Writing

Nonprofit Blog: Connecting Communities to the COVID-19 Vaccine

Every week, more than 2,500 families in South Los Angeles head to their local Boys & Girls Club to pick up a box full of healthy meals. There, they connect with Club staff, who do more than distribute food and check in on each families’ wellbeing. Families also receive information about the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine and how they can get one through their Club — critical work the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Los Angeles has spearheaded in partnership with MLK Community Healthcare (MLKCH) and other local organizations.

Nonprofit Blog: Native Youth Receives Impactful Support

Every day, hundreds of thousands of Native youth enter or log on to their Club, where they access the same life-enhancing programs and support found at Clubs nationwide. But Native youth get even more: Native Clubs also help strengthen their youth’s cultural identity with culturally relevant programming and services, providing opportunity and hope. Though many of these Clubs and communities face challenges from food insecurity to health and income disparities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Club youth are empowered to succeed and know that they are more than the statistics. In fact, 88% of Native youth who regularly attend a Club expect to graduate from high school and 92% abstain from alcohol.

Nonprofit Blog: Great Futures Start in Small Towns

Each year, Boys & Girls Clubs serve over 335,000 young people in rural America, where childhood is often shaped by a culture of self-sufficiency and large expanses of land to explore and cultivate. Yet rural communities face unique challenges, from the need to travel long distances for schools, jobs and healthcare to limited access to broadband. And for every child enrolled in an afterschool program, there are three others on a waiting list.

Feature: Good for Your Soul

“Macon (population: 100,000) sits about 90 miles from downtown Atlanta. Its streets are named for Southern hardwoods. Antebellum and Victorian mansions rub up against each other in the historic district and some roads are still paved with brick.

You might recognize this juncture as the place where I-75 traffic begins to creep. Macon may live at a slower pace than metro Atlanta, but it’s a welcome slow. If you’ve never been, or haven’t been in a while, let fall be your ticket out….”

Travel Essay: And Back Again

…Before my mother and I left for Montana, I said I was going on a Montana road trip: Montana was my Point B, my destination. But as we began our journey home, I started to wonder if maybe Point B is not really what a trip is all about…When it comes to travel, the coming back is never really considered or discussed, though that is exactly when the emotions and experiences begin to be digested. It is when what happened begins to be understood, or rather, when you begin to understand that something might have happened…

Blog: So What is SCADpad?

“SCADpad began as a conversation: how can the arts change the world? How can a field so many find fluffy, highbrow and irrelevant contribute to larger global conversations in a world increasingly dominated by science, technology, engineering and math? (STEM, if you will.)

The world we live in is changing — rapidly and radically. In the past decade, people have been moving into cities at a rate that has not been seen since the Industrial Revolution of the Westernized world (that was the 18th-19th centuries, y’all). Global population is increasing, resources are decreasing, and climate change is a major issue. Basically, hold onto your hat because the 21st century is looking to be more than just a bumpy ride.

Unless we change.”