Don Bosco Centers

Don Bosco Centers
531 Garfield, MO 64124
phone: 816-691-2977
website: www.donbosco.org

The Don Bosco Community Center’s Youth Development Center provides crucial developmental programs for over 500 youth a year. One of those crucial programs is a summer day camp that is provided from June through August for children ages 5-14. Camp activities are focused on nutrition, leadership, life skills, and recreation through the summer camp’s program, CHAMPS (Choosing Healthy Activities and Meals that Promote Success). CHAMPS is designed to meet the needs of low income children by providing a nutritional breakfast, lunch, and snack; by using lessons and activities designed to combat the issue of childhood obesity; and by partnering with local schools to encourage youth to share their knowledge of healthy living with their peers. In addition, the program engages community leaders and young athletes in a mentoring role that will inspire youth to pursue and achieve their dreams.

100 youth enrolled in the 2010 summer camp and participated in a wide range of exciting activities and services including: health and culinary courses provided by the University of Missouri Extension; swim lessons with Kansas City Parks and Recreation’s Make a Splash; health classes with the American Lung Association; a community project partnered with the FBI, Kansas City Wizards, Kansas City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce among other partners; and many trips to Explore Kansas City including sites such as the World War I Museum, Liberty Memorial, Federal Reserve Bank, Shatto Milk Farm, Nelson Art Museum, Kansas City Museum, Union Station, and Watkins Mill State Park.

Additionally, some main components of this summer’s CHAMPS programming included: daily breakfast, lunch, and snack; weekly visits to the City Market where participants budgeted for and selected a week’s worth of healthy snacks; a soccer clinic with Kansas City Wizard’s players and a neighborhood high school team; participation in the President’s Challenge, through which campers committed to at least one hour of physical activity each day; and special projects such as a garden grown in partnership with the Don Bosco Senior Center. This year we are planning to host a farmer’s market and community garden in hopes to bring the community together and provide more healthy options for our children and families.

As a United Way funded program, the Youth Development Center has been reviewed for funding with the CHAMPS Program as a component of that funding.