Soirée meets Cindy Doramus, chief executive officer of Boys and Girls Club of Central Arkansas, as the pioneering nonprofit celebrates its 100th anniversary.
What is the Boys and Girls Club?
It is a national organization for youth from the ages of 6-18, during out-of-school time hours. Each station is a member of the national Boys and Girls Club, but each is its own entity.
The Little Rock chapter is one of the 4,000 worldwide. We focus on out-of-school programs that nurture leader, development, health and life skills, career, education, arts, creativity, sports and recreation. This is what most people know the Boys and Girls Club for. We are making sure that we are meeting the needs of young people and we want to enable all young people, especially those who need it the most, to reach their full potential, not only academically but also their potential to care and be responsible in the community. We are there to help them develop socially, to be healthy, and we help them to be prepared through education, sports, and workforce skills. We want to have them ready for when they turn 18 and have to enter the adult world.
Is the Boys and Girls Club specifically for kids that are underprivileged?
No. It is for every child. But because our membership fees are so low, a lot of underprivileged children are there and also a lot of at-risk children are there. For us in central Arkansas, membership fees are $65 for the school year. With that they get all those programs that we talked about. They get education help, a snack, life skills and the other skills mentioned. This is every day.
So it’s like you’re providing that extra family member that does the homework with you and feeds you that healthy meal?
You’re exactly right. Because by the time the parent gets off work and comes to pick their kids up, their child has had the opportunity to eat a healthy snack, get their homework done, and play. Then when get home they can focus on being a part of their family and focusing on the needs of their family and get ready for school the next day
What are some of the biggest challenges in running this operation?
We have six locations in central Arkansas, two in North Little Rock and four in Little Rock. Every nonprofit is probably going to say this, but our biggest challenge is having enough resources and enough money to provide enough for the kids. We do not like to turn kids away, because we know how important it is to provide this for them. We have a lot of people that have been here for 30-plus years, and we want to have enough resources to meet the needs of the kids.
What do you think it is that the Boys and Girls Club does that other nonprofits don’t?
This year we celebrated our 100th anniversary of impacting lives and being there for kids and the families. That is something that we are very proud of. We are the eighth-oldest Boys and Girls Club in the country. We are a strong and stable force in our community.
When I have the good fortune to tell people what I do and who I work for, almost everyone has a connection to the Boys and Girls Club from when they were little and went there, and it just shows how important the club is. I think that’s our unique strength, that we have been here generation after generation.
What are you most proud of?
Other than my grandson, I am most proud of the difference that we make and the huge impact we are making on these kids’ lives. We are always there for the kids and we are changing lives and investing in our future as a state. Most of the kids that we have are going to stay right here in Arkansas, and we are creating a strong force in our community.
What is the biggest lesson that you have learned?
That you can’t change every child that walks through the door. But I am going to still hold onto that belief. It makes a difference to change those kids that walk through those doors, and they deserve to find their gift, their talent, their abilities. We try to find their strengths and build on those. It doesn’t matter if you are the fastest runner or the best yo-yoer, we want to find that strength and build on it and make that child feel good about that. Because every child deserves to succeed.
Find out more about the Boys & Girls Club of Central Arkansas at ARClubs.com.