Partnership with Boys & Girls Club provides stability for youth center
Published in the May 14-27 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Jared Lepe, age 9
Center volunteer Laura Lundy helps Brian Jimenez, a third-grade student at El Toro Elementary School, learn to read through a literacy program.
For Edith Barrois and many other parents in Morgan Hill’s Galvan Park neighborhood, the El Toro Youth Center provides their children with the opportunity to grow academically and socially. With cuts in its budget for youth programs, the center once faced an uncertain future. Recently, it received a new lease on life when leadership of El Toro transferred May 1 from Catholic Charities to the Boys & Girls Club of Silicon Valley.
“The center means we have a safe place for children to be instead of just being on the streets and the park, just wandering,” said Barrois through the Spanish translation by a cousin. “They help them with homework and other stuff … It gives them some structure.”
Brian Jimenez, Barrois’s son, gets help with reading and other academic skills through volunteers at the El Toro Youth Center. A third grader at El Toro Elementary School, Jimenez said the homework help he’s received has improved his grades. He also likes making friends at the center and playing basketball and other games.
“If they got rid of it, I’d feel sad because I have a lot of friends here,” he said.
Photo by Jared Lepe, age 9
Among his El Toro Youth Center companions is Heysell Puerruro, a second-grade student at nearby P.A. Walsh Elementary School. She said she learns a lot at the center.
“They help us with our homework and it’s fun to come here because we do a lot of activities like crafts,” she said. “We also play games, but we have to do our homework first.”
With the Boys & Girls Club taking over management of the center, young people like Jimenez and Puerruro can continue using the resources El Toro offers Morgan Hill families. A year ago, Catholic Charities told the Los Amigos volunteer group involved with the center that they would be pulling out and not be the lead agency as of July 1, 2013. The group asked for more time to raise funds to keep the doors of the center open. It started charging a monthly fee of $60 to use the facility. This put a financial burden on families, meaning some young people couldn’t participate.
The transition from Catholic Charities has gone smoothly, said Dana Fraticelli, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Silicon Valley.
“It’s a natural fit for us in our geography,” she said. “We’re charted with the national (Boys & Girls Club) organization to serve the county of Santa Clara … yet we’re only in San Jose right now. Going into Morgan Hill — and eventually Gilroy and other communities — helps us as well. We’re committed to our own strategic growth to serve more kids in the county, so the (El Toro) opportunity was good timing for us.”
Children play basketball at the El Toro Youth Center, which is now managed by the Boys & Girls Club of Silicon Valley.
Photo by Jared Lepe
The El Toro Youth Center will become a “club house” run by the Boys & Girls Club. Children will benefit from a program and administration model much like other club houses operated by the national organization. Although the Boys & Girls Club logo will be featured at the center’s building, the name of Lori Escobar will be kept on the building to honor the local woman who worked hard to create the El Toro Youth Center.
The Boys & Girls Club will initially focus on helping low-income children in the El Toro neighborhood, Fraticelli said. “We’ll be reaching out to bring them back into the center and offer them scholarships so they can participate in the programs,” she said.
The Boys & Girls Club model involves children from age 6 to 18, so the limited space of the El Toro Youth Center facility on Crest Avenue will be a challenge to growing its developmental programs for all age groups, she said. The center fits about 60 kids. This summer, the Boys & Girls Club hopes to serve about 100 kids who can play in nearby Galvan Park as well as go on field trips, Fraticelli said. As it expands, the club intends to create programs to help middle and highs school students.
“We’re here to stay and expand,” she said.
The organization’s programming provides “holistic development” in five core areas: education and career development, health and life skills, character and leadership, sports fitness and recreation, and arts and cultural enrichment. To enhance its programming for young people, Fraticelli intends to develop long-term partnerships with the Los Amigos group and the city of Morgan Hill. It also plans to work with local sports, cultural, and arts groups to encourage volunteers to help mentor children build youth programs.
“Working with other organizations, government agencies, nonprofits, and businesses is really central to the core of our mission,” Fraticelli said.
For several years, El Toro’s supervisor Alban Diaz has seen the growing number of young people served by the center and the financial challenges it has faced. The Boys & Girls Club involvement and a stable budget will make a significant difference in helping young people in Morgan Hill, he said.
“It’s great. Right now, we don’t have to worry about money,” he said. “We can just focus on the kids and start working with the parents more and the teachers and principals … The Boys & Girls Club has a very good structure. Their brand is recognized around the country and world-wide. I feel supported. I can concentrate on the kids better. It’s better for everybody.”
