Staffing challenges continue in Boys and Girls Clubs of the Northland

GRAND RAPIDS — The Boys and Girls Club of Grand Rapids-Greenway merger continues amid staffing shortages throughout the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Northland.

The Boys and Girls Club of Grand Rapids-Greenway is the only non-athletic, non-religious after-school program for kids in Itasca County. The organization aims to provide kids with the tools to reach academic success, make healthy lifestyle choices and be productive citizens as they grow.

The Greenway club merged with the club in Grand Rapids in 2024 due to a lack of proper staffing. The organization aims for a ratio of one staff member for every 15 students, said Dorothy Duquette, chair of the advisory board and volunteer for the Grand Rapids-Greenway club.

“We really want that to be temporary, but it's important to us also to make sure the kids are safe,” Duquette said.

The organization partnered with the Greenway Public School District to bus kids from Greenway to Grand Rapids during the school year, though there have been fewer kids from Greenway since the merger, Duquette said. Staffing at the merged club is stable.

“In fact, one of the staff from Greenway transferred over to Grand Rapids,” Duquette said.
“She wanted the kids to have a familiar face over there, the Greenway kids.”

The Boys and Girls Clubs of the Northland has staffing shortages at most of its six locations, said Emily Burnside, the organization’s chief operating officer. The organization also has sites in Duluth, Superior, Coleraine and Hibbing. The Grand Rapids-Greenway club is the organization’s best-staffed location, Burnside said.

The shortages are partly due to changes in funding from the Blandin Foundation as well as changes in local and federal funding, including federal spending cuts, Burnside said. The end of relief funding from the COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the clubs’ services.

Much of the funding for each site comes from the community it is in, which also has an impact on the extent of the services each location can provide, Burnside said.

The shortages are at a time when there is a high need for child care in Itasca County, Burnside said.

“Since we opened our doors eight years ago, I would say that the demand for services is higher than the capacity that we've ever had to provide,” Burnside said. “And so that's always a challenge. And I know that's a challenge countywide to provide quality child care services.”

To accommodate shortages at certain cites, staff from other locations often step in to better maintain the proper ratios, Burnside said. More staff and funding would help to reopen the Greenway club, Duquette said.

Some of the staff at the clubs are kids that grew up in the program, a trend that Burnside said she thinks will continue. The clubs also offer other post-club opportunities, including a higher education scholarship.

“One of our Grand Rapids staff was a kid that started right when we were opening the clubs in Grand Rapids,” Burnside said. “He applied for a job, and I was like, ‘There is no way you're old enough to work here.’”

Parent feedback has been overall positive and supportive, Burnside said.

“It should be no surprise that the most negative feedback I hear is that they wish that the club was still open in Greenway, and we wish that, too,” she said.

A positive side of the merger is how it has allowed Grand Rapids and Greenway kids to connect with each other, Duquette said.

“It gives the kids a chance to be together and make new friends and kind of cross those Grand Rapids-Greenway lines that sometimes get kind of difficult for people,” she said.

At first, those at the organization were uncertain about how the merger would affect the community in Greenway but were excited when they saw kids from different areas interacting, Burnside said.

“One thing that's been really exciting to see is the friendships that have been made between students from those two communities, where they would not have usually had an opportunity to interact,” she said. “They're getting the chance to know each other and learn a little bit about each other.”

The Boys and Girls Club of Grand Rapids-Greenway will host its annual fundraiser, Clubs of the North Classic, at the Pokegama Golf Course on Aug. 21. The 18-hole scramble costs $100 per golfer, and all proceeds will go toward supporting the club. Tickets and more information can be found on the event’s website.