The Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is the nation's premier youth-serving organization. They are dedicated to enabling young people who need them most to achieve great futures as caring, responsible, and productive citizens. With over 5,000 Club sites serving 3.6 million youth through club membership and community outreach, BGCA offers a safe space, caring adult mentors, fun, friendship, and high-impact programs. These programs promote academic success, healthy lifestyles, good character and citizenship.
Still, providing guidance and support to such a vast and diverse network of autonomous Clubs presents significant challenges, particularly regarding HR processes and staff development. With clubs located across the country, including on native lands and military installations worldwide, there was a pressing need for a comprehensive solution to streamline Club operations, enhance performance, and ensure consistent staff training and development.
To address these challenges, BGCA turned to Cornerstone's suite of products, including Cornerstone Learning Management, Cornerstone Performance, and Cornerstone Succession. These tools provided BGCA with the necessary infrastructure to support competency assessments, observation checklists, and succession planning for local Clubs.
In the words of Ty Easter, BGCA’s senior director of learning technologies, "We needed a solution that could not only manage our HR processes but also support the development and growth of our staff across all our clubs. Cornerstone provided exactly what we needed."
One of the early initiatives under this partnership was establishing Spillett Leadership University, which aimed to support local Club organizations by providing them access to a centralized LMS.
Navigating ups and downs
BGCA’s previous custom-built web-based training platform was prone to frequent malfunctions, making it difficult to meet the demands ofClub professionals.
Adding to the complexity, BGCA’s training materials were scattered across multiple systems and websites. “Training was just being housed everywhere, so it was difficult for our club professionals to locate the various training we offer,” Easter notes.
BGCA needed a more robust and scalable solution that could offer a single access point for all its training resources. This led them to seek out a comprehensive learning management system (LMS) that could not only centralize training materials but also enhance overall HR processes.
Piloting a new path
To explore opportunities for expansion, BGCA piloted the alignment of Cornerstone suite of products with a local Boys & Girls Club organization. BGCA contracted with another Cornerstone customer to facilitate the implementation process serve as the lead administrator for this pilot. and This collaboration allowed the local club to gain full access to load their learnings, create their own learning pathways, and track training progress.
“This local organization now has full access to load all of their learnings and create their learning pathways,” Easter explains. “They can track their training progress, use reports to help analyze data, and ensure performance.”
The success of this pilot highlighted the potential benefits of extending these capabilities to other organizations within the BGCA network.
Transforming training processes
Cornerstone’s comprehensive LMS provides BGCA with the tools to streamline its training and HR processes among Clubs. With services including learning management, performance management, recruitment, and skill building, Cornerstone offered a holistic solution that supported the personal and professional development of Club professionals.
“For BGCA, it’s a comprehensive learning management system that our Club professionals can access to continue to promote their personal and professional development and growth throughout their role and their career,” Easter emphasizes.
Implementing Cornerstone’s solutions addressed the initial challenges of system downtime and dispersed training resources. It paved the way for a more efficient and effective staff development and performance management approaches. One of the main reasons BGCA chose Cornerstone was its ability to support multiple modalities and learning frameworks.
As Easter notes, “Cornerstone supported multiple modalities for delivering our training and different learning frameworks. It made it easy for us to adapt many of our training programs using those different learning frameworks and modalities.”
Optimizing solutions
Implementing Cornerstone’s solutions at Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) was a challenging yet transformative process. The journey required strategic planning and a deep understanding of BGCA’s unique “federated”structure, which includes 1,100 autonomous organizations.
One key aspect of this strategic implementation was defining a learning governance structure. This allowed BGCA to create a robust framework that would ensure consistent training and development across all its Clubs. Cornerstone played a crucial role in this process by helping BGCA build custom welcome pages, preferences, landing pages and navigation tabs tailored to specific roles within the organization.
“We were able to configure those by positions, which then allowed us to target trainings by role or what we would call school affiliation,” Easter explains.
Club professionals could now access training specifically designed for their positions, enhancing their skills and performance. This targeted approach also facilitated better alignment with BGCA’s overall strategic priorities.
Enhancing performance
The collaboration with Cornerstone yielded numerous tangible benefits for BGCA. One of the most significant impacts was leverage on demand training to reduce travel costs and enhance performance. Previously, training required substantial travel, incurring high expenses and causing disruptions in productivity.
“Cornerstone helped reduce the expenses of traveling to all of these different trainings and enhanced our club professionals’ skills and performance,” Easter notes.
Empasis around on-demand training also minimized the loss of productivity. Club professionals could complete training at their convenience, ensuring their daily responsibilities were not interrupted. This flexibility led to improved efficiency and a more seamless integration of training into their work routines. Moreover, Cornerstone’s solutions enabled BGCA to leverage data granularly.
“We were able to really use the data at a granular level to ensure the effectiveness of our programs and how those programs help to support our organizational performance as well,” Easter highlights.
Creating a transformative impact
The partnership between Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) and Cornerstone has delivered significant results. It has driven workforce agility and enhanced the organization’s ability to meet the needs of its youth and club professionals. This collaboration has streamlined Club training and HR processes and positioned BGCA to respond effectively to an ever-changing environment.
One of the most notable outcomes of this partnership is the increased workforce agility achieved through Cornerstone’s solutions.
“Workforce agility is our ability to be flexible and adaptable in this ever-changing environment,” says Easter. “It’s also the ability to quickly pivot and respond to ensure business continuity and sustainability.”
Another significant benefit of the partnership has been the ability to leverage data to enhance performance. Cornerstone’s solutions have enabled BGCA to analyze training data at a granular level, ensuring the effectiveness of its programs and supporting organizational performance. This data-driven approach has provided valuable insights into the impact of training initiatives, allowing BGCA to continuously refine and improve its strategies.
Training for a better future
One of the standout aspects of working with Cornerstone has been the strong sense of community and support. This network has provided BGCA with invaluable guidance and coaching, helping them navigate the complexities of their unique organizational structure and continuously improve their training and development strategies.
In the words of Easter, “For BGCA, it’s very important that we are ready and able to respond to the needs of our youth as well as the clubs that support the needs of our youth.” This partnership has strengthened BGCA’s ability to meet these needs and set the stage for ongoing success and impact.
The results achieved through the partnership with Cornerstone have positioned BGCA for continued growth and innovation. The comprehensive support provided by Cornerstone, coupled with the strategic insights from their coaching consultants, has empowered BGCA to navigate new challenges and seize emerging opportunities. As BGCA looks to the future, the collaboration with Cornerstone will remain a cornerstone of their strategy, ensuring they continue to fulfill their mission of enabling young people to achieve great futures.
