Sometimes news isn’t exactly breaking, but nonetheless worthwhile.

For example, back in May White Center’s own Boys and Girls Club (the Southwest Branch for King County at 9800 8th Ave S.W.) received a national Honor Award for Overall Program Excellence from Boys and Girls Club of America for their Daily Drop-In program.

There are 4,000 chartered clubs across the nation up for that award yearly, so this is no small task. The Daily Drop-In program “offers after-school tutoring, homework help, activities to encourage healthy lifestyles and opportunities to practice good citizenship through community involvement,” according to a press release.

Emily Slagle, executive director of the Southwest Branch, said the award came as a total surprise. They had won the competition for best program amongst the 13 in King County and Slagle said she forgot their program would then be forwarded to the national office to contend for the Honor Award. One day, out of the blue, she got an email from the national office saying they had won.

“I gathered up my staff and said, ‘Well, I guess this justifies our long hours and clearly we are doing something right,’” Slagle said. “I think with the economy being so bad we hit a spot where we had so many kids and dealing with less supply (and funding) and we wondered, ‘Are we sure we are making a difference?’”

Slagle said the number of kids joining their Drop-In program has risen steadily with a downturned economy and they have had less funding to deal with the increased numbers. Last school year Slagle said they were able to spend between $800 and $1000 a month, and that was all devoted to meals and paper for the kids. Beyond basic utilities to keep the building up and running being covered, they have had to rely on donations for everything else.

In the end, Slagle said the downturned economy was a big reason they won the award. As their funding from King County dwindled, she knew they would have to rely more on donations from the public – a public that was donating less as well.

“It was strange to have a conversation with a donor that said, ‘Well how many kids do you serve or how many are eating dinner here?’” and she would traditionally respond with a range – “Anywhere from 80 to 120 kids.”

So they decided to take a metric approach. “We just tracked every kid and what they were doing,” compiling all of the information into computers. The advantage was two-fold: Slagle found potential donors were more likely to give if they had hard data to show where their money was going and the numbers allowed Slagle and her staff to determine whether their programs were having a positive effect in the kids’ lives.

For example, when kids show up after school (they had an average of 150 kids each day during the school year) they put in a full hour of homework, called Power Hour. Kids earn Power Hour Dollars by participating which they use to open virtual bank accounts and accrue interest (“So they learn the aspects of banking”) and then spend on Power Auctions for fun prizes.

Slagle wanted to track kids participating in Power Hour and check that data against their performance in school. “If kids are attending our Power Hour Program are their grades improving?”

She said Boys and Girls Club of America is moving towards that metric approach to tracking success and the White Center program happened to be on the forefront of the movement, leading to the award.

The Daily Drop-In program generally starts with an hour of Power Hour homework, followed by physical activity for 30 minutes or more, other miscellaneous activities and dinner every night from 5:00 to 5:30. The kids are then split into age groups for more activities until their parents arrive. The program cost for last school year was $25 and Slagle said it will jump to $36 next year (a onetime fee for the entire year).

“We don’t turn anyone away,” she said.

During the summer months the Southwest Boys and Girls Club has a 12-hour-a-day summer camp that costs $75 a week. There is an application process for the summer camp.

Slagle came to the Southwest Branch Boys and Girls Club three years ago after spending time as the recreational director for the prison on McNeil Island (which closed in April of this year). She said at some point she decided she wanted to work with people before they ended up in prison, “to stop kids from ever following that path.”

“This is much more rewarding,” she said. “I love it.”

“White Center has always been (thought of) as the low-income, high crime neighborhood where kids are always in trouble, adults are always in trouble and here we are in the middle of all this and we are totally making a difference,” she said. “The neighborhood has changed, the kids have changed, our high school students are graduating where many weren’t before.”

“We’re thrilled to win this award,” Slagle said in a press release. “In our neighborhood victories don’t come easily. This is a proud moment for our staff and for the kids and families we serve every day.”

For more information on the King County Southwest Branch Boys and Girls Club, visit their website here.