Boys and Girls Summer Programs offer fun, supportive activities

With kids in the Cortland area now enjoying a well-deserved summer vacation, the Cortland Youth Bureau in partnership with Cortland Prevention Resources is organizing and hosting their annual Girls Circle summer program as well as a new Boys Council as a free opportunity for youth to connect and be supported. 

The Girls Circle 

The Girls Circle has been run for a few summers now and provides a safe space for girls to come together, bond, and have a safe environment to learn and form healthy connections to help avoid negative behaviors.  

This program will have staff from different fields such as drug prevention and self-harm reduction who will organize activities around themed topics that will provide fun activities as well as a place to have informative and expressive conversations to help provide support to participants. The Girls Circle will meet every Tuesday from 1:00-2:00PM starting on July 9th and will run through August 27th. 

The Boys Council 

The Boys Council, sponsored by the One Circle Foundation, has been run at area schools during the school year for boys of any gender identity ages 8-12. This summer, it was decided to run it as a summer program and will offer similar support.  

This program much like the Girls Circle will be led by trained staff and will offer programming around themed topics. There will be fun activities and a place to have informative and meaningful conversations. The Boys Council will meet every Thursday from 1:00-2:00PM starting on July 11th and will run through August 29th.

All programs will be at the Cortland Youth Bureau at 35 Port Watson Street, Cortland and all programs are free of charge. For more information about registration, you can reach out to Melissa Simmons at msimmons@familycs.org. 

Written by John Baker, RHI Summer Intern