Boys & Girls Club of Rochester

Focus Area: Youth Development

Grant Amount: $5,000

Located in Rochester. BGCR serves youth ages 5-18 at two locations, one in the southeast of Rochester and a smaller one in the nearby community of Blooming Prairie. It also operates outreach programs at a middle school and at a local mobile home community.

Grant supports expanding BGCR’s Healthy Lifestyles curriculum called Triple Play: A Game Plan for Mind, Body and Soul. The program will serve youth ages 12 and under, broken into pods for ages 6-8, 9-10, and 11-12. The program’s 3 components include: Healthy Habits (mind) that addresses the ways health behaviors are influenced by personal beliefs; Daily Challenges (body) focused on physical literacy in the areas of ability, confidence, and motivation; and Social Recreation (soul) that emphasizes social-emotional development. BGCR partners with the Mayo Clinic on this program, with Mayo providing regular volunteers to assist the youngest pod.