The Boys and Girls club's tag line is "a good place to be." We use this because it is true in so many ways. It's a good place because it's fun, it's safe and the children want to come here. Thanks to all the great support we have in this community we sometimes get to do some extra special activities with the children. In March we attended A Taste of Culture activities and in June we will be having a storyteller come to the club.
Last year we had a boy who attended the Boys and Girls Club who loved all the activities we planned. He was well behaved and always looked forward to events listed on the calendar. However he was never very co-operative when it came to going home at 5 or 9 p.m.
Generally we have a rule that when the club house is closed the children are to go home and leave the property. We try to encourage the youth to "check in" with their parents or guardians and there isn't any supervision here during closed times. Yet, even though this boy knew the rules, he would argue every day that nobody was home or mom said, "I can stay."
One evening we were attending a North Stars Hockey Game. When we were lining up our children to leave the rink, the boy once again asked me if he could stay at the club. I responded jokingly "absolutely not we have already had you with us for an extra hour!"
We walked to the van and he was recapping all the exciting things that happened in game. I took the time to ask him why he wanted to stay at the club. He walked slowly and constantly looked at the ground. He said in a low voice, "because I don't really have a home to go to." I asked again why he wanted to stay at the club and not go to the house we picked him up from. He said they had been kicked out of their last three houses because of parties and that for the last month they have been going from house to house sleeping on couches and floors. "Every time I go home I get told that we can't stay there no more and we are going somewhere else."
He looked up at me and said. "The club is always there".
I felt really sad for this boy, thinking how hard it must be to stay in school and care about things when you don't even know if you have a house to sleep in. On the other hand it felt good to know how important the club was to this boy and how safe and secure he felt here.
That boy no longer attends the club. His family found work and a house in a town not far away. He has visited us a couple of times in the last six months and is doing well. Still, when he is in town, the first place he visits is our club. For him it will always be a good place to be
