Boys and Girls Club of Palm Springs

DO THE RIGHT THING (DTRT) encourages socially-desirable behavior in school-age children and showcases “good kids” who are making an effort to improve themselves and the community. The goals of DO THE RIGHT THING are to help foster self-esteem in young people by reinforcing positive behavior and to establish these young people as role models for their peers; to build bridges of trust throughout the community; and to publicly thank youth who are “doing the right thing.”

The Program accepts nominations monthly from teachers, parents, police officers, and other adults in the community in recognition of students’ good deeds, attitudes and behaviors. All nominees receive a DO THE RIGHT THING T-shirt, a certificate of recognition, and a congratulatory letter from Chief Mills. From this group, five students are chosen each month for special recognition. They are invited, with their families and friends, to a ceremony at the Palm Springs Police Department. The Chief awards the winners plaques and prize packages, and they are publicly recognized by our media sponsor KESQ on the news as well as in special promotional ads and on KESQ’s “Desert Chat.”

Founded in Miami, Florida, in 1990, there are now more than 60 DO THE RIGHT THING chapters throughout the United States, England, and Germany, and the program has impacted more than 500,000 children. Police chiefs from around the country attest to the importance of DTRT programs in their cities and the demonstrated effects they have witnessed both in the bahavior of young people and the relationship of their officers with the community.

Thanks to Anderson Children’s Foundation, each child that attends our summer day camp will go through the BGCA Nationally recognized program called Summer Brain Gain. The purpose of this program is to mitigate summer learning loss. Children and teens from low-income communities such as ours lose an average of 2.6 months of grade equivalency in math achievement and a 2-month loss in reading achievement over the summer months. These numbers will be drastically higher this year due to the impact of the Covid-19 virus. This program is built on the principles of active learning. Give youth opportunities to succeed and to fail (in a safe setting) at a variety of tasks, ask open-ended questions that build problem solving and creativity, participate alongside youth, provide hands-on-learning that builds connections to members' schoolwork and to the things important in their lives, and adapt activities as needed for a variety of challenge levels. This type of learning module will be so important to the kids in our community to help give them an advantage when school is back in session in the fall.

SMART Girls is a small-group health, fitness, prevention/education and self-esteem enhancement program designed to meet the developmental needs of girls in three age groups (ages 9 to 18). 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.

Smart Girls is run at the Boys & Girls Club of Palm Springs, and it is also a BGCA Nationally recognized program that has been running for years. We have been running this program consistently for the last two years and we have found that it has been beneficial in helping the girls communicate better with their peers and more importantly bringing mothers and daughters together. This program is run at least once a week, with separate times for each of the three age groups. Each meeting time is a two hour block.