Our organization was founded in 1964 as the result of a country-wide needs assessment conducted by the Youth and Recreation Planning Council of the United Way. Of all of the needy communities in Los Angeles County, El Monte was identified as being in a “critical need” of a Boys' Club. Our goal was then, as it remains today, to provide structured delinquency prevention and intervention programs. We have not lost sight of our goal.

Our greatest achievement has been the virtual elimination of youth street gangs in El Monte. Some years ago, the El Monte Flores gang had the largest active membership of any youth gang in the County. Through our nationally recognized collaborative efforts with our local police department, youth gangs are no longer a community problem here.

A nationally acclaimed cooperative job placement venture with the El Monte Police Department successfully finds jobs for youth gang members. This program has significantly reduced gang activity and turned around many young lives from a life of crime. Now over 2,800 job placements have been made.

A free, hot, nutritional dinner has been served every night since 1993, to hungry children, their parents and homeless men and women from the neighborhood. The meal is prepared and served daily by staff and volunteers. For many youngsters, no one is at home to fix their dinner at suppertime. The Club’s evening super program serves between 70 and 90 or more dinners every night.

The Club owns and operates Camp Voorhis-Viking, a residential summer camp located in Mammoth Lakes, California. Since 1965, over 250 Club members have annually enjoyed a week of camping fun and adventure at this High Sierra site. Club professionals, parents, and responsible and mature older members staff the camp. A second Camp, Pine Mountain, is located in the San Bernardino National Forest and is primarily used for weekend campouts and retreats throughout the school year.

Last year, the Club enrolled 1,269 members plus an additional 2,470 more youth participated in Club sponsored activities. The community benefits include having a “safe haven” with stable, supportive and supervised activities. The schools do not offer after-school programs and many parents feel the park is too dangerous for their children. Without the Club, youth would hang out at liquor stores with video games, shopping centers, and closed, school playgrounds. The club offers a bright, cheerful, happy alternative to the streets.

Services to youth are provided through a varied and diversified program that recognizes and responds to the collective and individual needs of girls and boys. The Club’s programs help young people to make appropriate and satisfying choices in their physical, educational, personal, social, emotional and vocational lives.