Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley

The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley exists to enable young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens.

Every child who walks through our doors will be prepared to graduate with a plan for post-secondary education, live a healthy lifestyle, and become a contributing member of our community.

Goal One: 1. Develop and implement a system to promote a higher level of performance for all team members through more intentional hiring, onboarding, performance management, and compensation strategies.

Goal Two: Adopt a cost-effective service delivery model to allow service to more children (1875 daily) through partnerships with existing facilities such as schools, parks & recreation, and churches.

Goal Three: 3. Expand prek programming to 5 schools, serving 75 total students, to promote early literacy and social development

Our organization sits at a critical inflection point with a wealth of opportunities to expand services and deepen our impact on the horizon. The single largest barrier to capitalizing on these opportunities and impacting our community in a deeper, more meaningful way, is the capability of our leaders and the number of them who are present in our organization to lead initiatives and staff, who lead kids. Therefore, we have adopted Leadership Development as a key pillar of our strategic plan and will invest heavily into developing leaders at all levels from senior leadership to frontline staff. Stronger leadership development among and for staff will cascade to better youth development outcomes for the kids we serve and will serve with new opportunities.

As a result challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (including staffing challenges) and the changing environment before the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth in need for children and youth to be served with more effective programming to more kids was evident and unmistakable. As we continue to navigate the impacts of COVID-19, the ability to grow services will not be able to rely on greater giving from a philanthropic community who has been impacted negatively by COVID-19. Additionally, families in the low to moderate income areas have been impacted to a point where families need greater support to meet the needs of their kids. Further, it is critical, in a time where it is more challenging than ever to attract and retain talented staff, that we find the strategies to do so for the benefit of the youth and families we serve. Therefore, we must create our own capacity to meet this elevated demand, not by more dollars alone, but by the capacity of our people to be better problem solvers, creative thinkers, innovators, and developers of those around them. Two of our organizational core values are: 1. We believe in the value and potential of those around us and 2. We invest in our people. These values and acting on them through this program will enable us to go further faster in serving kids in the East Tennessee community, likely generating the additional resources as a by-product along the way. In the end, through investing in our people, our Club Professionals, and building their leadership skills, it will ultimately impact our organization through allowing us to serve more youth, more often, and in a more meaningful, impactful, and effective way. This will enable us to carry out our vision to provide a world-class Club Experience that assures success is within reach of every young person who enters our doors, with all members on track to graduate from high school with a plan, demonstrating good character and citizenship, and living a healthy lifestyle.