The Boys and Girls Club is a well-known nationwide network of clubs in urban areas to keep kids and teens busy, engaged, safe and off the streets. Durham’s John Avery Boys and Girls Club, 808 E. Pettigrew St., welcomes about 110 children each day.
esides being a place for homework and recreational sports, the John Avery Boys and Girls Club builds sportsmanship, teamwork, and a competitive spirit by running sports leagues. Tables and cases inside the building show off the many trophies the teams have won. (Staff photo by Christina Herring)
Their after-school programs run from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.. According to Greg Greene, unit director, the time slot is convenient for not only the kids, but also for the parents.
“Some of the situations that kids go home to, that they live around, whether it be gangs or violence…” said Greene. “Anything that we can provide to keep them away from that situation for that much longer is always a help. It’s more time to have structure in their life.”
The athletic programs are $10 per school year per child, with no extra fees for afterschool care. Depending on the sport the child wants to play, there are some extra fees. Greene, who is in charge of the football program, said it costs $90 to sign up. The price includes helmets, shoulder pads, and everything except for the cleats.
For the local recreational league basketball, the price is $50, which covers the cost of the uniform and also the league fee, and a little left over for trophies. Greene said that all the fees are “really just to cover the essentials for the season.”
There is a wait list to participate in the programs, but Greene says that the wait list is not extremely long.
In the past, they have welcomed up to 140 children per day. But they try to keep the numbers around 110 now.
“Kids are getting way more of the benefits of coming to after school. They have more concentration time and quiet time for their homework,” said Greene. “They absorb a lot more of the programs we run with a lot less distractions.”
Although there is a wait list, once a child doesn’t show up for an extended period of time they’ll place a call to their family to see what’s going on, and if they plan on coming back.
If they don’t come back, they’ll call another child from the wait list.
When everything is full they’ll file away the application and document on top of it what grade and what age group they’re in and then they would be placed on that list according to their age group.
Greene also talked about the misconceptions many people on the outside looking in have about the local neighborhood.
“In any city, whether it be small or large metropolitan area, there’s going to be crime. So to label a certain place a ‘bad neighborhood’ I think is a bit misleading, because though there’s crime, there’s also a lot of good that happens,” Greene said. “So with the kids that come in here that we serve throughout this community, a lot of them have dreams that expand beyond this circumstance they call a ‘bad neighborhood.’”
“That bad neighborhood that produces a few gang members could also produce double the amount of doctors, lawyers, educators. Anything that will truly build and uplift this community at the same time. If there was one message I would want to send about this neighborhood is ‘come find out about it.’ Don’t look from the outside in, actually find out, get your hands dirty, and interact with the kids, because they’re the ones that will be running this same community.
For more information on enrollment or to volunteer, visit http://durhambgc.org/ or stop by the Boys and Girls Club at 808 E Pettigrew St, Durham, NC 27701 or by phone at (919) 688-7315.