The Muncie area Boys and Girls Club and the Rocy C. Buley Community Center are in the process of merging their two programs.
Around four years ago a partnership was formed between the Buley Center, Motivate our Minds, the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club (BGC), and a few other organizations. According to Quiana O’Neal, executive director at the Buley center, the group’s original goal was to increase their reach and strength. This new merger is simply an extension of that first conversation. “The Buley Center is a grass roots organization, so with merging with the Boys and Girls club we still have the community connection but are strengthening our ability to serve children and their parents through the merger,” said Quiana.
New CEO of BGC Jason Newman agrees with Quiana. “I think our missions are similar: to reach all of the young people in our community,” said Jason. “It helps to give more of an infrastructure and… helps to expand our reach to even more kids in the city.”
One of the ways in which this merger helps is in the expansion of their programs and locations. Because of the merger, the buildings which used to only serve one program are now able to be split among age groups. What used to be the clubhouse dedicated for all members of BGC is now exclusively a teen building. In addition, the Buley Center and East Washington Academy are serving as a meeting place for all elementary student members while all middle school children are to meet at Southside Middle School.
Transportation to all of these new locations will be provided by MITS. A long-time partner with both the Buley Center and BGC, MITS has been bussing these programs’ students all around the community for many years. “We have always used MITS as our transportation provider at Buley Center. …They give us a private bus that we set up,” said Quiana. “They’ve just been a been a great asset to us and been a great partner within our community.” Before partnering with MITS, vans, which could only fit about fifteen students, were the only method of transporting students to and from the Buley Center. The busses provided by MITS have allowed Buley, and the BGC, to bring in more kids.
“This [partnership with MITS] allows us to do one of those more, kind of, big community things whereas if we had it here and just said ‘well parents can come by’ that’s not quite as inviting as ‘we’re going to pick them up and bring them over here.’” said Jason Newman, referencing how MITS transported kids from other locations to the recent, big Christmas celebration at the BGC center on Madison St.
Transferring kids to the clubhouses, however, is not the only function of the busses. MITS also takes these kids on field-trips around the community. Such destinations have included the planetarium at Ball State, libraries, museums, the reservoir, and, during the summer, to the Tuhey pool every Tuesday and Friday. According to Quiana, “if they can take us there, we have gone there.”
The merging of the Buley Center and BGC should not cause changes in bussing arrangements. “From our perspective there is no reason for that to change,” said Jason. “They do a great job of working with us and being able to be responsive to our needs. The administrative staff there is more than happy to help out in any way they can.”
“Sometimes we take it for granted… ‘we’ll just call MITS and they’ll be here,’ but that’s how responsive that they are to us and how willing they are to work with us to help us all help to serve our kids better,” said Quiana. “I just want to say we appreciate MITS for their cooperation and cooperative spirit with us.”