As the city’s largest youth-serving organization, the Oshkosh Boys & Girls Club serves more than 3,000 youth ages five to 18.
Recently the Club’s Parkway Avenue location got a major facelift. CEO Tracy Ogden led the five-part, $18.5 million expansion that included a remodeled and expanded middle school center, teen center, community center, administrative offices, multipurpose field, playground and more.
Ogden sat down with Insight to share how the updated space — and her recent election as president of the Boys & Girls Club’s Professional Association — enables the nonprofit to better serve more families.
Insight: The expansion, which has received national recognition, officially wrapped up in December. What has it meant for the Club’s capacity to help families and add services?
Ogden: We started meetings in February 2021 and just finished construction of the second gym at the end of last year. We went from being able to hold 300 kids a day to 500. One of the things that makes our Club unique is that we serve basic needs — our kids can shower at the Club, get hygiene products and clothes. We send food home. We also make sure that they have eyeglasses and dental visits and all of those things. It’s something we started about 20 years ago because we were seeing such a need from the full family, but we could only go so far. During COVID, when school shut down for nine months, we were open and our attendance went up 70%. We decided to throw out the idea to the community of adding on to our Boys & Girls Club. The new Hyde Family Community Center houses up to 30 nonprofits that are working to help case-manage our families. If we have a kid in crisis, we can refer them to the community center which is connected to the Club. That building opened in March, and by the end of 2024 we had over 3,000 people use it. The addition of the Hyde Family Community Center gave us the ability to fully complete our mission of improving the lives of children and families. One of the biggest things I have seen is the amount of parent opportunities that we’ve been able to provide. As full as our Club was, we used to have to shut part of our Club down in order to run parent programming. Now, we don’t need to do that.
In the 15 years that you’ve been part of the Boys & Girls Club organization, how have you seen the community’s needs change?
What we’ve seen is such an increase in mental health services that are needed. We have mental health services onsite, which we started probably about 10 years ago, and it’s been life-changing for our kids. We’ve also developed partnerships with the school district and with the police department so that we can interject when kids are in crisis.
You were recently elected as president of Boys & Girls Clubs of America National Board for The Professional Association. How does the association support the broader work of the Boys & Girls Club?
I was first elected onto the board 10 years ago, and I’ve been vice president for the last four. The Professional Association is for members of the Boys & Girls Club Movement. It is meant for us as professionals to grow and develop and to hone our skills. Some of the biggest things that we do are provide scholarship opportunities for Boys & Girls Club employees who want to go back to school in a field that will elevate their position. We have this outstanding knowledge base across 5,200 Clubs nationwide. The Professional Association is really that conduit to connecting people to these networking and mentorship opportunities. It gives staff members the professional development to become better at their job. The more time that we can invest in the professionals in the Boys & Girls Club Movement, the better off we will be because it’s a much stronger community for our kids.
What drew you to this work?
I spent my career essentially working for kids. It’s always been a passion of mine. When I walked into the Club that day 15 years ago for my interview, I was six months pregnant with my son and my daughter was two. I had told my husband I was not taking this job, but I couldn’t help myself. I was so taken back by what they do for these kids. We watch kids eat dinner every night at the Club because they can. They shower at the Club because they can. Every year we’ve made sure they have every school supply they need. They get haircuts at the Club. I’ve watched our kids get a Youth of the Year medal for being a good friend, and it’s probably the only recognition these kids will get and it’s just magical to watch. We like to follow our kids beyond [graduation]. The challenges they face don’t stop at 18. They are just ramping up. We like to make sure they understand our door is always open and they are always a member of our family. We always make sure they are ready for that next step in life, whether it’s employment, technical school, the trades or college. The most rewarding part of this work is the kids, and my staff too. They go above and beyond on a daily basis and are always looking to do more for the kids. They are never satisfied with what we’re doing. It’s amazing to be a part of that.
What role do you see the Boys & Girls Club playing in the community five years from now?
I see us being an even stronger community hub. This was part of the discussion when we were designing this building. We do all of these things for kids and families and we have all of these services and programs, but who else in the community can we work with to do it better? I don’t have any interest in recreating a wheel. I just want to work with everybody, and I think that we are on the path to doing that.
