Youth programs provide invaluable education that fills part of the void between what the schools CAN provide and what the parents DO provide. We all benefit from raising good citizens and suffer from having bad ones.
For the record, the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu Teen Center at Malibu High School (which Hans Laetz cited with approval) was launched by a local non-profit organization (the Malibu Foundation for Youth and Families) in September 2000. The Teen Center now has over 500 members with daily attendance of over 100 teens from grades six through 12. It offers nationally acclaimed, professionally run programs to address the needs of our teenagers in critical areas such as character and leadership development, education and career development, health and life skills, recreation, the arts and other initiatives. We achieved these results by forging a unique partnership of private initiative, professional management and public cooperation among the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the City of Malibu, various local organizations and individuals.
Judging by the student participation levels and response, these programs have been hugely successful. Naturally, we now look to ensure that we can continue to fund our existing programs in the future as well as expand them to meet the needs of our community.
Douglas K. Simpson
General Counsel and Director
Malibu Foundation for Youth and Families