Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County – Portage Unit Nets $10,000 Community Grant from Best Buy Foundation

bgcpocoPortage Unit received a $10,000 Community Grant from Best Buy Foundation in support of transforming the Club’s current Teen Room into a state-of-the-art Teen Center!

Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County‘s request to Best Buy Foundation is to equip the Portage Club’s Teen Room with much needed, state-of-the-art technology equipment that will help teen Club members in their academic pursuits and interests. Out-of-school time for children, especially teens, is ripe with positive opportunities. It also is a time of great need. In fact, the most dangerous time for children is between the hours of 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM. According to a study by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, youth under the age of 18 are most at risk to either commit or be a victim of a violent crime because they may lack adult supervision after school. This is why Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County is needed! Our Portage Unit has a growing teen population and is open after school until 8:00 PM providing youth with a fun, safe, and supervised place to be during their most dangerous time of day. Our organization creates a setting and/or options that are attractive to teens and help sustain their participation in our Portage Club in ways that promote their healthy development. A new Teen Center equipped with updated and relevant technology will only add to programs and services that attract this youth population. “Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County’s grant application really fit into Best Buy’s philosophy of helping the youth of our communities through technology,” states Rich Fox, manager of Best Buy’s Valparaiso, Indiana’s store location.

“The goal of this program is to engage teens in their passions through the utilization of technology in order to provide academic support, build 21st century skills, and enable them to seize opportunities for self-expression through technology,” states Steve Letic, club director of Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County – Portage Club. “Best Buy is equipping our new Teen Center and we are fortunate also to have the support of Porter County Community Foundation – Women’s Fund, and EZCORP Foundation in helping with the construction phase of our new Teen Center.”

About Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County
Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County was founded in 1971 in Valparaiso, IN. Currently Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County operates four Club units in Valparaiso, Portage, South Haven, and Chesterton; and operates Kidstop sites nine school locations. Serving more than 5,000 youth annually, aged kindergarten through high school, our organization provides Club programs and services that promote and enhance the positive development of boys and girls. For more information on membership, volunteer opportunities or to make a tax-deductible donation to Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County, please contact your local Club, call (219) 464-7282 or visit bgcpoco.org. Great Futures Start HERE.

About Best Buy and Best Buy Foundation:
Best Buy Co., Inc. is the world’s largest consumer electronics retailer, offering advice, service and convenience – at competitive prices – to the consumers who visit its websites and stores more than 1.5 billion times each year. In the United States, more than 70 percent of Americans are within 15 minutes of a Best Buy store. Additionally, the company operates businesses in Canada, China and Mexico. Altogether, Best Buy employs more than 140,000 people and earns annual revenues of more than $40 billion. As a company, we aim to ignite human potential. To support these efforts, the Best Buy Foundation provides underserved teens with access to technology to build 21st century skills and bridge the digital divide. Best Buy seeks nonprofit partners that create hands-on learning opportunities for underserved teens to engage them in learning, experimenting, and interacting with the latest technologies to build 21st century skills. The overall goal is to provide youth with access to new technologies and help them become interested and fluent in digital learning while developing skills to help better prepare them for future education and career success.