The Turn 2 Foundation continues to support the SMART Moves program at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kalamazoo. The program serves male and female school-aged youths who typically reside within the greater Kalamazoo area. Throughout the 2008-09 project year, the program served 359 youth at the Lake Street Unit and Douglass Community Association Unit. Approximately 85 percent of the program's members were eligible for free or reduced-price school meals and received some form of government assistance. Smaller component programs make up the entire SMART Moves curriculum and include the following:
SMART Kids — A skills-development program for youth ages 6-9. Session discussions and projects include identifying personal differences in people, building positive self-worth and healthy relationships, and identifying "good" drugs versus "bad" drugs.
Start SMART — A resistance-skills program for youth ages 9-12. Session discussions and projects include healthy decision-making, building positive self-worth, goal-setting, building healthy relationships, identifying the dangers of substance abuse and discussing other issues facing this age group.
Stay SMART — A social-skills program for adolescents ages 13-15. Session discussions and projects build upon discussions from Start SMART, including healthy decision-making, building positive self-worth, goal-setting, building healthy relationships, identifying the dangers of substance abuse and the media depiction of substance abuse, and discussing issues facing this age group.
SMART Girls — A gender-specific program for girls ages 10-15. Session discussions and projects include building self-esteem, developing a healthy lifestyle, identifying the dangers of substance abuse, developing healthy relationships, and dealing with gender specific issues.
Each SMART Moves component focuses on building self-esteem, self-awareness and decision-making skills as well as informing about the dangers of drug and alcohol use. Additional areas of focus include personal identity, family integrity, peer pressure, refusal techniques, media literacy, short- and long-term goal setting and STD/HIV awareness. The Club feels that by repeatedly strengthening these skills and increasing knowledge, youth become better prepared to meet peer pressure toward drug and alcohol use, violent behavior and early sexual involvement.
SMART Moves Success Stories and Program Ancedotes:
Club Program Survey (Usefulness, Belonging, Influence and Competence) — Four themes emerged from the responses of the Club Program Survey. These included participants developing "a sense of usefulness," "a sense of belonging," "a sense of influence" and a "sense of competence." The strongest experience reported by children was feeling welcomed, closely followed by 92 percent of participants feeling "a sense of being listened to by staff." These powerful findings indicate the value of the Boys and Girls Club experience and the contribution of the coordinators. Through the Club's motivated and caring staff, the program is creating feelings of self-worth among a vulnerable group of youth. This evaluation indicates that a range of other positive impacts were experienced, such as areas of skill development, favorite activities and perceptions of their own contribution as a help to other participants or staff.
Achievements and New Developments:
Girls on the Run — Nine participants of SMART Girls were involved in Girls on the Run. Girls on the Run, ran by community volunteers, is an interactive running program for third-, fourth- and fifth-grade girls. The program is designed to educate and prepare girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living. The program's objective is to reduce the potential display of at-risk behaviors among its participants, with the goal for fewer teen pregnancies, less eating disorders and depression, and fewer substance abuse problems. In addition to curriculum lessons, program participants engage in self-esteem enhancing, uplifting physical workouts. The physical workouts culminate in a 3.1-mile community-wide running event at the end of the 12-week period.
Partnership with the Douglass Community Association — As part of the Club's SMART Moves outreach program, a partnership was formed with the Douglass Community Association. On Feb. 29, 2008, a new Club Unit was opened at this location. The Douglass Community Association is a small youth development center that runs basketball leagues, rocket football teams, a cheerleading program and is host to Turn 2's Proud to Be Me-Douglass program.
Partnership with Portage Community Center — As part of the Club's SMART Moves outreach program, another partnership was built with the Portage Community Center. The Portage Community Center serves low income residents of Portage. There are very few inexpensive youth development opportunities for youth in Portage, so the Club's programming was very welcome.
