Educational Programming to Cover a Variety of Wellness Topics including Cannabis and its Effects on Growing Bodies
The Boys & Girls Club of Palm Springs, along with the City of Palm Springs, celebrated the grand opening of a Health & Wellness Center that is a first-of-its-kind resource available to Coachella Valley Youth.
The Health & Wellness Center will be a welcoming place where students can enjoy activities and educational programs on topics such as making healthy choices, how cannabis use affects the growing mind/body, and more. They can also take part in fun youth-led projects to develop leadership skills, learn how to create healthy foods and snacks in the Center’s demonstration kitchen or sit in the quiet reading nook checking out materials in the resource library.
In January 2021, the City of Palm Springs – serving as lead agency along with the Boys and Girls Club Palm Springs – secured a California Board of State and Community Corrections Cohort 2 Proposition Health and Safety Grant Award in the amount of $1 million – which provided funding for the Center, with one of the primary goals being to address adolescent cannabis use and its effects on young brains and growing bodies.
“Although it remains illegal for minors, with the legalization of cannabis in California, cannabis products have become more accessible and attractive to teens,” said Margaret Keung, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club of Palm Springs. “We know more resources are needed to educate parents and youth on how early cannabis use can lead to severe cognitive consequences in young brains, and this Center will help provide this education along with other programming focused on health and wellness for our Valley’s youth.”
The City of Palm Springs and the Boys & Girls Club received notification of an additional grant that will help the further development of the Health & Wellness Center. This new grant, also through the California Board of State and Community Corrections in the amount of $3 million over a five-year period, will provide for expanded hours serve a greater number of people during both the weekend and at night including Saturdays, as well as the purchase of a sprinter van to help the Club address a big need: transportation.
The new Health & Wellness Center is located at the Boys & Girls Club, 450 South Sunrise Way in Palm Springs. The grand opening event this Saturday, May 6th, is free to the public but registration is required. To register, or to learn more, go to BGCPS.org.
