Ansonia Campaign

Case Statement

The Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley has experienced dynamic growth since it’s founding in 1956. While the Club is presently serving more than 2,000 children annually, ages 6 to 18 years with an average daily attendance of 500 youth, the need for more facilities and services has increased proportionately. Similarly, the Valley YMCA membership has reached a point where additional space was needed to accommodate the growing number of Valley youth and families utilizing their Ansonia facility.

The number of Lower Naugatuck Valley single parents and families which require both parents to work to make ends meet has created a whole new generation of children that we know as “latchkey kids”. The combination of children left unsupervised after school and an ever-increasing number of families who are living below the poverty line creates a recipe for a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. This results in a decline in self-esteem with a corresponding increase in juvenile crime and gang involvement, which ultimately will boil over and impact the entire community.

For the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, the answer to this dilemma is quite simple. Provide these children with a building-centered program where they can go after school to feel safe and at the same time be exposed to positive, caring adult role models who have developed programs to help them succeed in school and in life.

Do this and the foundation for the future is put in place. The Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley does just that by providing Character & Leadership Development, Education & Career Development, Health & Life Skills, the Arts, and Sports, Fitness and Recreation. But to increase the role this dynamic agency can play requires reaching more children in every corner of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, a proposition that necessitates additional facilities and program funding.

In addition, the organization cannot continue to expand without creating an endowment which will insure that the facilities and services it presently provides are not only kept in good repair but continue to provide the same high quality services they provide today. Just as we try to teach our children that in order to succeed they must plan for the future, so too must the organization plan for its own future.

For the Valley YMCA, the solution required some innovative space planning that dictated the movement of their child care facility to another location that would provide expansion space for their infant and child care operation and furthermore, would provide much needed space in their State Street building.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, in collaboration with the Valley YMCA and the City of Ansonia Fire Department, conducted a feasibility study to determine the potential for raising significant dollars in the community to renovate the 84 year old Pine Technical High School in Ansonia, including the construction of a 10,000 sq. ft. gymnasium, increase its endowment and provide start-up operating cost support to insure the future of the organization. The study has provided a blueprint for a course of action, which will have a far-reaching impact on the level of youth services in the Lower Naugatuck Valley for the next three generations. The Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, along with their collaboration partners, are taking the necessary steps today to ensure that as long as there are children in need, there will be Valley facilities providing guidance, education and a fun place to gather during non-school hours. And that means a better future for all of us.

Floorplans

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First Floor	Second Floor

Project Budget

You Can Help

A gift to the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley and the Valley YMCA is an investment in the future of communities we serve. What better gift to give a child than the opportunity for a better future? That's why these organizations were established...to provide this opportunity to children and families who want and need it most.

Please contact Jack Ribas at (203) 924-7462 or JackRibas@bgc-lnv.org to donate or for more information.

Gift Naming Opportunities

Donor Levels

Note: A "Gift Wall" will be designated at the Ansonia Project Facility to recognize all donors to the Ansonia Project Comprehensive Campaign.  The levels designated above are similar to, but not exactly, the levels and titles used to recognize the donors to the Boys & Girls Clubs of The Lower Naugatuck Valley Capital Campaign.