Kohl’s

Improving Emotional and Physical Well-Being Nationwide

Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Kohl’s believe every young person deserves to thrive. However, for too many kids and teens, a great future, and their ability to reach their full potential are threatened by widening emotional and wellness stressors.

Over the past two years, Kohl’s support enabled Boys & Girls Clubs across the country to integrate essential social-emotional development (SED) skills across its curriculum. Social-emotional development (SED) offers positive experiences, relationships, and environments that young people need to become healthy, capable adults. Together, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Kohl’s have trained over 24,000 Youth Development professionals and hosted over 800 training sessions focused on SED. As a result, the youth organization was able to integrate more than 70 curriculum resources that span social and emotional skill development as well as curate six curriculum resources to support social emotional skill development.

The Kohl’s partnership has fueled the strength of 4,700 Boys & Girls Clubs, increased program quality, enabled youth voice and advocacy, and overall, nurtured the potential of the 4.3 million youth Boys & Girls Clubs of America serves annually.

Bolstering Commitment to Help Support Healthy Youth

Whether experiencing the negative effects of bullying, poverty or a parent’s divorce, many kids face threats to their emotional well-being every day. In fact, according to Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s national impact study, nearly half of all United States youth have experienced at least one potentially traumatic event in their lives. This is especially true for youth of color who may not feel connected or included due to racism and social injustices they must contend with.

As a result, Clubs must have strong policies, practices and partnerships to ensure that youth and teens find a safe place, supportive mentors and high-quality programs that allow them to build resilience and cope with uncertainty and difficult situations in a positive way. To accomplish this, Clubs must become trauma-informed.

With Kohl’s $10 million gift, Boys & Girls Clubs of America is able to fully support the emotional wellness of more than four million youth through the implementation and scaling of key initiatives that cultivate emotional wellness in young people long-term.

Kohl’s donation is made possible through Kohl’s Cares Goods for Good, which sells children’s books and toys and donates 100 percent of the net profit to health and wellness organizations nationwide.

Supporting Youth Across the Nation

In 2022, Kohl’s, through Kohl’s Cares, renewed their commitment to Boys & Girls Clubs of America with a $10 million donation over three years to support the development and delivery of trauma-informed training to Club staff, providing them with the skills to implement trauma-informed practices through formal and informal learning experiences with youth. In addition, Kohl’s Cares is a Signature Sponsor of the Youth of the Year program and events, further supporting youth across the nation. The national partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America, which was established in 2019, is rooted in Kohl’s commitment to developing and executing critical programming aimed at improving the physical and emotional well-being of children and families.