the New Year just got a lot brighter with the news that their Club is one of 60 sites receiving a $10,000 grant from JCPenney Afterschool. The grants will be used to implement Project Learn, a proven educational enhancement program.

A comprehensive educational strategy that looks to integrate learning into every program offered at a Boys & Girls Club, Project Learn helps youngsters find academic success, often for the first time. Through the program, a seemingly simple game of Scrabble can be transformed into a reading and spelling exercise. Likewise, a cooking class can become a real-life math lab where kids learn to measure ingredients using fractions and prepare a budget-based shopping list.

The decision by JCPenney Afterschool to fund Project Learn was largely influenced by the results of a 30-month evaluation conducted by Columbia University. In a study led by Dr. Steven Schinke, students participating in Project Learn improved their overall GPA by 15 percent and showed a reduced rate of truancy (87 percent fewer absences.)

"The Boys & Girls Clubs that have implemented Project Learn have shown outstanding results, and we're very pleased to be supporting the introduction of this curriculum in 60 more Clubs this year," said Ed Solczak, Director of JCPenney Afterschool. "After-school programs should be enriching as well as fun, and Project Learn works on both levels."

The success of Project Learn is evident in these stories from local Boys & Girls Clubs:

- The Boys & Girls Club of Valdosta, Ga., saw a 400 percent increase in the number of members making the Honor Roll in one year.

- The Boys & Girls Club of Syracuse, N.Y., developed a teen writing program called P.O.E.T.S. (Providing Opportunities to Express Themselves Safely). This program encourages members to express their creativity through writing, submitting their work to online journals and school publications.

- A single parent of a child who attends the Boys & Girls Club of the Twin Cities in St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minn., was so impressed with the dramatic turnaround in her son's success in school that she gave the local Club the $1,000 bonus she had received from her employer.

In addition to the total of $600,000 for the 60 sites, JCPenney Afterschool will contribute $500,000 to the national organization, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (B&GCA), to fund a third annual national education summit, the Goals for Graduation program and a free, quarterly online education newsletter for parents. The Learn & Live newsletter is available on www.bgca.org and www.jcpenney.com/afterschool.

"The decision by JCPenney Afterschool to provide these much needed additional funds for our national education initiative speaks volumes about their commitment to America's youth," said Roxanne Spillett, B&GCA president. "JCPenney Afterschool has taken a real leadership position to help 'level the playing field,' giving young people access to meaningful educational opportunities in the important after-school hours."

Working together since 1999, JCPenney Afterschool and Boys & Girls Clubs of America are providing a "safe haven" where youngsters can be challenged to excel academically while benefiting from the positive role models provided by concerned Club professionals.

For more information, or to contact Boys & Girls Club of America, see their website at: www.bgca.org