Not only does the Boys and Girls Club of South Central Texas hold classes for elementary students during the day, they
also have an after-school program for kids who cannot be picked up by their
parents early. While apart from the after-school program, they also have
different projects that kids can be a part of, such as Smart Girls, Torch Club
and Passport to Manhood.
The Passport to Manhood project was started in early 2011 with the help of one of the
managers at the Boys and Girls Club, Carlton Fairley, and male volunteers that
attended the after-school program. Passport to Manhood is run on every Friday
after school for boys ranging in age from 11 to 14. Its main goal is to teach
responsibility and maturity.
Passport to Manhood contains 14
sessions over a semester-long period, each session focusing on a certain
quality of personality and maturity through interactive activities put on by
the leader of the program. At the start
of the program, each child is given his own “passport” in order to keep track
of his improvement as well as write about the long journey that child took to
gain manhood and growth as a person.
Each session also includes intensive
discussions that are held after every activity, and that is done in order to
open each child’s eyes and give them a form of “food for thought” to go home
with and ponder about before they move on to the next session.
Along with helping the youth grow
into a mature stage, they also teach them the responsibility to give back to
their community by requiring a service project that they must complete before
the end of the program in order to “graduate” to manhood.
Passport to Manhood continues to
this day and is held every Friday at 1:30 in the school region of the building
and concludes at 3:30. For more information on how to get involved, people may
contact the coordinator of the Boys and Girls Club, Mr. Elton Fite at elton.fite@bgcsct.org, or the assistant coordinator, Carlton Fairley at carlton.fairley@bgcsct.org.
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