The Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County hosting a community resource fair this Wednesday. Joining us now with their mission and everything you need to know, we have CEO Teena Belcik and Dr. Leonard Newby, pathways director.

I want to say good morning to both of you, and thank you so much for coming in.

“Good morning. Thank you for having us. Happy to have you here.”

Of course, we want to get to all the information about this resource fair. We want to get people out there. But first let’s do a little background here on The Boys & Girls Clubs and tell us about the mission.

“So at Boys & Girls Clubs our mission is really to serve the kids who need us most and that comes in all forms and varieties. and we work with youth from ages 5 through 18. And we have a whole youth development program that serves the whole child, where we offer a wide range of activities and programs that benefit kids.”

Yeah, and so what are some of those programs? What does that look like?

“They are all over the map. I mean, if there’s something you’re interested, we’ve probably got it for you. We have academic enrichment. We do sports, every sport imaginable. Lots of STEM activities. Arts, dance, music, um, we do career development, which is a lot about what Dr. Newby will talk about and kind of everything in between. We really want whatever a child’s passion is for them to be able to explore it and enjoy it and further it while we’re also helping support them in school and with any mental health support they might need.”

Yeah, so give us just some quick insight into what the impact is of these programs and the kids who participate in them.

“The impact is immeasurable, and we have some kids that come to us for just a summer and others that are with us for 12 or 13 years, and so really, what we want is for every child to have a great future and to become the adult they that he or she was meant to be and not have maybe the circumstances that they are find themselves in, whatever those might be dictating that outcome. We want to give them all a bright future and give them lots of opportunities.”

Yeah, that’s wonderful. And let’s talk about this resource fair. What do people need to know?

“All right, so the Community Resource Fair we’ll have about 20 plus organizations that we’ve worked with over the last few months. We’ll have people like csu there. uh, Big Brother, Big Sister. We’ll have, uh, Palomar and other organizations that are going to be there to be able to assist DHS. If you’re looking for employment, we’ll have 2 or 3 different employment agencies there. If you’re looking to further your education, we’ll have a few universities there. We’ll have whatever it is that you may need to improve your quality of life.”

Yeah, and so to talk a little bit more about that, the mission, the purpose, what you really hope that people will take out of this.

“Gotcha. So essentially, uh, so as stated earlier, Teena explained that I work with our Pathways Program and essentially in our Pathways Program, it is our responsibility to improve the quality of life for our members as well as their families and the greater community. So that is what we’re trying to do through this Community Resource Fair.

Okay and do you host a resource for every year? What is that outcome look like for you guys?

“This will be our first one. In general, I know that we’ve done like some, uh, I guess college and career fairs in the past, but essentially this will be our first community resource fair. We’ve invited the full community, and we’re really excited about that.”

“And I think it’s really important to mention, too, this is done through our Pathways Program, which does workforce development, college and career planning, life skills, and we are including our Club members, our teens, to help put this on. So, members of our Keystone Leadership Program and our Junior Leadership Program, we have 20 students who have been working through our workforce development this summer. all are helping to put this on. So, it’s very student led and student involved.

And also getting some real-world experience while doing so, which is very important. When is the resource fair happening? What time where location give us all that.

“All right. So, the first resource is going to be on Wednesday as stated earlier from 2:30 until 6:30 at our Northeast location. That’s on 3806 North Prospect. Our second one is going to take place at our Memorial Park Location, which is at 3535 North Western, and that will be on August 15th.

Okay. So we do have that information posted right there just in case. And then before we go, um, where can people find more information as far as maybe getting involved in these organizations?

“We would love that. They can go to our website at www.bgcokc.org, or to any of our social media handles at bgcokc. And then volunteer opportunities for both ways to give back. Right on there.”

Absolutely, and all of that information is on social media as well as our website. Or they can call our main number, and someone can help. okay. sounds good. Teena and Dr. Newby, thank you both so much for coming in and telling the community about this important resource fair with so many things that are available to them out there.

“Thank you so much for having us.”

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