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Warren Sees Opportunity In New Role With B&G Club
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| Devin Warren recently began his new job at the Boys & Girls Club of Yankton. As unit director, Warren communicates with donors, ensures program quality and supervises the overall direction of the club. (Kelly Hertz/P&D) |
By Derek Bartos
derek.bartos@yankton.net
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of the Press & Dakotan’s monthly series spotlighting occupations, tasks and duties in our coverage area.
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When Devin Warren first arrived from Minnesota a month ago to become the new unit director for the Boys & Girls Club of Yankton, it wasn’t the differences in the two areas that he noticed the most.
Actually, it was the opposite.
“It’s really similar to what I experienced in South Minneapolis,” he said. “There’s a lot of the same needs and types of issues that are affecting kids. And that’s why it’s so good to be a part of the Boys & Girls Club, because they’re really in tune to what kids need.”
Warren, who previously worked as a program director for the Boys & Girls Club in South Minneapolis, is helping address those needs by focusing on the “big picture,” which includes donor relations, program quality and supervising the overall direction of the club.
Warren said his new job allows him to help kids in a way he hadn’t been able to before.
“I feel like my reach is a little more expanded now and can offer our programs and services to more kids,” he said.
One of Warren’s first tasks has been helping oversee the recent change to the club’s Just For Kids program, which is now known as the Academy.
For several years, the Just For Kids program has provided educationally enriching care for children in kindergarten through fifth grade during the hours before and after school and all day during the summer with crafts, games, sports, music, art and other creative and cultural activities.
In December, the club’s board of directors decided to make a change to the Just For Kids program to make it line up with Boys & Girls Club programming nationwide.
However, the new Academy program won’t be too far removed from Just For Kids, Warren said.
“It’s simply a name change that allows us to offer more Boys & Girls Club-specific programming,” he said.
While the program will still provide the same quality care at each elementary school in Yankton, one of the main changes will include the addition of impact programming, which is programming with a specific goal in mind. This will assist the club in aligning with the Boys & Girls Club of America’s goals that focus on academic success, character and leadership development and healthy lifestyles, Warren said.
“For instance, if it’s a reading program, we want to see where the kids are at when they start the program, and then have them go through it and have them participate in different types of activities over a specific period of time,” he said. “Then we measure their progress at the end of it with pretests and posttests to be able to report back to our funders and potential donors and say, ‘These kids are going through this program, and here are the results.’ It’s really being specific about measuring how we’re having an impact on the kids.”
Along with the Academy, Warren also oversees the different programs that take place at the Boys & Girls Club site at 1804 Broadway Ave. These programs, offered to individuals grades 5-12, focus on areas such as character and leadership, homework help, writing and finances.
Warren said one of the main goals of these programs is to provide children with positive options in the afternoon.
“In my first month being here, I really haven’t seen a lot of places for kids to go after school,” he said. “Reading the papers, I see that there’s a lot of kids getting in trouble — participating in alcohol and drugs and what-not. We’re that positive influence to keep them away from that. Kids can come here and be themselves. They don’t have to feel peer pressure or anything like that.”
With all that the Boys & Girls Club of Yankton has to offer, Warren said one of his priorities has been to get the word out about the organization.
“What we’re trying to do is get out into the community and let people know who we are and what we do,” he said. “I think sometimes the club gets a bad stigma attached to it — that it’s just for troubled kids, or it’s just bad kids that go here. But really we have a lot of motivated young people that have shown improvement in their grades and their overall character, and we want to let the community know what we have to offer here.”
While the club has a lot to offer, Warren said he hopes to add to that list in the near future.
“We are looking at expanding our services to do more outreach programs and also to do more fun programs that kids want to do, like the Valentine’s Day event we have planned for Feb. 18,” he said. “Eventually, we would like to have a facility with a gym, athletics, all that type of stuff. That’s really our vision for the future.”
Warren said he believes those goals, while lofty, are within reach based on what he has seen from the Yankton community so far.
“I think the community has really come together since I’ve been here,” he said. “We had a matching campaign where an anonymous donor said he would donate $25,000 if we could raise $25,000 by the end of last year. About a week out, we were about $10,000 short, and the community really rallied around us and we were able to meet that goal. I’m motivated by that and I can see there is a lot of opportunity here.”
Warren added that the club has begun its annual fundraising campaign, and he encourages the community to watch for its special events and fundraisers.
“We do have a lofty goal to meet all our expectations, but I really think we can do it with the mission work that we’re doing, and we really hope the community will support us with that,” he said.
For more information about the Boys & Girls Club of Yankton, call 605-665-9710.
———
When Devin Warren first arrived from Minnesota a month ago to become the new unit director for the Boys & Girls Club of Yankton, it wasn’t the differences in the two areas that he noticed the most.
Actually, it was the opposite.
“It’s really similar to what I experienced in South Minneapolis,” he said. “There’s a lot of the same needs and types of issues that are affecting kids. And that’s why it’s so good to be a part of the Boys & Girls Club, because they’re really in tune to what kids need.”
Warren, who previously worked as a program director for the Boys & Girls Club in South Minneapolis, is helping address those needs by focusing on the “big picture,” which includes donor relations, program quality and supervising the overall direction of the club.
Warren said his new job allows him to help kids in a way he hadn’t been able to before.
“I feel like my reach is a little more expanded now and can offer our programs and services to more kids,” he said.
One of Warren’s first tasks has been helping oversee the recent change to the club’s Just For Kids program, which is now known as the Academy.
For several years, the Just For Kids program has provided educationally enriching care for children in kindergarten through fifth grade during the hours before and after school and all day during the summer with crafts, games, sports, music, art and other creative and cultural activities.
In December, the club’s board of directors decided to make a change to the Just For Kids program to make it line up with Boys & Girls Club programming nationwide.
However, the new Academy program won’t be too far removed from Just For Kids, Warren said.
“It’s simply a name change that allows us to offer more Boys & Girls Club-specific programming,” he said.
While the program will still provide the same quality care at each elementary school in Yankton, one of the main changes will include the addition of impact programming, which is programming with a specific goal in mind. This will assist the club in aligning with the Boys & Girls Club of America’s goals that focus on academic success, character and leadership development and healthy lifestyles, Warren said.
“For instance, if it’s a reading program, we want to see where the kids are at when they start the program, and then have them go through it and have them participate in different types of activities over a specific period of time,” he said. “Then we measure their progress at the end of it with pretests and posttests to be able to report back to our funders and potential donors and say, ‘These kids are going through this program, and here are the results.’ It’s really being specific about measuring how we’re having an impact on the kids.”
Along with the Academy, Warren also oversees the different programs that take place at the Boys & Girls Club site at 1804 Broadway Ave. These programs, offered to individuals grades 5-12, focus on areas such as character and leadership, homework help, writing and finances.
Warren said one of the main goals of these programs is to provide children with positive options in the afternoon.
“In my first month being here, I really haven’t seen a lot of places for kids to go after school,” he said. “Reading the papers, I see that there’s a lot of kids getting in trouble — participating in alcohol and drugs and what-not. We’re that positive influence to keep them away from that. Kids can come here and be themselves. They don’t have to feel peer pressure or anything like that.”
With all that the Boys & Girls Club of Yankton has to offer, Warren said one of his priorities has been to get the word out about the organization.
“What we’re trying to do is get out into the community and let people know who we are and what we do,” he said. “I think sometimes the club gets a bad stigma attached to it — that it’s just for troubled kids, or it’s just bad kids that go here. But really we have a lot of motivated young people that have shown improvement in their grades and their overall character, and we want to let the community know what we have to offer here.”
While the club has a lot to offer, Warren said he hopes to add to that list in the near future.
“We are looking at expanding our services to do more outreach programs and also to do more fun programs that kids want to do, like the Valentine’s Day event we have planned for Feb. 18,” he said. “Eventually, we would like to have a facility with a gym, athletics, all that type of stuff. That’s really our vision for the future.”
Warren said he believes those goals, while lofty, are within reach based on what he has seen from the Yankton community so far.
“I think the community has really come together since I’ve been here,” he said. “We had a matching campaign where an anonymous donor said he would donate $25,000 if we could raise $25,000 by the end of last year. About a week out, we were about $10,000 short, and the community really rallied around us and we were able to meet that goal. I’m motivated by that and I can see there is a lot of opportunity here.”
Warren added that the club has begun its annual fundraising campaign, and he encourages the community to watch for its special events and fundraisers.
“We do have a lofty goal to meet all our expectations, but I really think we can do it with the mission work that we’re doing, and we really hope the community will support us with that,” he said.
For more information about the Boys & Girls Club of Yankton, call 605-665-9710.
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