Imagine a place where who you are, where you’re from, and the circumstances surrounding you don’t determine your access to experiences or opportunities. Sounds pretty amazing, right? Well, that place is more than just a dream. All around the world, Boys & Girls Clubs are making that vision a reality.
For this month’s Client Spotlight, we met with Susana Avalos and Alyssa Milward, the Director of Operations and Program Director for the Boys & Girls Club of Cathedral City. Read on to learn more about the impact of this incredible nonprofit and how it has changed the lives of the youth and families in Cathedral City.
Humble Beginnings
In 1860, a group of women founded the first Boys & Girls Club with the belief that boys roaming the streets should have a positive alternative. Placing a large emphasis on character development, the group focused on capturing the boys’ interests, improving their behavior, and increasing their personal expectations and goals.
Since then, the organization has expanded its mission: to enable all young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens. Living out this mission every day, the organization now provides a safe haven for more than 4 million youth, giving them an opportunity to discover their great futures.
Under the umbrella of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Cathedral City charter opened 40 years ago. Starting out with just a trailer from the Palm Springs Boys & Girls Club, Cathedral City’s club quickly gained the support of the entire city.
Since then, the club has grown tremendously. Much more than just a trailer, the facility now includes multiple buildings, a playground, teen center, and designated homework and program rooms for different age groups. With this space, the Cathedral City Boys & Girls Club serves over 100 kids and teens a day.
A Culture of Caring
Serving kids and teens in first grade through high school, attending a Boys & Girls Club provides a unique experience these kids just don’t get anywhere else. The team at Cathedral City builds a mentoring relationship with each club member. Far more than just an after-school center, they help with the personal, academic, and social aspects of these kids’ lives. After all, Boys & Girls Club members aren’t just there for a year – they grow up there!
Here in Cathedral City, the staff’s goal is to help kids “find their gift to share with the world.” Whatever that is – sports, academic, giving back, leadership, etc. – the staff seeks to nurture these gifts so their members can confidently contribute to their communities. Program Director Alyssa Milward explains,
All clubs have the same goals, but each one is unique. This club’s culture of caring is special to us.
To share this culture of caring with their community, the Cathedral City club stays heavily involved in the surrounding area. They understand how important their presence in the community is in building relationships. As a result, they make a point to instill the value of giving back into all of their staff and teen leaders. For example, Director of Operations Susana Avalos shares,
Our teens are so awesome. We take them to events and they’re so respectful, they don’t complain, they always volunteer to help… We really focus on teaching them to do the right thing and that they have to give where they live.
Why SDP?
Having just celebrated their 7th anniversary of partnering with Southland Data Processing this past July, Avalos and Milward are huge advocates of SDP. As they had previously processed with a large payroll company, Avalos shares,
What I like is that I call in and whatever I need, someone always gives me an answer or finds a way to help. Before it would take days to get a response!
She also loves that even if she’s asked the same question before, our team is always there to walk her through processes step-by-step. Especially when it comes to running and building custom reports. (She used to dig up the information she needed from a number of different reports… And then manually compile it to get what she needed – eek!)
Working at a busy nonprofit like Boys & Girls Club of Cathedral City, time is extremely precious. In order to get everything done, Avalos has to use her time wisely. With SDP, she loves having the flexibility to work from anywhere at any time using SDP’s cloud-based system. Lastly, Avalos loves Southland Data Processing’s value for money, explaining,
With SDP, we pay a fraction of what we used to pay–so that’s huge! Being a nonprofit, we have to keep our costs as low as possible.
Make An Impact
In partnership with Boys & Girls Club of Cathedral City, we would like to invite you to participate in their 10th Annual Extravaganza on Monday, December 2. Whether you would like to attend the gala, host a table, become an event sponsor, or donate, we would love to have you join with us in supporting this great cause.
All Donations support the ongoing programs and services at the Boys & Girls Club of Cathedral City. You can learn more here – we hope to see you there!
SDP Client Spotlights: Celebrating Our Clients
Every month, we highlight one of our amazing clients with the SDP Client Spotlight. Here at Southland Data Processing, we’re in the people business and strive to always put our clients first. So if you or your organization is interested in becoming our next Client Spotlight, please contact us at [email protected] and we’d love to hear your story!
Photo by Boys & Girls Club of Cathedral City