By Patrick Baron
BLOOMINGTON – The Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington-Normal traditionally works with young children, but a new program will see the club working with teens to prepare them to take leadership roles as adults.
The Keystone Club is a program where teens work in community service, academic success, career preparation and teen outreach. The Keystone Club works with various organizations in town, which provide expert-level experience to teach skills to teens. Boys and Girls Club CEO Tony Morstatter explained the programs work with teens ages 14 to 18.
“We know there’s a focus and a need in our community to work with teens and the Keystone Club is a great way to provide those programs,” said Morstatter. “We think that character and leadership is something teens would be successful in moving forward.”
The Keystone Club was first introduced last year. Morstatter explained the program is something the Boys and Girls Club had been working towards for some time and the Keystone Club will continue to be part of the Boys and Girls Club in the years to come.
“They Keystone Club itself was just started in 2016,” said Morstatter. “The grant we received is actually going to allow us to charter a program that we hope to continue to build upon and sustain moving forward.”
Morstatter said in 2016 the number of teens ages 14 to 18 served by the club grew over 300 percent, while teens and adolescents ages 13 and under served grew over 140 percent.
Patrick Baron can be reached at [email protected].
