Coaching Corps: Creating Change in Communities
|
>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: Team-Up for Youth
Sport - Other
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2005
Project URL: http://www.teamupforyouth.org/coaching_corps.html
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Team-Up for Youth’s Coaching Corps program recruits, trains and places college students as volunteer coaches in low-income communities where volunteers are in great demand.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Team-Up is mobilizing coaches from a largely untapped resource: college students. In partnership with local colleges, Team-Up recruits committed students, provides intensive training in youth development practices, and then places these coaches at nearby after-school programs in need. This model is a win-win for everyone. Community-based organizations get well trained, dedicated volunteers; kids get positive role models and the opportunity to be active; coaches get the opportunity to give back to their community and develop their own leadership skills; and colleges and universities have another opportunity to develop the overall growth of their students.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? - Kids in low-income communities have fewer and fewer quality organized sports opportunities. One of the greatest barriers to creating quality youth sports programs in low-income communities is the shortage of trained and committed coaches, especially female coaches. Often in these neighborhoods both parents are working full time or multiple jobs and have little opportunity to volunteer as a coach. Coaching Corps taps an unlimited resource—college students—to fill this void.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - Team-Up works with college campus partners and students on those campuses to recruit coaches. Team-Up collaborates with a variety of on campus resources including Education Departments, Athletic Departments, Kinesiology Departments, Community Services Centers and Career Centers. Our current partners include: Cal State East Bay, Laney College, Mills College, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State, and the University of San Francisco.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - Coaching Corps is very scalable. We plan to expand our college campus partners as we expand our geography. The model can work in any community—utilizing local campuses of four year universities or two year community colleges to recruit students to coach youth in nearby low-income communities.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - Coaching Corps provides kids in low-income communities with the opportunity to play sports and connect with positive role models, while helping coaches develop leadership skills.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? - The program matches caring, committed adults with young people who can benefit greatly from having positive roles models in their lives. Kids from low-income communities benefit the most as Coaching Corps helps create opportunities for youth to enjoy the real social, emotional and physical benefits of participating in sports. Coaches get kids physically active—a significant step in addressing the steep rise of childhood obesity rates and ensuring a lifelong love of physical activity; connect with the kids, placing caring adults in their lives; and help the kids learn new skills and how to play positively with others. Coaching Corps coaches also familiarize kids with the college experience, breaking down the college mystique and inspiring the kids to someday attend college.
This model is a win-win for everyone. Community-based organizations get well trained, dedicated volunteers; coaches get the opportunity to give back to their community and develop their own leadership skills; and colleges and universities have another opportunity to develop the overall growth of their students.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? - While the impact on youth is inspiring, the impact on the student coaches is also important. These young students have the opportunity to develop critical leadership skills and the chance to give back to their community. The program helps foster civic-minded individuals who will continue to give back to their communities long after they graduate from college.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? - The main barrier is finding enough quality after-school programs that are close to colleges. Low-income communities often have limited resources that make creating quality sports programs a challenge. These include limited spending for programs and safe and usable facilities. Coaching Corps helps to remove one barrier—lack of coaches—with minimal costs to the communities.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - Coaching Corps is financed through a mix of individual donations and foundation grants made to Team-Up for Youth.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization. - Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff. Coaching Corp Budget: $300,000
Staffing: 2 full-time staff, 5 part-time campus coordinators (students) and over 200 volunteer coaches. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - We believe the demand is unlimited. Lack of trained, committed coaches is a major hurdle to providing quality youth sports programs in low-income communities in the United States. Additionally, colleges and college students are always looking for ways to give back to the community and sports and play opportunities are rare.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - The model relies on volunteers, which is why costs are minimal. The main costs are for staff to direct the program and ensure that coaches are being recruited and trained. The barriers for financial sustainability are the same that other nonprofits face—fundraising in a competitive environment with limited resources.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - Team-Up for Youth started six years ago as a ground-breaking concept: an intermediary organization focused on promoting the healthy development of children and youth—especially young girls—by increasing the quantity and quality of youth sports programs in Alameda and San Francisco Counties. Through their work, Team-Up discovered that a significant barrier to increasing the quantity and quality of youth sports programs was a lack of trained coaches. To address this need, Team-Up developed a program focused on removing this barrier. After significant analysis and planning, Coaching Corps was piloted in 2005.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - Monica brings 10 years of prior youth development experience to her role at Team-Up. Through UC Berkeley, she conducted outreach presentations in underserved communities about success in higher education. She has also run an after-school tutoring program and a school-based mentoring program. Recently she earned a Masters in Organization and Leadership from the University of San Francisco. In her spare time, Monica plays tennis, flag football and softball.
Contact Information:
Monica Santos
Coaching Corps Director Team-Up for Youth (NGO) Discussions about this entry |
Team-Up's Coaching Corps has accomplished quite a bit in just two years, Monica, and I'm sure that your hard work has had much to do with that. The notion of getting more college students, especially women of color, involved in coaching younsters will certainly have a positive impact on the kids whom they assist, on the communities of which they are part, and also on the coaches themselves, exactly as you say.
Two observations about the Coaching Corps: First, the colleges and universities which provide the coaches benefit, as well, because they are always seeking ways to contribute positively to the communities in which they are situated. Second, I wonder if student volunteer centers at the participating colleges and universities might be able to form car pools that would permit student-coaches without their own cars to get to local schools where they're coaching?
Steve Byars
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California