Four Area Boys and Girls Clubs to Close

Financial Problems and Decline in Membership Force Restructuring

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, one of the region's largest youth organizations with a long history of helping underprivileged children, will close four clubs, sell others and lay off one-sixth of its staff as part of a major restructuring to cope with a $7 million deficit, officials said yesterday.

The group's budget woes are in part a result of the recession, which has cut into government and private donations. In addition, the region's 22 Boys and Girls Clubs have experienced declines in membership as students abandoned civic organizations in favor of video games, competitive sports, music lessons and other activities.

The changes reflect a movement away from outdated gymnasiums toward more modern clubhouses with state-of-the-art game rooms and computer labs.

Slated for closure are the Frank W. Jelleff Branch in Georgetown, the Hopkins Branch on Capitol Hill, the Northwestern High School Branch in Hyattsville and Brent Place in Alexandria.

As word spread of the closings, many parents whose children had frequented the clubs bemoaned the impending loss.

"I think that this is horrible," said Karen Pope Onwukwe, a Hyattsville resident who credits the Hyattsville club with steering her 20-year-old son in the right direction. "This was one of the best programs in the school, because my son got an academic scholarship, and now he is a junior in college."

The organization, which claims about 15,000 members, will lay off 16 percent of its staff, impose 26-day furloughs on all employees and cut senior executives' pay by 10 percent. At least four of the clubhouses owned by the Boys and Girls Clubs will be sold.

The restructuring was accompanied by the resignation of chief executive Kevin Dowdell. During his tenure of barely a year, Dowdell laid off about 25 staff members. He could not be reached for comment.

"We think it will be positive for everyone involved in the organization that we now have a plan to address the cloud of debt that we've been walking around with for years," said Kenneth S. Slaughter, chairman of the Boys and Girls Clubs' board. "This is the 'economy falling off a cliff' budget."

In the future, more clubs will operate out of schools, in part because they are wired for computer usage, said Mary Jane Morrow, the organization's chief operating officer. The organization announced that it will expand programs in several D.C. schools, including Ballou Senior High School and Oyster-Adams Bilingual Elementary School.

The branches slated for closure have struggled to attract members, said Molly Boyle, spokeswoman for the organization. The clubs' regional membership total includes thousands of children involved only in affiliated sports leagues, making the actual number of children participating difficult to gauge.

The Jelleff Branch in Georgetown, the organization's oldest operating club, has almost 6,800 members. But most of them belong to Stoddert Soccer, the city's primary soccer league, which is headquartered at Jelleff but is not formally connected to the Boys and Girls Clubs.

Fewer than 20 students participate in Jelleff's core after-school programs, which focus on character development, education, health and arts as well as sports, Morrow said.

D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), whose district includes Jelleff and whose son plays basketball there, said he was disappointed but not surprised to hear that the Boys and Girls Clubs would sell Jelleff.

He added that he expects the city to purchase the facility. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) has proposed spending $15 million over five years to buy the building and maintain it as a community center.

But council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5), who chairs the council's Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, said budget constraints could impede that plan.

"In a better economic climate, the city could have been in a better situation to support the Greater Washington Boys and Girls Clubs," Thomas said. "We have a lot of projects in our capital inventory that need to be addressed."

Melinda Roth, a member of Jelleff's board, said losing Jelleff would be a huge loss to the neighborhood. Roth helped organize a "Save Jelleff" petition in 2007 and collected more than 1,500 signatures.

"It's so shortsighted and a huge waste to close a club that has been the model of what a Boys and Girls Club should be," Roth said. "I don't see the viability in that."

The closing of the Hopkins Branch will probably spell the end of several partnerships and programs with outside groups.

The Washington Nationals baseball team, through its Dream Foundation, awarded a $40,000 grant to the Hopkins Branch last year to assist in cleaning up the Anacostia River.

Staff writer Jenna Johnson contributed to this report.