Community Partner Highlight: Boys and Girls Club of Burlington
City Market's featured Community Outreach Partner for the month of January is the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington. The mission at the Boys & Girls Club is to inspire and enable community youth, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, healthy, responsible and caring citizens. Access to food is a problem for many of our youth—a real challenge that makes it hard for them to realize their full potential. City Market partners with Boys & Girls Club to help these children by providing food, education, and volunteers who help deliver the organization's programs. The Boys & Girls Club of Burlington has been serving area youth since 1942. They offer programs for children and teens in grades K - 12: K-3 programs at Burlington’s Integrated Arts Academy (formerly H.O. Wheeler School) and 4-12th grades at the main Clubhouse at 62 Oak Street in Burlington. The Club has an annual enrollment of 250 full time members and serves more than 1,000 community youth and families through our many outreach activities.
The Boys & Girls Club provide our members with a safe place to learn and grow by offering programming in three core areas: Art & Technology, Health & Athletics, and Career Readiness & Life Skills. Our club members receive the benefits of supportive relationships with caring, adult professionals while taking part in life-enhancing programs. The Club promotes the healthy development of boys and girls with programs that instill:
- A sense of competence – the feeling that there is something they can do well
- A sense of usefulness – the opportunity to do something of value for other people
- As sense of belonging – a setting where young people know they “fit” and are accepted
- A sense of power and influence – a chance to be heard and to influence decisions
Membership is open to all youth ages 5 to 19 for just $5 per year.