Boys and Girls Club seeks community support amid funding uncertainty, security concerns

The Palm Springs Boys and Girls Club is navigating federal funding cuts, rising security demands, and what its leader calls a persistent public awareness problem — challenges that CEO and Executive Director Margaret Keung brought before the Palm Springs Human Rights Commission on Monday.

Keung told commissioners the club, which has operated in Palm Springs since 1948, serves approximately 300 enrolled members, nearly all of whom come from disadvantaged households. 

She said close to 97% of the club’s members qualify for reduced or no-cost meal programs, and that nearly one in three children in the Coachella Valley lives below the poverty line.

“Many people do not realize that we have children in Palm Springs,” Keung said. “We have children in poverty. We have unhoused children.”

The club is located at Sunrise Park, is 100% self-funded, owns its building, and leases the land from the city for $1 per year. Membership fees are $20 per year for teens and $40 per year for younger children, and Keung said the club does not turn away members for financial reasons, with scholarships available.

Keung said the club absorbed a significant financial blow when a freeze on federal funding delayed approximately $200,000 in pass-through funding the club had been counting on. She said donor behavior also shifted last year in ways that affected contributions.

The club has responded to a separate set of pressures by investing in security. Keung said the club installed interior and exterior cameras last year and conducts safety drills, including mass shooter drills, every quarter.

Keung said the club has been closely monitoring immigration enforcement activity after learning that ICE agents posing as building inspectors attempted to enter a Boys and Girls Club facility in Riverside. She said agents there were “very aggressive” and claimed they were looking for a specific person who turned out to have no current connection to the club.

“Once something like that happens, we all hear about it and we’re ready,” Keung said.

Keung said ICE agents were also circling local schools during the Christmas holiday period while children were present at the Palm Springs club. She said the club has protocols in place from the national Boys and Girls Club of America organization governing when to call 911 and when to contact the police chief.

Beyond security, Keung said the club has recently taken steps to raise its profile, including hiring a public relations professional and developing a formal PR plan for the first time. She said the club had long relied on word of mouth, but that approach left many residents unaware the facility existed.

“I drove by this club a million times and never knew that it was here,” Keung said.

The club offers after-school and out-of-school programming, sports leagues, arts programs, water safety instruction, and a cannabis education and prevention center Keung described as the first of its kind under the Boys and Girls Club of America umbrella. The club recently received certification as an Autism Center and is expanding staff training accordingly.

Keung said the club is also exploring ways to extend its reach, including a mobile program to serve children in Desert Hot Springs and plans to expand its age range to include pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.

Keung encouraged commissioners and members of the public to visit the club and said donations can be made at bgcps.org. She said those interested in volunteering can contact her directly at mkeung@bgcps.org.

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