Eunique Lee, 17, watched her peers get drawn into gang life in her Denver community.

Then she saw them join the Boys and Girls Club.

And that’s when things began to turn around — for the better.   

Lee, who has been going to the Denver Broncos Boys and Girls Club for 11 years, said the organization provides a safe space between school and home for members to learn, make friends and get opportunities they may not have at school or at home.

The club environment — supportive, caring, mentoring — offers a refuge to young people at the most crucial times in their lives, when they’re outside of school and not in their homes, and when they’re susceptible to the allures of adventure. The club’s formula is straightforward: Keep young people active and preoccupied, away from the kinds of activities and preoccupation offered, for example, by gangs that have led so many astray.  

In many ways, the club offers an antidote to youth violence, which has stubbornly persisted, particularly in parts of metro Denver. Indeed, while arrests for juveniles statewide for nonviolent offenses plunged over the past decade, violent crime arrests rose to a new 14-year high during the third quarter of 2021, when roughly 15 juveniles in 100,000 Coloradans were arrested for crimes of violence.

The Denver Gazette recently explored the tragic battle fought by a mother, who compared gangs to a religious cult that successfully recruited her sons, who both died a violent death.

To the club’s young members and their families, the club is a haven, offering an array of programs geared toward keeping them away from malevolence.

Lee’s peers and leaders at her club, for example, have watched her grow, mentoring her through a pivotal time in her life and helping her navigate her interests and passions as she prepares to leave high school. 

Now, Lee does the same for her younger peers, helping create a positive peer culture and a community of learning, positivity and care that plays a pivotal role in keeping youth away from violence. 

“I think the Boys and Girls Club helps prevent youth violence,” Lee said. “I know some people I’ve grown up with have tried to go into the gang life, then the leaders (at the club) get on them and say, ‘This is not a good way to go about it. Come to the club.’ They help with school and to refocus them into not going into gang violence and stuff like that.”

Access support group, fun with peers for $2 a year 

The Boys and Girls Club’s mission is to provide its members with a safe, supportive, fun, and enriching environment that inspires and empowers them to achieve their greatest potential. Its goals are to promote academics and career development, character and leadership, healthy lifestyles and positive mental health.  

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver (BGCMD) operates 20 neighborhood clubs and one summer camp in six districts across the metro area. The BGCMD has about 300 leaders. 

In the 2022 fiscal year, the BGCMD made a total revenue of just under $21 million, $10 million of which came from contributions from corporations, foundations, individuals and bequests, $3 million from government grants, $1 million from special events, and $20,000 from membership dues, according to its annual report. 

Members pay $2 per year to attend the club. 

The organizations’ expenses in the same fiscal year totaled more than $26 million, $17 million of which went to programs for kids, $5 million to their raffle, almost $2 million to fundraising and over $2 million to administration. 

Academic programs, including clubs’ art rooms, gyms and tech labs, help students with academic growth and career development, officials said. 

A safe space between school and home

Aurora Public Schools partners with BGCMD to increase access to safe spaces for students after school.

“We’ve found that if kids are going to get in trouble, it’s going to be in the hours after school until about 5 p.m.,” Mandy Young, Aurora Public Schools’ community engagement coordinator, said. “We’ve found that the Boys and Girls Club and other after-school providers give a safe space for kids to go.”

Having an after-school space, such as the one BGCMD offers, helps parents maintain employment and students succeed, Young said. 

“We hear all the time, particularly from parents, how instrumental this is in keeping their kids on track,” Young said. 

In a survey by Aurora Public Schools, 97.9% of parents said the program is a safe place for their children to learn and have fun, and that the hours met their needs as a family. 

“There’s enough structure to keep kids safe and keep them engaged, but enough freedom that they can choose the activities they want to participate in,” Young said.

Naja’Ray West, 17, of Denver, who started going to the Denver Broncos Boys and Girls Club when she was six years old, will graduate this May and go on to get a cosmetology license, while working toward a business degree. 

Boys and Girls Club leaders helped West with her college application and essays, providing her resources she didn’t have access to, she said. 

“If I didn’t have the Boys and Girls Club, I wouldn’t have known what to do,” West said. 

West said she enjoys endless support as she works toward the next chapter of her life, noting that everyone at the Boys and Girls Club believes in her, helping push her to strive for success. 

“(The club) is a whole bunch of people who continue to tell me, ‘Hey, Naja’Ray, you can do it! You’re gonna do it,'” West said.

The club also provides youth with leadership opportunities, such as conferences and peer mentorship.

Austyn Ballage, 16, loves the leadership group she’s a part of at the club. 

Once a quiet, shy kid, Ballage said she’s found her voice and wants it to be heard. The leadership group has given her the confidence to be a leader and to voice her opinions on things that are important to her, she said.

“(The club) has helped me open up and start being more vocal for the things I believe in,” Ballage said.

Ballage also takes pride in making her younger peers feel safe, supported and inspired like she did. 

“I’ve had a big impact on the club because now the kids look up to me and I want to make sure they’re secure and help them open up like I did,” Ballage said. 

Good, healthy choices

The club provides resources for members to live healthy lives.

Ninety percent of surveyed club members said they had a lifetime abstinence from cigarettes, 87% from alcohol and 85% from marijuana, according to the BGCMD’s 2022 annual report. 

Healthy lifestyle includes mental health, with the clubs providing 5,000 hours of mental health support via one-on-one intervention and social-emotional learning groups, according to the report. 

Safety is also a big part of being a club member, with 93% of members saying they feel safe from harm at their club. 

“Nobody comes here thinking that they aren’t safe,” West said. “The moment they step into the club, they know they’re safe because the staff care about us and we have a community here that cares about us.”

Jalonna-Marie Grimsley, 14, comes to the Denver Broncos Club to feel safe in a world that feels increasingly unsafe.

“With the shootings going on at schools and the violence, we can all come to the club and feel safe and at home and welcomed and relaxed with each other and within ourselves,” Grimsley said.

Opportunity as currency

Rich Barrows, the founder of the Denver Broncos Club and the club director who grew up attending his local Boys and Girls Club in South Dakota, said what the organization also offers is opportunity.

“Opportunity’s always been the currency of Boys and Girls Club,” Barrows said. “Money isn’t a reason a kid doesn’t get an opportunity.”

When children get the opportunity to use their skills and succeed, they never stop striving, Barrows said. His club has given members opportunities to speak with U.S. senators, attend national leadership conferences and win awards for community service. 

When Barrows attended the club, it cost $0.50 per year. Now, it’s $2 per year.

At $2, all kinds of opportunities open up for members.  

“Every kid who walks through here is exceptional, so we find a way for them to succeed,” Barrows said. “Every kid here has a story, and every kid here has a struggle. If you stick around this business long enough, you get to see greatness and how exceptional these kids are regardless of barriers.”

For Malcinia “Nina” Conley, a single mother, the club was “life-changing.”  

Conley has worked with the Denver Broncos club in various roles since the club opened. She used to be a teacher, and she took her students to the club when it opened. Then she worked at the club for a while, and now she volunteers there.

Her two daughters, who have now graduated college, attended the club. 

“This was a place where I knew they were going to get a chance to do some things that I couldn’t provide for them,” Conley said. “For me, as a single mom, it was a blessing.”

The club allowed her daughters to experience skiing, Conley said, something she would never have been able to afford. Her elder daughter received a scholarship with help from the club. That, in turn, helped pay for her college. 

For the children she works with, the club is a “sanctuary,” Conley said.

“When kids come here, they know they’re going to have people here, familiar faces, who are going to give them opportunities to do things,” Conley said. “I love the absolute feeling that this is home for our members.”

Indeed, the club has changed Naja’Ray West’s life in an “extremely positive” way, she said.

West has been honored by the Colorado Black Caucus and in Washington, D.C. for her leadership roles with the club. This year, she won the Youth of the Year competition within her own club and then within the Denver Metro Boys and Girls Clubs.

West will compete against other winners in the state, then in her region, and in nationals if she continues to win. 

She has learned valuable skills from the competition process, which includes writing essays and getting letters of recommendation, as well as from the club in general, she said. 

Support, mentorship from area businesses

West distinctly recalls speaking with successful business owners.

“I’ve been able to hear other peoples’ stories who look just like me or came from where I come from or were in the position I’m in now who succeeded,” West said. 

The club draws support from businesses that see the value of its work.  

Among the partners is Fidelity Investments, who has sponsored BGCMD since 2013, when it conducted its first volunteer event with the club, spokesperson Jenny Engle said.

“Ten years later, we’re still a partner,” Engle said. “Their work is just as important now as when we got here.”

“We value them very much, value the work they do and our employees love, love volunteering with the Boys and Girls Club,” Engle added. 

Fidelity supports the BGCMD’s Youth of the Year competition, and employees volunteer for cleanup days. The company also puts on an annual holiday party at one of the clubs, a favorite event for many employees, Engle said.

The company opens a gift “store,” where members can pick donated toys and gifts not only for themselves but also for family members. Employee volunteers engage with the children in games, crafts and fun holiday-themed activities.

“My understanding is something like 40% of their students come from single-parent homes,” Engle said. “Our focus at Fidelity is to really support underserved communities, as I’m sure are a lot of their other partners.”