For 18 years, Washington has been national spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. On Wednesday, he’s in Washington to help launch a new national program, called Be Great: Graduate, to identify kids who are at risk of dropping out of school and give them the help they need to stay and finish.
“Our goal is simple to state but hard to achieve,” Washington said in a statement. “We want to help every Boys & Girls Club member advance to the next grade level every year and graduate from high school on time, prepared with the attitude, knowledge and confidence to succeed and achieve.”
When he was a child, he says, “the club staff motivated us to dream big and take our education seriously. Kids today need that … more than ever.”
About a third of U.S. students don’t graduate from high school, says a 2010 report by Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center; for Latino and black boys, the rate jumps to nearly 50%.
Many of the 4 million children and teens who participate in Boys & Girls Clubs “have the least and need the most to achieve a great future,” says organization president Roxanne Spillett.
Denzel Washington, Boys & Girls Clubs fight dropouts
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