Jon York, director of the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington's Crestmont Unit, stood outside the doors of the club’s new $3 million facility on West 12th Street, waiting for kids to arrive after school Monday.
Before the facility opened, the children and teens made their after-school journeys to a small brick duplex of 2,100 square feet. Now, the glass doors of a massive 21,000 square-foot building welcomed them with a library, full gym, art studio and teen room with a television and three computers.
For many, this is where they will go every day after school to interact with peers and work on homework in a safe community environment.
“We're going to intentionally have a larger presence in the community because we are going to be that community center,” York said.
York said older members of the community could use the facility from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Programming will include exercise for the elderly, computer literacy classes and job help such as mock interviews or practice filling out applications.
York also said that the space would be used for the Boys and Girls Club community partners such as United Way Worldwide and LIFEDesigns, as well as speakers, scholastic chess tournaments and fencing tournaments.
“This building will be used all the time by many different people, not just by the kids of this neighborhood,” York said. “So we'll be able to change not just the youth in this neighborhood’s lives, but the community as a whole.”
The previous Crestmont Boys and Girls Club location, just a block away, could only about 35 to 40 children and teenagers a day. York said that the old location blended in with the houses around it, which affected the club's presence in the community. He said passersby couldn't help but notice the new building.
As more students arrived, they congregated at tables in the cafeteria, chatting about the new club with staff members.
Alexander Walker, a sophomore at IU who has worked at the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington since last year, said he enjoyed helping provide a positive environment for the kids.
“They’re able to do something after school that allows them to grow as a person,” Walker said.
Resource Development Director Leslie Abshier said 80 percent of the funds for the building came from individual members of the community.
“This community really rallied around the campaign, so it was totally a community-led effort,” Abshier said.
Planning for fundraising began in 2014 and the campaign began in 2015, Abshier said. Around 100 volunteers helped to raise the money, most of which came from about 30 local donors. They raised $6 million, and the other money will go toward renovation of the Lincoln Street facility.
Abshier said all of the fundraising came from face-to-face donations. Donors were asked to give a minimum of $1,000 over five years. Many meetings with donors involved tours of the old facility to see what the needs were. Abshier said the largest single donation was about $1 million.
York said he was interested in challenging the children and teenagers in ways that push them while also being engaging and entertaining. While the club is expanding its programming with the larger facility, it is primarily education based.
He said that in the neighborhood, there is a 60 percent dropout rate. At the club, the vast majority of kids are a grade or more behind in reading or math. Seventy percent come from single-parent households. York said that staff members sometimes play the role of parents.
“Sometimes, when you're growing up in generational poverty, it's hard to dream,” York said. “We're going to make sure we give the kids the opportunity for that and to break the cycle of generational poverty. They're the cycle breakers. That is why I work here. That's why we're here. To give the kids the tools they need to make it out.”
An earlier version of this story failed to specify that only $3 million of the donations went to the new center. The IDS regrets this error.
