AVONDALE — The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati is asking for more city funds from the budget as its faced with the need to meet a high amount of children in need of their help.
On the first day of the organization's summer program, 500 kids showed up. In total, they have nearly 1,000 kids signed up for their free summer activities.
“We have like 20 on our wait list for each group almost and counting. I get new membership applications every day,” said Avondale Club Director Liz Hansell.
Hansell said they serve four age groups, so about 80 kids' names are sitting on the wait list in total.
“There’s a huge need especially in communities like Avondale. There’s never enough resources for our kids. There’s so many kids that live here and we’re just a small part of a huge community here. We can serve up to 130 on any given day but there are hundreds and hundreds of kids that still need a place to go,” Hansell said.
On Monday, Boys and Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati Bill Bresser asked city council for more money before the city finalizes its budget. The council turned down an earlier proposal for $300,000.
Bresser said they need more money to help them grow because more families want a safe place for their kids to go.
“The need is greater than the scope of our services right now, and that’s why we asked for funding,” he said. “We think if people are concerned about youth issues, gun violence, falling behind in school, mental health crisis. We’re the solution. We should be funded.”
There are seven Boys and Girls Clubs in Cincinnati and three in Northern Kentucky and many of them are full.
“The centers in Cincinnati are at capacity,” Bresser said.
To help with that, Bresser said they’re working to open a new center in the Villages of Roll Hill. The Cincinnati City Council Equitable Growth & Housing committee approved a zoning change that would pave the way for them to start construction. Bresser said it will likely go before the full council for a vote on Wednesday.
The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati is in need of more funds to support the increasing number of kids and teens wanting to take part in their free summer programs. They’re hoping the city council gives them a boost before the budget is finalized. @WCPO pic.twitter.com/5mczzqvgEp
— Jessica Hart WCPO (@JessicaHartTV) June 6, 2023
“The community up there wants us to expand. We’ve talked about this for years, again this is something the city council is helping us with,” Bresser said.
Councilmmember Liz Keating said this facility has been in the works since 2018.
“I think it was $750,000 was set aside to build a Boys and Girls Club in Roll Hill that money sat there because nothing ever came of it. We weren’t able to get more funding, we weren’t able to get private funding, so a neighborhood was promised something and it never came to fruition because the dollars just sat,” Keating said.
She added that Roll Hill has been overlooked and underfunded for years.
“Roll Hill has I believe 50% of their population is 18 and under. This is desperately needed,” she said.
Bresser said they hope to break ground on the facility this fall. He said construction will last 10-12 months. Bresser added the Boys and Girls Club is also working to expand their footprint in Price Hill.
“So, the Youth Workforce Development Center, the idea there is to focus on the older teens who often have lots of different choices, they have really diverse interests and needs. So, we want to have enough staff to meet those diverse interests and needs. We want to create a separate space for those kids. We want to convene business schools, we want to convene trade schools, we want to convene universities, and we want to convene the military,” Bresser said.
They will also have activities available that have been requested by teenagers.
“We want to incorporate things like what the teens have told us about driver's ed, we want to do financial literacy with actual real money, start saving accounts, things like that. We want to incorporate gaming, we want to keep it fun, but we also want to make sure it’s impactful,” he said.
Bresser said this new workforce center will help keep teenagers off the streets and show them that they can have a future.
“It’s our job as adults to make sure everyone of our kids have opportunity and access. This also gives hope to our kids,” Bresser said.
He added the club is considering extending their summer hours to accommodate more teens, but he said their biggest obstacle is funding.
