Boys & Girls Clubs’ TOP program uplifts, empowers teens as they prepare to become the next leaders
Union Progress-
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania pledges in its mission to do whatever it takes to help all young people reach their full potential and grow into caring, responsible and empowered citizens.
That goal, geared especially to those who need that help the most, has driven programming in its 11 locations that include five stand-alone clubhouses, three school-based clubhouses, four teen centers and its Teen Outreach Program.
That last program has been in place since then-U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania secured $1.5 million for TOP in 2022, with those federal community funds spread over three years. It connects middle and high school students to a curriculum rooted in social-emotional learning and designed to promote healthy choices, prevent negative behaviors, uplift mental well-being, build community with peers and caring mentors, and encourage service-learning opportunities, BGCWPA Senior Director of External Affairs Hersh Merenstein explained.
It started with students from McKeesport Area High School, Perry High School, North Hills High School, Brookline Teen Outreach Center, Foundation of Hope Diversion Program and Clairton High School. Of the original group, only Clairton remains. This year the other students participating in TOP attend the Neighborhood Academy and Aliquippa, Duquesne, Laurel Highlands, Somerset Area and Sto-Rox school districts, according to a 2024-25 impact report. The 820 students involved in the program have completed 10,351 hours of community service learning.
Funding from Casey enabled BGCWPA to secure access to the Wyman Center’s TOP program that provides teens “with the tools and opportunities to build life and leadership skills, strengthen relationships and avoid risky behaviors,” according to its website. Wyman is a 127-year-old nonprofit based in St. Louis that partners with organizations locally and nationally.
BGCWPA Vice President of Programs Kara Petrosky wrote in an email that her organization chose the Wyman program for its initiative because “this was one of the proven curricula to meet grant requirements. We also appreciated the service-learning component of the curriculum.”
Merenstein said over the past three school years 1,738 teenagers participating in TOP dedicated 18,056 service hours to designing, planning and carrying out projects that benefit their communities, including creating free stores for their peers who need access to clothing, honoring first responders, and collecting items for hygiene kits for local unhoused neighbors.
Marissa Redding manages the TOP program, aided by four instructors. She’s a certified TOP trainer, and in addition to those who work directly with her, she has also trained about 30 other BGCWPA employees on its methods and activities.
Redding and the other instructors work with the students during the school day once a week in different classes. “A lot of our programming happens during history or social studies courses with students,” she said. “… [In] Somerset, that’s paired with math classes. In Duquesne, we’re with science classes. So it just kind of depends on each school schedule and testing needs and what areas they want to focus on versus areas that they have a little bit more flexibility for us.”
Two recent TOP activities involved Neighborhood Academy students. They helped BGCWPA plan and execute a college and career fair at the Estelle Campbell Clubhouse in Lawrenceville and a Trunk or Treat at the school for younger students there and others in the community.
Manager of Teen Program Development Ellie Simmons said about 70 students came to the fair, the majority connected to BGCWPA. Twenty-seven colleges, health care organizations and businesses met with the students.
“I think that ends up being a perfect number to facilitate lots of really high-quality conversations,” she said. “I think everyone was really pretty pleased with the ratio of students to adults in the room.”
The students helped prepare everything for the event, served as guides for the presenters and teens attending, and assisted with cleanup after it ended. Simmons said BGCWPA wouldn’t have been able to hold the event without them.
Redding, who started working for the nonprofit in 2022, said it is gratifying for her to watch the TOP students step up to help in a large event like. “Some of them, the ones that are seniors now, were freshmen when I started at Boys & Girls Clubs, so it’s been really great to be able to watch them kind of grow up and gain comfortability as I’ve gained comfortability in my role as well,” she said.
Another group that has suggested, planned and executed key BGCWPA events this fall was its Youth Advocacy Council. It also helped promote the college and career fair to local high schools as well as within the nonprofit’s teen programs. Last month its teen-led roundtable discussion became an open forum with elected officials and some staff members at the McKeesport Teen Center.
A news release on that event noted it aligned with BGCWPA’s ongoing commitment to elevate youth voices. “The event created an open forum for dialogue on important and timely topics such as mental health, the need for investments in violence prevention, out-of-school-time programs and food insecurity,” a news release stated.
Allegheny County Treasurer Erica Brusselars and staff from the offices of Gov. Josh Shapiro and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato participated in the roundtable, discussing their work, addressing important issues, asking questions about teens’ lived experiences and answering questions about challenges facing teens.
The 11-member council meets weekly at the Lawrenceville clubhouse, Simmons said. Two council branches meet at teen centers, and one of them is McKeesport. Membership comes from staff recommendations and some peer recruiting efforts. Membership carries with it responsibility.
“We do have many very serious events, very serious conversations,” she explained. “it’s for youth that are very particularly interested in the career pathways of maybe going into politics, going into advocacy that they are already doing that kind of work from their schools, honestly.”
Director of Program Impact and Partnerships Marquise Wheeler called the McKeesport roundtable awesome and incredible.
“It was a night for our youth council teams in particular to engage with some of their local leaders, some local elected [officials] and legislators,” he said. “… There was a high level of teens asking and conversing with our local electives and representatives about the state of their world and their communities.”
The adults shared their plans and asked the 10 or so teens present questions about how they envisioned their future communities in a high-level way, he said.
He said his biggest takeaway was that the adults “just left that night with more hope about the state of things, generally speaking, across all issues.”
“It was very sincere and genuine,” Wheeler said, noting that the adults found out “maybe everything isn’t as wild and crazy as we see and feel that it is. Being sensitive to the state of things, our teens just left this impact on our elected [leaders] that things are going to be OK, especially if this group of teens is going to be our next leaders.”
Simmons agreed, noting that the teens prepared well for the roundtable. “The representative from the county executive’s office said, ‘I don’t leave a lot of meetings these days with hope and a smile. … But tonight I’m leaving this with [the thought that] it might be OK.’
“It was overwhelming how productive just an hour could be.”
Merenstein said the adults and teens talked about a lot of heavy topics, such as violence prevention and food insecurity. The teens explained something else that they’re looking for from their leaders.
“One of the things that also resonated was some of the teens brought up the need to just prioritize joy in creating positive opportunities for teens, so that’s investing in green spaces and opportunities and organizations like the Boys & Girls Club provide, just so teens can be able to have fun,” he said. “… This world that can seem very bleak and dark at times, especially now.”
Wheeler is coordinating a mini comprehensive plan with the county that will include some roundtable takeaways. He said he is facilitating this through the end of the school year, and more forums might be held. The plan is for the teens to present it to Innamorato in May.
Redding said the TOP program is hoping to do more fundraisers and drives, especially during the holiday season, for families impacted by the recent federal shutdown that held up SNAP benefits and utility assistance.
Now that the original funding term is drawing to a close, Merenstein said his nonprofit is working on extending TOP by seeking philanthropic and corporate support.
“It’s an incredibly valuable program for our teens,” he said. “We’re approaching 20,000 service hours that teens have contributed over the last three years alone through the TOP program. We’re seeking support from other sources to be able to continue that work.”
Simmons sees the program as much greater than the sum of its parts, including those thousands of hours of service.
“Every time we get teens somewhere where they are serving, we hear about it for months after. We hear about it for years after,” she said.
Simmons said she has seen the exponential impact of this work, leading communities and leaders wanting to work with on other programs with BGCWPA and other nonprofits that work with teens. “It’s just an amazing thing to watch,” she said.
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