Boy Scouts of America partnered with Balboa Elementary School to develop a pilot program to serve at-risk youth with the support of parent volunteers.
This program model was designed specifically to meet the needs of the local community with a focus on developing sustainable units.
“This is a pilot program that we are doing and that the board provides all of the resources,” said Herb Johnson, board member of the San Diego- Imperial Council of Boy Scouts of America. “We are not here week to week running the program, but we are here supporting special programs, and we are very happy with what we have seen in a little over a year of this program. We have become a part of the community, and the community has become a part of the Boy Scouts, and that’s a great exchange.”
The Boy Scouts of San Diego serves 14,000 children with over 600 units throughout the county.
“The Boy Scouts of America have had a long standing approach to try to reach all segments of the community. In some instances, our program probably didn’t fit the model of the family structure of Latino families,” Johnson added. “We have been trying to find a program that will fit the community, this is new approach, a different structure, and it seems to work very well on this community, it has had a lot of support not only by the council, but by our field staff and the principal Hector Bravo.”
The Balboa Elementary School students that participate in the Boy Scouts after school program have gone to camp-outs, have listened to several speakers from the San Diego Police Department, and the San Diego Fire Department, as well as they have learned about safety.
“We currently have $20,000 to spend on Outreach programs, but this is currently our only program so most of it has been directed to here,” said Trent McClure, director of operations for the Boy Scouts in San Diego. “Our board of directors, and Outreach Committee has recently begun exploring expand our outreach program to different sites. We will hopefully see this program expand to other schools.”
The Cub Scouts program that started at Balboa Elementary on the 2015-2016 school year had about 60 students signed in. Interest grew this year, including girls in the program. The Cub Scouts program is a family and home centered program for boys who are in first through fifth grades. This program helps the children to develop teamwork, new skills, and to do their best.
“We joined the program last year with Joshua, our 7 year-old, and we have liked it. We have attended the events they organize to integrate our children, the team building helps them a lot,” said one of the volunteer parents in the program, Fermin Garcia. “We even have a three year-old daughter that will like to put in the program.”
