The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

The club does great work yet so few peolpe really understand what they do or their strategies. For example, some folks think it's just a hang out place but the strategy behind it is if kids don't find a place that's fun and where their friends are, they won't come..once in the club, staff direct them into youth development experiences and programs. No kid joins the club to go through a toastmasters course or take college prep sessions, but once in the doors, kids are encouraged and groomed for success.

Who has ever visited a Club as an adult just to find out, like Joseph, the great work it does? Let's hear from you and others.

Excellent points, Leslie, thanks for posting. It occurs to me, after the fact, that the Boys&Girls Clubs are an excellent venue for people studying the social interactions of this age group. If you want to know how to communicate your message/brand/product to them, spend a few hours sitting and watching them interact with each other.
Oh my goodness...another research project. - Joseph

The first time I went to a Discovery Hour, I was skeptical at what I'd find. I expected to see some kind of cross between an age-restricted version of the YMCA and an overcrowded childcare service. I was most surprised by kids with tragic or pitiful personal histories (parent(s) jailed, unemployed, self-destructive, and with exposure to criminal activity, drug use, or gang activity), which was more prevalent in Nashua than I was previously aware, though certainly not the circumstance of every Club member. Through the Club, these kids find ways to prepare themselves to succeed in life, feeding on encouragement to perform well in school and nuturing their personal abilities, rather than following the self-destructive behavior of family members.

The Nashua Club, which only a few years back was recognized as the best Boys & Girls Club in the nation for its size, has helped these kids define their goals and priorities and gives them the encouragement to work towards those goals. As a result of the efforts of the Club and the kids, would-be teen moms instead are college graduates and would-be gang leaders instead are civic leaders. As mentioned by the Mayor of Nashua in his annual State of the City address (link below), these Club kids don't simply save their own lives, but they work toward improving their community, which tells you everything you need to know about the kind of people these kids have decided to become.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070221/NEWS01/70221007

Thanks for filling in the Boys&Girls Clubs' story, Todd. They are doing good work and I hope this posting and the related comments bring them the attention they deserve. - Joseph