{"id":68774,"date":"2021-01-20T12:35:34","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T17:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/?p=68774"},"modified":"2021-10-01T11:49:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T15:49:58","slug":"five-years-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/five-years-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Five years in"},"content":{"rendered":"[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ inner_width=”auto” inner_max_width=”none”][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ custom_padding__hover=”|||” custom_padding=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.6″ text_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”text_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ text_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_vertical_length=”text_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ text_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_blur_strength=”text_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ text_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” 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By Owen Charters<\/em><\/p>\n

January 4 was my five-year anniversary of working in an amazing organization.\u00a0Of four-and-a-bit years travelling to see the work that Clubs dedicate themselves to, day in and day out. Of seeing communities buoyed up by the role that Clubs play.<\/p>\n

The common adage \u201cIt takes a village to raise a child\u201d often comes to mind when I think of our Clubs. The phrase comes from Nigeria, where many communities recognize that the job of raising a kid can\u2019t just be left to the parents\u2014many others need to be involved and engaged.\u00a0However, you can argue that this concept is under threat.\u00a0Increasingly, it\u2019s not the village that contributes to raising children.\u00a0Parents seek out larger institutions for child care, education, sports.\u00a0Often grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other extended family do not live in the same city\u2014or village.<\/p>\n

Kim Brooks, the author of several parenting books, including \u201cSmall Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear<\/a>,\u201d has said: \u201cMore and more, we seem to have embraced the idea that protecting children is an individualist pursuit, making parenting a competitive sport rather than a communal responsibility.\u201d\u00a0There is extensive evidence that communities, neighbourhoods, and even families are more and more isolated.\u00a0And kids are suffering as a result.\u00a0We have left the job of raising kids to tired, overwrought parents, and brace them with institutional offerings that don\u2019t provide all that\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n

Raising kids should not\u2014and cannot\u2014be a competition.\u00a0It needs to come back to being the responsibility of a village.\u00a0If there\u2019s anything we can take away from the COVID pandemic, it\u2019s that parents cannot manage, cannot cope as their world shrinks and shrinks until their family unit is just them (often a single mother) and the children.\u00a0While necessary right now, connecting via screen can never replace in-person.\u00a0Our message of \u2018Unplug to Connect\u2019 could not have better proof than the challenges realized by the widespread experiment of virtual schooling and virtual programming.<\/p>\n

BGC is the modern village. We embrace the children that come through our doors. We know them. We know the neighbourhood, the school, the families. We listen. We adapt to what communities need, not creating rigid institutional structures that require conformity.<\/p>\n

It is the promise of a village that inspires me.\u00a0It\u2019s something my wife and I have been seeking for our own kids\u2014they need a program, a group that wraps itself around them, instead of processing them through it.\u00a0It\u2019s the helping hand for tired parents.\u00a0The safe place to be.\u00a0A place to create great futures.\u00a0To ensure no opportunity is denied and no one is left behind.\u00a0It\u2019s a human organization\u2014the face of a village.<\/p>\n

Too much of what we know is faceless\u2014a process or an institution.\u00a0Or parents and guardians have to string together a series of pieces\u2014a bit here, a bit over there.\u00a0It\u2019s difficult to create a village in a society that doesn\u2019t work that way anymore.\u00a0There is much evidence that the village has broken down\u2014gated communities, increasing segregation of neighbourhoods.\u00a0Robert Putnam\u2019s seminal work, \u201cBowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community<\/a>,\u201d documented much of this twenty years ago.\u00a0And his more recent work, \u201cOur Kids: The American Dream in Crisis<\/a>,\u201d studies how upward mobility for kids is fractured and broken.\u00a0Canada fares somewhat better, but we are not moving towards creating villages to raise our children.<\/p>\n

With opportunity, with possibilities, BGC is a large part of the solution. I have had many single parents say that the Club was the other parent in their family. We don\u2019t take away the responsibility of parenting, and we\u2019re not formal education. But we\u2019re everything else that fills in the vital gaps when raising a child. We are there to be<\/u> that village.\u00a0To raise kids\u2014and to raise them up.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got lots of building to do, more villages to create.\u00a0And despite COVID, despite the challenges out there, we\u2019re ready in here.\u00a0Five years: some days that seems like a long time, but really it\u2019s the blink of an eye.\u00a0There\u2019s so much we can do, so much we want to do.\u00a0And so many faces that turn to us\u2014children, teens, parents, and the broader community.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re ready, willing, and able.\u00a0I\u2019m looking forward to the next five years.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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