Why we need this

The kids in Riverside need a safe place to be when their parents can’t be home with them. That’s where Creative Kids Club comes in.

Local schools give our children a lot of holidays and breaks—winter break, spring break, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day, etc.—but many parents still have to work. Those parents have only a few options:

  • Take those days off to stay home with the kids.
  • Leave the kids with friends or family.
  • Find a babysitter.
  • Leave the kids home alone.

For some, these options work fine. But for those who aren’t able to take those days off, can’t afford a babysitter and don’t have friends or family who can help, they’re in a real fix. That’s why Riverside needs a safe, affordable place for children to go when their parents can’t be with them.

Leaving kids at home alone creates incredible problems—for the children and for our city. These “latch key” children tend to perform worse in school, are more likely to try drugs, are more likely to join a gang and are more likely to be end up in jail.

The Riverside Unified School District provides after school care—the PRIMETime and H.E.A.R.T.S. programs—but these programs don’t operate during breaks or during the summer. The City of Riverside operates numerous programs during summer vacation, but the cost may be prohibitive for low-income families and, like the school programs, they don’t operate during school holidays or breaks.

That’s why this city needs the Creative Kids Club. We hope to fill in the gaps, opening our doors on holidays and breaks that aren’t covered by city and school district programs. We also hope to help fill another gap by offering arts-based activities since arts education in California has been cut back in recent years.

This city is terribly underserved in this respect compared to its neighboring towns. Temecula, Murrieta and Lake Elsinore have clubhouses run by the Boys & Girls Club of Southwest County. Perris has a clubhouse run by Boys & Girls Club of Perris and Menifee has one run by Menifee Valley Boys & Girls Club. The Boys & Girls Club of Redlands–Riverside runs a clubhouse in Redlands, but in Riverside, it offers only after-school programs.

Each clubhouse has its own location and offers after-school, holiday, vacation and summer programming. But Riverside, the seat of the county government and the most populous city in the Inland Empire, has gaping holes in service.

We are looking to neighborhoods in Riverside with large low-income populations so we can be near those who need us most—families with low incomes are the most likely to leave their children home alone.

If you’re wondering how we plan to accomplish this, click here.