Courtesy photo.
VENTURA COUNTY — The Ventura County Board of Supervisors honored the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme with the Partnership for a Healthy Ventura County’s Health Champion Award. The award is presented each year to a community partner who excels in one of four committee focus areas. The board is presenting this award in honor of “National Nutrition Month,” which is celebrated in March.
“The Club provides programs in three priority outcome areas – academic success, good character and citizenship and healthy lifestyles – in order to help our 10,400+ youth and teens become successful individuals. We offer more than a dozen programs focused solely on healthy lifestyles,” said Club CEO Erin Antrim. “To be recognized as Health Champions is a wonderful accomplishment. We strive hard every day to provide our youth with positive behaviors that will keep them mentally and physically healthy.”
The members of the Healthy in our Community committee recognized the Club’s leadership in serving more than 2,000 youth daily, and its focus on character development and healthy lifestyles. The committee also looked at the Club’s graduation rate of 96 percent, the innovative STEM programs it offers, as well as its cultural, arts, technology and career-related programming aimed at helping youth members excel at life.
“Our Healthy Lifestyle programs are designed to improve social skills and provide tools for stress management” said Omar Zapata, program director. “Whether the kids are playing football, basketball or sitting down to prepare a hand-made healthy meal with instructors from Memorial Health Systems, they are learning to nurture their own well-being, set personal goals and to make positive personal choices that will help them to become self-sufficient adults.”
The Boys & Girls Club has served the youth of Oxnard and Port Hueneme for over 60 years. With three full-service clubs and 17 school program sites, the organization is one of the largest of its kind in California. The Club provides programs for more than 10,400 youth and teens in three priority outcome areas: Academic Success, Good Character and Citizenship, and Healthy Lifestyles. For more information please visit www.BGCOP.org