CEO Steve Winkler said the Cliff Hagan Boys & Girls Club is focused on its importance in the community, especially after losing five youth members in the last year to dire circumstances ranging from death to an array of criminal charges.
According to Winkler, one member was killed. One is potentially involved in a recent murder. Others were sent to juvenile court for drug and gun charges.
“We’ve had a lot of tragedy in the last year with some of my club kids who have left the Boys and Girls Club,” he said last week during an Owensboro Rotary Club meeting. “We don’t want any more to slip through the cracks.”
Looking at the community and the club members, Winkler said the definition of at-risk and who is being served by the club has changed.
Now, 95% of the youth members are raised by their grandparents, live in a single-parent household, are on medication, are foster kids, or fall under several other unfortunate home circumstances.
In the refining process of their program, Winkler said the boards are focusing on ways to strengthen the organization by the year 2025.
They doubled their budget from $800,000 to $1.6 million. Their six-person full-time staff expanded to 11 people. Employee pay was raised by at least $3 per hour. They expanded from three to six locations..
The system’s oldest clubs date back around 20 years with Owensboro and South Spencer, Indiana. Henderson’s club was built 3 years ago, two Butler county clubs under their umbrella, and they also added a location in Ohio County.
“We felt like we had more buying power and more regional power of combining clubs and making them stronger,” Winkler said. “[That’s] how we strengthen the organization, which was one of our goals across the region.”
Winkler said they are also aiming to strengthen their quality of programming. They have continued their tutoring and education programming, and work with yoga and other healthy activities.
Coming out of the pandemic, he said it was crucial that the organization not lose momentum.
“We didn’t sit back when COVID hit,” Winkler said. “We didn’t sit back and say ‘what are we going to do.’ Our boards became stronger, our leadership and our boards became stronger.”
