InstaClubhouse

Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The local Boys & Girls Club is an anchor of its community. That has never been more obvious than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the country, Clubs have stepped up to serve meals to those in need, provide care for children of essential workers and deliver innovative and stabilizing virtual programming. While Clubs always work tirelessly to meet the needs of kids and communities, this year has required them to adapt on the go, from advancing virtual programming at a rapid rate to redefining what summertime looks like.

InstaClubhouse!

Coronavirus prompts successful shift to virtual programming

“Community is something Clubs provide,” says AbelPalmieri. “So, my staff and I began to talk about, ‘how can we provide a sense of community and connection and literally see our kids’ faces?’” By John Collins Within two weeks of closing their brick-and-mortar It was a Monday, last March, when Boys & Girls Clubs of Clubs, Western Pennsylvania staff teamed up to develop Western Pennsylvania announced it would immediately and launch a virtual Club where they could reconnect close its 15 metropolitan Pittsburgh sites to help with their kids. They called it InstaClubhouse. prevent spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. “A weekend changed everything,” recalls Dr. Lisa Abel-Palmieri, the organization’s president and CEO. “We didn’t get a proper chance initially to say goodbye to our kids or make sure they had Dr. Lisa Abel-Palmieri, everything they needed.” Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania president and CEO. Clubs serve over 12,000 children and teens, including many whose circumstances make them more vulnerable to crises. So, straight off, Club staff began the process of calling some 2,000 member families to do wellness checks. How were they feeling? Did they need food? One thing they kept hearing, from kids and parents alike, was the profound loss of community that many families felt when Clubs closed.

InstaSuccess

Accessed on the Club’s website, InstaClubhouse uses freeware including Google Hangouts, YouTube, Code. org and MyFuture.net to connect staff and members via video chat, host live and recorded classes and activities, share projects and archive activities for later use. Programming is broken into two age groups – grades K-7 and 8-12 – offering a variety of engaging activities including STEM, literacy, wellness, physical fitness and many other areas. “The whole thing was making sure the online learning we did wasn’t boring,” says Abel-Palmieri. “That it was not school, not just focused on core academic content. We’re a Boys & Girls Club. We want to make sure it’s focused on enrichment, fun, social-emotional learning, mentoring –access to opportunities they won’t get in school.” By mid-May, InstaClubhouse was thriving. Using curriculum developed and written by Club staff, members had 140 free online classes from which to choose, all taught by staff and instructors. The site

gained serious traction, logging over 35,000 YouTube views. Spotting an opportunity to reach even more kids, the organization decided to shift its content to a second, more powerful online platform called Outschool.

Outschool Time

Founded in 2015 to serve mainly homeschool families, Outschool offers over 50,000 kids-only classes via group video chat, covering a wide range of subjects created and taught by teachers around the world. Cost-wise, Outschool receives a 30 percent service fee every time someone signs up for a class. “The benefit is that the technology is already there,” says Abel-Palmieri. “We paid nothing to use their software and be up and running in a matter of months. Now we just post our classes, advertise them, get reviews, manage the learning and manage our teachers.” In line with serving kids who need them most, the Club prices classes affordably and offers every Club family a $200 scholarship to purchase classes. Youth beyond Allegheny County have participated in the Club’s 140 classes on Outschool. “It exposes our kids to kids across the country and the world,” says Abel-Palmieri, “offering them the inherent benefit of meeting new kids in diversity – not only from across the country, but in Korea, in India, in Dubai.”

BGCA is committed to giving young people fun, educational digital learning experiences. MyFuture puts hundreds of activities into the hands of your Club kids and teens — accessible anytime, anywhere, via computer, tablet or phone. Visit MyFuture.net to get started.

Reaching Teens

Staying in touch with teens was a big priority, especially as many took on added family responsibilities due to the coronavirus. To keep connecting with teens, the Club decided to also take their popular Career Works program online. Career Works supports teens with their studies while preparing them for career options in high-growth industries. Participants earn college or vocational credit toward an apprenticeship certificate and are paid $10 an hour.

The Club not only continued to engage teens during the shutdown; entering the summer season, they hosted 80 teens online, five to six hours a day, Monday through Friday, as participants in the Learn & Earn Summer Youth Employment Program, a component of Career Works. “The most beautiful thing is the amount of data we have from the “Virtual Reflections” we ask the kids to do after every session,” says Abel-Palmieri. “Questions like, ‘Did you like it? What did you not like? How does this apply to your life? Do you need cleaning or hygiene supplies? Do you need food?’” From creating a pandemic-spurred virtual Clubhouse on the fly to learning how impactful and relevant online programming could be, Club leadership made the intentional decision to make virtual learning a permanent part of their program. When asked how difficult it was to launch a virtual program, Dr. Abel-Palmieri says several elements combined to create their success. “We had the right team structure at the right time when the pandemic hit,” she says. “A CEO who taught higher education for a decade in distance education, a team I recruited or brought with me. So, we kind of had the perfect conditions.”