Boys & Girls Club of the Kenai Peninsula.

DEED Spotlight on the Boys & Girls Club of the Kenai Peninsula.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Kenai Peninsula has eight locations: Kasilof (Tustumena Elementary), Kenai (Aurora Borealis Charter School, including Mt. View Elementary students), Kenai Teen Center, Nikiski (Nikiski North Star Elementary), Nikiski Middle/High School, Seward (Seward Elementary Located at the Boys & Girls Club TYC Site), and Soldotna (Redoubt Elementary). Normally, once the school year ends, kids will spend their summer days at the Boys & Girls Clubs. The Clubs offer transportation, meals, educational enrichment, physical education, and social-emotional learning opportunities. They even have a certified teacher on staff who works on summer learning to prevent the “summer slide.”

With COVID-19 cases on the rise in the peninsula, most of the Clubs won’t be able to host students through the summer. The Soldotna, Seward, and Kenai Clubs will be opening with limited enrollment and a robust safety plan on June 22^nd, 2020. The staff’s biggest concern is the summer slide – especially after several months outside of the traditional classroom! In an effort to bring the Boys & Girls Club services to students in their home, they’ve launched a Virtual Programming page. The virtual resources cover most of the subjects students would have done in person at the Clubs; teaching kids about art, healthy cooking, physical fitness, financial literacy, STEM activities, and reading. It also provides technology support for distance learning, suggestions for family engagement, and a platform for students to showcase their accomplishments!

Three of the locations are recipients of Alaska’s 21^st Century Community Learning Centers (21^st CCLC) program grants – Nikiski Middle/High School, Nikiski North Star Elementary, and Mountain View Elementary. The 21^st CCLC program provides competitive grants to organizations that work in partnership with their community and schools to provide expanded learning and enrichment opportunities for children and their families outside of regular school hours. The 21^st CCLC sites are located in communities without reliable internet service, so the staff are looking to provide learning supports for their kids that don’t require connectivity. With help from community partners, the staff are putting together weekly activity bags full of educational enrichment activities for each member. The activity bags contain: STEM, art, and physical fitness activities; a grade-level reading book; reading, writing, math, and science curriculum; and social-emotional learning handouts for students and parents. Each week, members will receive follow-ups from directors and certified teachers.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula are grateful for their partnerships in the community that have helped them source tools, resources, curriculum, and learning materials for their virtual platform and their activity bags.

Thank you, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula for going above and beyond to keep students from experiencing the summer slide!