Top Ten Ways to Engage with Board of Child Care (BCC)

Top Ten Ways to Engage with Board of Child Care (BCC) 

1. Pray for the children, youth and families BCC serves as well as BCC staff. Include the ministry of BCC on your congregation’s ongoing prayer request list.

2. Contribute financially either by a special offering – the Christmas Offering or at some other time during the year – or by including BCC in your church and/or missions budget.

3. Make sure that your church is subscribed to BCC updates. Click here to subscribe or confirm your subscription.

4. Spread the word about BCC by creating a space to post BCC updates on a bulletin board, on printed materials, website, social media, etc.

5. Plan a tour of a BCC program.

6. Engage volunteers in creating Prayer Blankets and/or Welcome Bags.

7. Ask the missions team or another group in your congregation to donate money for Bibles.

8. Participate in one of BCC’s collection drives throughout the year (e.g. Christmas gifts).

9. Invite a speaker to share a presentation on BCC.

10. Volunteer for a project designed with the BCC Spiritual Life team.

Enriching Communities,
One Family at a Time

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Family Fun Day – May 2017

The second ever Board of Child Care (BCC) Family Fun Day was held Sunday, April 23rd at the Baltimore campus. Family Fun Day aligns with BBC’s mission to enrich communities, one family at a time. The organization is focusing resources on bringing together children and families.

The idea for the family fun day was created by BCC’s Case Managers who are in charge of connecting youth to community and state resources as well as interfacing with the families. Case Managers have been a true asset to the organization, assisting with making sure that our youth have the appropriate resources to fit their needs.

Eboni Barksdale, Senior Case Manager, stated, “a family day is an event designed to engage families of our youth in an engaging and interactive setting that helps strengthen bonds.”

We do this by bringing families together and providing a chance for them bond through art, crafts, and discussion in a caring and supportive environment.

Easter Egg Hunt with Brothers and Sisters

We focus on uniting families within all of our programs. It is especially important for residential to expand on family engagement and involvement. This focus on family engagement is a core part of our purpose statement, “Enriching communities, one family at a time.”

Family Day was a big success in not only unifying children and families but also as a wonderful opportunity for siblings to enjoy crafts, an Easter egg hunt, and quality time with loved ones. For more information on BCC’s programs click here

The article was written and published by Owings Mills Junior and Development Intern, Nick.

 

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2017 Volunteer Auxiliary Annual Meeting Recap

The 2017 Annual Meeting was held on Thursday, May 11th. There were 88 Auxiliary Members in attendance from all regions. The conference opened with a welcome from the Auxiliary President, Ms. Julie Wernz followed by the “Hymn of Promise”.

The Keynote Speaker was Ms. Laurie Anne Spagnola, President and CEO of Board of Child Care.

The Children’s Choir of South Korea is an organization of children grades 3rd – 8th travels giving hope and joy to many people throughout their mission tours. The Board of Child Care had the privilege to host these young and talented students at our 2017 Annual Spring Auxiliary Meeting.

There was not a dry eye in the audience after the children sang “Jesus Loves Me” and then proceeded to hug each person in the meeting. Please enjoy photos from the event on our Facebook Page. Click here to see a video.

Give a Tic Program was a success!

The program was designed to help raise money for batteries for donated watches so that they could be used in the Christmas Store.

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Disc Golf

One of the joys of working with youth is getting to share your interests with them.  The grounds at Board of Child Care are perfect for disc golf.  Given one of the staff’s passion for the game, over the past school year, many of the students have learned to play disc golf.

A few of the students, in spite of the limited, very mediocre instruction they have received, have shown themselves to have the potential to be good to very good disc golfers.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with disc golf, it is very similar to golf but played with discs (Frisbees).  Instead of getting the ball into a cup the disc is thrown into a basket.  In the same way a traditional golfer uses a number of different clubs to get the ball from the tee to the cup, a disc golfer uses a number of different discs each designed with a specific purpose to get the disc from the tee to the basket.  There are drivers, midrange discs and putters.  Unlike traditional golf, most disc golf courses are free and a set of discs can run under $30 compared to hundreds of dollars or more for a set of clubs.

On April 9th, we were lucky enough to have Travis Foreman, a professional disc golf player, come to Board of Child Care to run a disc golf clinic for the kids.

As part of the clinic, Travis was able to get Gateway Discs to sponsor the event.  Each participant received a number of golf discs courtesy of Gateway Discs.  Travis also gave away disc golf bags to three residents who won a putting contest.

At the clinic, Travis did a few demonstrations of his abilities and then patiently taught the residents about the different types of discs and how to throw them.

The residents then got to practice throwing the different types of discs at baskets set at multiple distances.

The clinic ended with a modified game of disc golf using two of the portable baskets Travis brought with him.

All of the kids who attended had a great time!   So much so that the following Saturday, six of the residents and their staff went to the disc golf course at Poor House Farms to play their first round of disc golf on a real course.

Travis had such a good time that he offered to come back if another clinic was desired and he donated 24 of his own discs to ensure that the residents had all of the discs they needed to play a serious game of disc golf.We look forward to many future outings to disc golf courses in the area!

 

 

 

 

 

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A Day in Spring at BCC

Come one come all and join BCC for a fun-filled day at BCC!

April 23, 2017

12:00PM – 2:00PM

[Rain or Shine]

Welcome Center
3300 Gaither Road
Baltimore, MD 21244 (Map)

Youth and their families are invited to join BCC for a fun celebration together on campus. Lunch will be provided.

RSVP’s are required!
Simply email your assigned Case Manager with names of everyone who wishes to attend.

Not sure who your case manager is?  Call 410-922-2100 to be connected to the right person.

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You Changed Ricky’s Life

December 2016

ricky-pic

 

Dear Friends,

I am writing to share the story of young boy named Ricky that lived at the Board of Child Care (BCC).

I am delighted to share that today, Ricky is off of all social welfare programs, graduated from high school, and is successfully living with his family.

Because of your previous support, you changed Ricky’s life.

Ricky is just one example of our mission in action: enriching communities, one family at a time.

 Ricky learned skills for living through a therapeutic environment. He attended group and individual therapy, met with a psychiatrist routinely, worked with his social worker, and grew up at BCC to become a smart and confident young man. Ricky is just one of the many reunification stories we have to share with you. 

Will you please consider making a year-end gift so that we can continue to share more of these stories with you? A gift of $250, $100, $50, or $25 will help our current program participants continue treatment.

Wishing you and your loved ones have a very happy and healthy New Year!

 

Warmly,

la-signature
Laurie Anne Spagnola
President & CEO

PS. If you are inspired by our story please feel free to share on your social media site.

 

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If you wish to make a credit card gift by year-end, please visit our website: boardofchildcare.org/donate before 11:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on 12/31. Please do not leave any credit card information in a voice message or in an email. The last day to make a gift of over the phone, a gift of stock or an IRA transfer is December 30th. For assistance with any of these please call our Development Office 410-922-2100 x 5430. Bequests can be done during normal business hours via phone any time of the year. Our offices will be closed on December 31st, so please make your gift online. 

A copy of our current financial statement is available upon written request to Board of Child Care 3300 Gaither Rd., Baltimore, MD 21244 or by phone at 410-922-2100. The documents are also available online at guidestar.org.

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WV programs partner with Blue Ridge Community Technical College

blue-ridge-community-technical-college-tutorsStudent tutors helping BCC youth in both Martinsburg locations

BCC’s West Virginia programs have partnered with Blue Ridge Community and Technical College (Blue Ridge CTC) to provide tutors for youth served by BCC.

Blue Ridge CTC student tutors are education majors who are taking a class that requires at least ten hours of face-to-face experience with at-risk youth. The Blue Ridge CTC students will provide one to two hours tutoring weekly from October through December. Cumulatively over 200 hours of tutoring will be provided for the approximately 25 young adults living at BCC’s WV programs.

This is the first partnership between BCC and Blue Ridge CTC. Orientation for the 18 Blue Ridge CTC student tutors took place September 26 at BCC. The student tutors received a tour of the campus and an overview of the therapy and programing offered by BCC.

“It is absolutely wonderful to have tutors coming in to help our youth,” said Jackie Columbia, Director of WV Operations for BCC. “We hope that Blue Ridge CTC will make tutoring at BCC part of the curriculum each year. It is such a wonderful resource for our youth especially so early in the school year. It really gives them some momentum and confidence heading into the second semester.”

BCC has two program locations in Martinsburg, WV and both serve foster care youth in WV. On the larger campus, youth live and go to school on the property. At the group homes, youth attend public school during the day. Blue Ridge CTC student tutors will volunteer at both program locations.

Official press release is available here.

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