Healthy Lifestyles

• SMART Moves (Skills Mastery and Resistance Training)

This nationally acclaimed comprehensive prevention program helps young people resist alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, as well as premature sexual activity. SMART Moves features engaging, interactive, small-group activities that increase participants’ peer support, enhance their life skills, build their resiliency and strengthen their leadership skills. This year-round program encourages collaborations among Club staff, youth, parents and representatives from other community organizations. The program’s components are: SMART Kids, for ages 6-9; Start SMART, for ages 10-12; and Stay SMART, for ages 13-15. F.A.N. Club (Family Advocacy Network) is an educational and support group program for parents and caregivers of SMART Moves participants.

• SMART Girls

SMART Girls is a small-group health, fitness, prevention/education and self-esteem enhancement program designed to meet the developmental needs of girls ages 8-12 and 13-17. Through dynamic sessions, highly participatory activities, field trips and mentoring opportunities with adult women, Club girls explore their own and societal attitudes and values as they build skills for eating right, staying physically fit, getting good health care and developing positive relationships with peers and adults.

• Teen Night

Every Friday night one of our Clubhouses hosts an after-hours teens-only event. The events are open to all community teens, ages 13-18, not just to Members. Teen Night offers Members the opportunity to introduce the Club to a friend, while also allowing curious teens from the larger community to check out what the Club has to offer. (Non-Members are provided with trial Membership cards). Teens who attend the Friday night events receive a full dinner and a wide array of activities in which to participate, including pool tournaments, Dance, Dance Revolution competitions, movies, music, and general use of the Gym and Activity Room.

Our Teen Council helps to plan the events by suggesting activities they think will be fun for Teen Night attendees. Their suggestions produced a “Fear Factor” themed Teen Night, during which teens formed teams and created safe but “gross” smoothies for the other team to drink, and a “Mission Impossible” themed night, during which participants engaged in scavenger hunts. Also, to encourage consistent attendance at all Teen Night events by youth from both the Seaside and Salinas communities, a van runs between sites to bring teens to the hosting Clubhouse.

• Triple Play

Triple Play is a BGCA strategy designed to increase the number of hours per day Club Members participate in physical activities, to improve their knowledge of healthy habits and physical fitness, and to strengthen their ability to interact positively with others and engage in healthy relationships. Through Triple Play, Members increase their understanding of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle. They also improve their physical fitness through enhanced daily, physical activities and participation in BGCMC sports leagues.

Triple Play employs a holistic “mind, body, soul” approach in cultivating wellness in our Members and provides a strategy for strengthening the impact of existing programs and activities. For example, our Nutrition Policy establishes clear and specific standards regarding the required nutritional integrity of all food served by our Club. We apply this policy at every level of Club operations. However, the Nutrition Policy becomes even more effective when the following mind-body-soul elements are added and Triple Play implementation is applied to all Core Areas:

-    Mind: Educate membersMembers on proper portion size and how to prepare tasty, healthy snacks
     [Health & Life Skills]

-    Body: Conduct science experiments that demonstrate sugar’s effect on the body
     [Education: Science]

-    Soul: Let Members organize a fundraiser to support a hunger-relief charity of their choice
     [Character & Leadership Development]

Aside from Triple Play being used to enhance existing Core Area programs, the following opportunities were additionally created to deepen the impact of the strategy:

-    Triple Play Internships: We are able to increase the impact of our Healthy Lifestyles Initiative  on our teen Members by offering Triple Play internship opportunities. In concert with our Career Launch program, available to teen membersMembers eligible for work experiences, we also offer paid Triple Play internships.internships per year. Triple Play interns receive leadership development, job-ready training, and hands-on work experience while leading Triple Play health and fitness activities and serving as peer educators. Not only do teens gain exposure to positive information about leading a healthy lifestyle, they also serve as healthy lifestyle role models to younger Members who see them leading Triple Play activities.

-    Triple Play Sports Club (or Sports R Us): Sports R Us is comprised of teens with an interest in sports and a desire to serve others. Teens teach basic sports skills and techniques to younger Members via clinics, daily fitness challenges, and events, all of which focus on the importance of physical activity, health and wellness. Teens who successfully meet the requirements of Sports Club participation are rewarded with the opportunity to attend a BGCA Triple Play conference.