BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — JC Penney may be having major issues as a company, but it certainly is doing the right thing when it comes to corporate citizenship — providing a $5,000 grant to the YMCA of South Palm Beach County.
The $5,000 grant from jcp cares, jcpenney’s new charitable giving program, to provide school-aged children with financial assistance to attend afterschool programs at the Y. For more than ten years, jcpenney has supported the YMCA of South Palm Beach County’s afterschool programs. This gift provides children in South Palm Beach County, who otherwise could not afford to participate, with access to life-enriching afterschool programs that cultivate the values, relationships and skills kids need to thrive.
According to the Afterschool Alliance, a nonprofit public awareness advocacy organization, 15.1 million U.S. children are left unsupervised after 3 p.m. during the school year. Studies show participation in afterschool programs helps boost school attendance and academic performance and reduces gaps in academic achievement among children from disadvantaged households.
“As a company founded on the Golden Rule, jcpenney has a strong legacy of giving back,” said Miki Woodard, president of jcp cares and vice president of philanthropy at jcpenney. “We are firmly committed to organizations like the Y, which truly make a difference in their communities.”
The YMCA of South Palm Beach County sees the benefits of this collaboration first-hand. “The support of jcpenney enhances our efforts to serve as many children as possible with meaningful, high-quality afterschool programming,” said Richard Pollock President and CEO of the YMCA of South Palm Beach County. “By working together, we can not only keep children safer, but also help provide them with lasting benefits, including healthier lifestyles, improved social skills and an enhanced academic performance.”
In South Palm Beach County, the Y serves afterschool programs to the Peter Blum Family YMCA of Boca Raton as well as to the DeVos-Blum Family YMCA in Boynton Beach. The Peter Blum Family YMCA in Boca Raton contains 4 afterschool programs and serves 97 children/teens ages 5-15. The DeVos-Blum Family YMCA in Boynton Beach contains four afterschool clubs and serves 80 kids from ages 5-13. The clubs offered at the Boynton Y include the traditional club (arts and crafts, board games etc.), dance club (dance rehearsals, special events practice etc.), sports club (soccer, flag football, baseball, kickball etc.) and the teens club (communication workshops, learning to be role models for other clubs, field trips etc.).
In addition to supporting local Y’s afterschool programs, jcpenney, through jcp cares, has named the Y as its featured charity for the month of January 2013. jcpenney team members will invite customers throughout the month of January to round up their purchases in stores to the nearest whole dollar and donate the difference to the Y. These resources will support the Y’s national commitment to closing the achievement gap through three key programs: early learning, afterschool and summer learning. jcpenney will feature the Y prominently on the company’s web site (www.jcp.com), in mailings to customers and nationwide in stores throughout January. Donations will also be accepted online through January 31 at: www.jcpenny.com/jcpcares.
