The Boys & Girls Clubs serving Chattooga, Gordon, Murray & Whitfield Counties had one foremost goal, said CEO Robbie Slocumb.
“The most important thing is serving more kids,” he said. “That’s the big part of the whole thing. How can we serve more kids and impact more lives?”
Slocumb said the clubs will be better able to meet that goal due to a recent merger between the local agency and the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Georgia, which served Gilmer and Pickens counties.
The merged entity retains the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Georgia name. It became active Jan. 1.
The Boys & Girls Clubs serving Chattooga, Gordon, Murray & Whitfield Counties had seven club sites in Dalton, Chatsworth, Calhoun and Summerville, while the Gilmer and Pickens clubs include sites in Jasper and Ellijay.
Slocumb said all nine club sites will now work together as part of the combined agency.
“Basically, our organization will now oversee six counties and nine locations,” Slocumb said. “(Gilmer and Pickens counties’) current CEO Jessica Wells will take on a development role, which is going to help us in a lot of different ways, and we’ll support them operationally.”
Slocumb said the merger has been a yearlong process.
“In 2023, we started with the board staff for both organizations meeting together and discussing the options,” he said. “A lot of it was organically coming together because of the world we’re living in right now. Things are more expensive, so we were looking at how to continue with back office operations. That’s really where a lot of the work’s going to be done, making sure accounting, finances and insurance is in order. Then, our goal is to raise more funds in each area to help impact and work with more kids.”
He said the new name will be beneficial and “open the door” to more opportunities.
“Our new name helps us out a lot geographically,” he said. “We’ve become the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Georgia, which, on a state level, helps us out because we now have a bigger voice with Boys & Girls Clubs in the state of Georgia. We’re now one of the larger clubs in the state, so that creates opportunities for possible funding and support.”
Before the merger, Slocumb said the clubs in Chattooga, Gordon, Murray and Whitfield counties were serving approximately 500 children on a daily basis.
“Now, we’ll be able to serve more than 800 kids day-to-day,” he said. “And we want to make sure our donors and the community know money that is raised in the (respective) county will stay in the county. And then we’re going to look at other opportunities outside of that where we can get grants or other funders who support us in the bigger picture.”
Slocumb said the merger will help provide opportunities to students in need.
“Our goal is to impact more kids and help them academically and socially,” he said. “I would say now more than ever our communities need Boys & Girls clubs, especially working alongside school districts and other nonprofits to make sure kids don’t fall through the cracks.”