PHARR — The Boys & Girls Club of Pharr-San Juan received an AmeriCorps Grant that will be beneficial to multiple clubs throughout Hidalgo County in addressing mental health issues and learning loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Today we’re having a kickoff event for our AmeriCorps Program,” Alfredo Mata Jr., CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Pharr-San Juan, said during the event Thursday. “It’s a big, three-year program that funds $836,000 a year for the next three years.”
The grant will provide a total of $2,505,537 for three years, or $835,179 per year, in funding for 38 AmeriCorps member positions and administrative costs, as well as funding for a full-time AmeriCorps Program Director and training costs.
“They’re going to be giving back to their community and earning a living stipend while giving back to the community and working with youth and teenagers and bridging the educational gap while also providing mental health services,” Mata explained.
The program is geared toward college-aged individuals who are at least 18 years old. Members will be with the program for a year and earn $17,000 a year, or $1,416.67 per month, fulltime; and $12,000 a year, or $1,000 a month, part time.
Members will also earn funding towards their college education at the end of the year. Full-time students will earn a voucher worth $6,495, and part time students will earn a $4,546.50 voucher.
“That voucher really pays for your tuition, or it pays down the student debt you have,” Mata said. “It’s a very, very cool program. The members win both ways. They get paid for their service, but they also earn money for college.”
The AmeriCorps program will utilize the hired members to provide more one-on-one time with club members who may be in need of extra assistance with school work. The program members will be split between other participating Boys & Girls Clubs in the county, including Weslaco, McAllen, Mission and Edinburg.
“Right now, our ratios are 10, 15, 20, 25 to one, depending on the day,” Mata said. “We don’t have a lot of time at our Boys & Girls Clubs to serve one-on-one because we serve the masses. Any Boys & Girls Club in any city in America, we’re there for the masses — not so much one-on-one. This program will allow us to provide one-on-one services for that student that needs additional tutoring assistance or an additional mental health break for themselves.”
Rocio P. Mata, a social impact consultant for Faith Sparked Passion, was instrumental in the writing of the grant and developing the program. She said that the goal of AmeriCorps is to target systemic issues and provide resources to help meet those challenges.
“We looked at the things that we have here in the RGV and identified those needs and really broke that apart and developed a response,” Rocio said. “We of course looked at the academic aspect. We worked with school-age children, and the biggest thing that they’re facing is the educational setback and obviously a lot of mental health issues.”
The Boys & Girls Clubs began addressing the mental health needs of its members five years ago by bringing in social workers and counselors. Rocio said that the AmeriCorps Program will expand on those services while also tackling the educational issues facing the Clubs’ members.
“The biggest thing that I hope (the grant) accomplishes is bringing awareness to the plight of the children,” Rocio said. “It’s bringing awareness to the educational setbacks and bringing awareness to the mental health issues that children are facing. It’s kind of creating not a new normal but a new measurement for normal. It’s no longer success. We pushed success. Now it’s just to be ok. It’s ok to be ok.”
Anyone interested in applying to become an AmeriCorps member should send an email to [email protected].
