At Boys & Girls Clubs we have always recognized the importance of social, educational and recreational programs for children and youth. We cannot state the case strongly enough - programming that is positive, strength-focused, and individually capacity-building is crucial to healthy child and youth development. Research has clearly proven that for every $1 spent on preventative programming we save $7 later in reduced remedial costs.

While governmental funding seems relatively secure for those youth who have already made bad choices and are caught up in the justice system seems, there seems to be a short-sighted neglect of funding for the programs that will focus on building the protective, internal assets that young people need to weather adversity and prevent them from engaging in compromising behaviours in the first place.

In addition, the core funding for preventative programming that Boys & Girls Club Services has depended upon being eroded by new priorities and fund distribution policies. Funders -- foundations, businesses and corporations, and governments – are increasingly adopting a targeted approach to funding with a shift away from a core funding model to a project-based model. This project-based model gives funders increased control over what we do and how we do it. Additionally, funding in the project-based model is usually provided for new programs, for shorter periods of time, and often with time consuming reporting requirements attached. As a result we face greater uncertainty and financial instability and we are undermined in our ability to provide consistent and quality programs relevant to our mission.

Boys & Girls Club Services of Greater Victoria have faced many challenges but the combination of government cutbacks and the shift in funding priorities puts in jeopardy the very heart of our organization – that of providing programs aimed at giving kids the assets they need to grow up healthy, happy and successful.

In 1990, our Board of Directors recognized some of these challenges facing Boys and Girls Club Services of Greater Victoria and took the first step towards addressing some of those challenges by establishing a foundation that would serve as a vehicle to promote and further the aims of the organization. While the Foundation is still in it’s infancy, we have made substantial progress in raising the profile of Boys and Girls Clubs within the community we serve. We have also been successful in establishing an endowment fund that will help ensure our financial needs will be met in perpetuity.

The Our Children-Our Future Fund, our general endowment fund, now stands close to $150,000. In addition, we have established The Harman Family Fund, The Mel Cooper Fund for Youth Leadership, The Betty Hansen Memorial Fund, The Joyce Peterson Memorial Fund, Philip J. Chan Memorial Fund.  The latest endowments to be added are the Coast Capital Savings Youth Leadership Endowment Fund and the Coast Capital Savings Adventure Based Learning Endowment Fund.  As of January 31, 2008 endowment funds totalled $589,541.

Building the fund to the point where it is producing sufficient income to assure that Boys & Girls Clubs continue to offer the type of preventative programming that is crucial to the development of healthy children and youth, and ultimately a healthy community, is a daunting task. Using the current budget figures for our Community Clubs, an endowment of $10,000,000 with a 5% rate of return would be needed. A huge amount we agree but if a journey begins with the first step then our journey has truly begun.