BGCA Native Services is grateful to our program partners, who provide critical support so that we may provide youth development programming to thousands of Native youth each year.
American Indian College Fund
The American Indian College Fund, through its commitment with BGCA, has opened up scholarships exclusively for qualified Boys & Girls Club members to attend Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) in the immediate proximity of their Club. Students must apply and be accepted into a TCU to be considered. Upon acceptance, the scholarships are renewable annually as long as students meet the college’s eligibility requirements.
Boeing
Through BGCA Native Services’ partnership with Boeing, Boeing will provide sponsorship for the 2022 Native Summit. In addition to they will provide program support and capacity building for both new and existing Native Clubs, as well as providing employee community engagement in coordination with Boeing Native American Network (BNAN) employee leaders.
Bureau of Indian Education
A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between BGCA and its local affiliates in Indian Country and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) will allow collaboration to enrich the lives of Native youth by supporting programs that discourage violence and drug abuse, while encouraging good citizenship and educational accomplishments. The goal of this partnership is to use the strengths and expertise of both organizations to improve and enhance the educational well-being of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth attending BIE funded schools and dormitories.
Indian Health Service (IHS)
IHS provides funding for the Type 2 diabetes prevention program On the T.R.A.I.L. to Diabetes Prevention. T.R.A.I.L. is an innovative combination of educational, physical and nutritional activities that provides youth with a comprehensive understanding of healthy lifestyles with the long-term goal of preventing and/or reducing the onset of Type 2 diabetes. Woven throughout the 12 week program are self-esteem and prevention activities utilized by BGCA, including contributions from national evidence-based programs such as SMART Moves. Club members draw from Native traditions and history to learn about nutrition, food choices, media influences and the impact of Type 2 diabetes.
Northwest Area Foundation
This partnership aims to expand the number of Native Clubs delivering workforce development programming to Native youth and ensure that Native Clubs can deliver the highest-quality Club Experience by providing an assessment tool that sets Clubs up for continuous improvement. Our goals are to increase Clubs capacity to provide high-quality Workforce Development programs, guiding Native youth to develop 21st century skills and a clear vision of their future career goals. The project meets the Foundation’s funding priority for increasing good jobs though development and training that helps to prepare individuals with low incomes for successful futures.
NoVo Foundation
Novo Foundation’s initiative seeks to help restore and strengthen indigenous knowledge and life-ways as potentially transformative in addressing some of the world’s—and similarly, some of Indigenous communities’—most pressing problems. Through this partnership, Novo and BGCA Native Services will work together to improve the ability of our Native organizations to build and sustain strategic partnerships and key stakeholders through culturally relevant services, youth development programs adapted for Native youth that are driven by outcomes and leadership trainings for Club staff and Board Members.
OJJDP
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP)’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) supports BGCA through grants that allow us to strengthen, expand, and implement youth mentoring activities and youth development programming.
Polaris
BGCA Native Services, in partnership with Polaris and others, will be working together to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to Native youth. This comes at a crucial time when our communities are seeing immediate, short-term and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the area of learning loss. This opportunity will ignite passion and motivate young people attending Boys & Girls Clubs on Native Lands. Through our partnership with Polaris and others, in celebration of National Native American Heritage Month during the month of November, we will find ways to promote and incentivize Club youth to participate on BGCA’s digital platform, MyFuture and earn digital recognition in the form of stars, which will recognize the individual activities that young people do in Clubs; badges, which recognize clusters of activities; and master badges, which recognize when young people have completed significant programming in the form of a learning pathway with a main focus on STEM and the activities and badges that have been adapted for Native youth in efforts to create an inclusive environment for Native youth to thrive.
Red Nose Day
The aim of Red Nose Day is to bring about real and lasting change by tackling the root causes of childhood poverty and social injustice through the power of entertainment. BGCA Native Services has received proceeds from Red Nose Day, which will be used to build capacity and support increases in average daily attendance in Native Clubs.
The Walmart Foundation
The Walmart Foundation has provided funding to support Healthy Habits, BGCA’s outcome-driven nutrition education program for Native youth. This program addresses the fact that Native youth face much higher rates of diabetes than their non-Native peers by providing access to nutritional education. Healthy Habits is focused on basic cooking techniques, smart food shopping, working around resource constraints and using resources from the local community to create healthy meals.
Yale University
The initial partnership between Native Boys & Girls Clubs and Yale University came through the 2019 Charles Carl Fellowship Award which enabled Chief Executive Officers from various Boys & Girls Clubs on Native Lands to attend a three-day conference at the Child Study Center in the Yale School of Medicine. This award was made possible by the generous contribution of Dr. Charles Carl, a Yale-alumnus and community psychiatrist aiming to promote Native well-being. The event reflects a budding partnership between Yale Child Study faculty and Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Native Services team which continues to evolve.
