Boys & Girls Club – Augusta (“Boys & Girls Club”) is the renovation and expansion of the Boys & Girls Club Hagler Facility and the construction, equipment and furniture purchase, and operation of the new South Augusta Facility in Augusta, Georgia (collectively, the “Project”) and is part of a larger initiative called BGC Impact 2025. The Project also includes the acquisition of a bus to provide transportation to children that would not otherwise have access to the facilities, spreading the impact to dozens of neighborhoods and schools across the city. The renovated and new facilities will increase access to mentoring and learning opportunities for young people offering tutoring in various subjects and pathways to STEM-related careers, while providing job training and career-building opportunities to youths and young adults in the Harrisburg/Augusta area. Following the expansion, the new facilities will each have the capacity to serve 650 youth, over double the previous capacity.
The renovation of the Hagler Facility includes a large common area, commercial kitchen, reading room, STEM lab, dance/exercise studio, game room, learning rooms, computer room, art room, and a teen center. Designed with input from members, the teen center includes a separate entrance, lounge area, gaming space, recording studio, and academic space. The South Augusta facility will have the same capacity and components of the Hagler Facility, in addition to a weight room, laundry facilities, an outdoor recreation area, and a retention pond.
With an unemployment rate of over 20%, the project will create 4 new, quality full-time permanent jobs (paying above the local living wage), 100 construction jobs, and retain 21 jobs in this low-income community. 87% of new jobs are anticipated to be filled by low-income persons or residents of the surrounding low-income community. The Boys & Girls Club actively promotes from within the organization and all full-time employees will receive health benefits, as well as retirement plans (after one year of employment) and opportunities for career advancement.
Without the NMTC subsidy, the Project would not have been completed, limiting impactful services to at-risk, low-income youth/young adults within the severely disinvested community. Although there was a successful capital campaign in place to raise funding for the Project, a financial gap remained. As a non-profit, the Boys & Girls Club is highly dependent upon donations and grants to provide services and debt service to fill the gap would require a significant scaling back of programming.
Additional NMTC allocation was provided by Carver Development CDE, LLC ($5,000,000). The New Markets Tax credits were acquired by Valley National Bank.
