Get "In the Arena"!
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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: In the Arena
Sport: Other
Year the initative began (yyyy) 2006
Project URL: http://www.in-the-arena.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? In the Arena leverages the uplifting power of sport and the unique skills of elite athletes to give American youth the best chance at success.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? In the Arena is entirely unique: no other NGO is anchoring today's aspiring Olympians in targeted youth populations with the aim of inculcating in those youth the virtues that a successful elite athletic career presupposes (ie: determination, perseverance, courage, a thirst for self-improvement and a commitment to the pursuit of excellence), skills that are widely applicable in arenas outside of athletics as well. One by one, ITA rigorously vets those aspiring Olympians who have articulated to us a sincere interest in civic engagement, and once appointed to our Roster, those athletes implement their proposed projects within targeted, local youth populations.
In the Arena's program model is as lean and mean as an elite marathoner, granting us a flexibility and nimbleness that enables us to address immediately and effectively community needs as defined by our constituents. Using the widespread popularity of sport as our lever for social change, In the Arena has been able to permeate nooks and crannies of otherwise overlooked communities and the youth therein. What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? In the Arena aims to dismantle the boundaries that all youth face as they attempt to navigate their way to adulthood, barriers that exist as a result of the current marginalizing of character education.
Further, In the Arena aims to democratize America’s charitable efforts by striving towards equal and widespread community access to the most effective youth programming. Think of us as a domestic microfinance outfit, endowing small and oft-ignored youth populations with the character capital they need to thrive in their adult lives. Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? ITA seeks to reduce capital market inefficiencies respecting youth development and elite athlete support by giving today’s aspiring Olympians the resources needed to spend their non-training and -competition hours engaged in structured and relevant community service with American 18-and-unders. We pursue this aim by carefully assembling a roster of elite athletes and facilitating, managing and evaluating each athlete’s community service project. All Arena programs target specific work with community youth and undertake it just about anywhere today’s 18-and-unders gather: in classrooms, in gymnasiums, on sports fields, in community and recreation centers, in church groups, in summer camps, you name it. Arena programs can be as short as three days or as long as a couple of years, but whatever the duration, each program must deliver results where the inculcation of skills of self-inquiry, accountability, leadership and achievement in program participants is concerned.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? In the Arena spent its first year getting structured for success. This meant putting in place governance, accounting and record-keeping infrastructure, as well as developing internal processes and systems for applicants and program reviews, launching a website and, understandably, establishing a community of financial supporters. At this juncture, ITA stands on a sound foundation and is prepared to ramp up its programming by adding additional Arena Athletes to the current Roster of 12 and thus multiplying our programs and the number of youths affected.
Within the US, our programs are endlessly replicable: athletes apply, and if appointed to the Roster, are empowered to begin their community youth work. Given the number of athletes involved in each quadrennial Olympiad, and thus the potential number of athletes enrolled in and running In the Arena programs, we could feasibly impact the lives of over 1,000,000 American children in the next Olympiad (1,000 athletes working with 1,000 children). If it works this well in the US, why not in other countries?! Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. In the Arena helps today's youth fashion the character education tools they need to launch into their adult lives with courage, confidence and precision.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? In the Arena is a youth development organization that works with school-age youth, ages 8-18, and provides them access to high-caliber mentors, today's elite athletes, who teach them how to make habits of self-inquiry, accountability, leadership and achievement. The most significant impact that ITA has had to date takes place specifically at the point of interface between the Arena Athletes and the youth with whom they work. Whether the impact manifests itself in a class of students' choice to walk/run the distance of the Great Wall of China, a high school dropout's mastering of an ESL lesson, or in a single student-athletes' encouraged (and encouraging) completion of her first set of chin-ups, the message is universal: to empower youth to recalibrate their lives’ trajectories based on a new understanding of their very own skills, capabilities and potential. The Arena Athlete’s purpose is to lift, to elevate the expectations of their program participants so that long after the program has concluded, each participant will continue to thrive.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? Despite the challenge presented by trying to measure quantitatively that which is qualitative (social impact), ITA is committed to rigorous and analytical thinking in order to produce the most transparent and informative results possible. So the other metric we use to gauge our progress (in addition to the above "number of lives impacted") is an internal 100-point scale against which each project is measured on a quarterly basis. All projects are expected to average 90 points or higher over their lifetimes.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? The barriers to impact are primarily financial: the more money In the Arena can raise, the more programs we can implement and the greater our impact on today's youth and the communities they occupy. Our model is wondrously simple in its design and execution, yet rich in the breadth and depth of its impact. Given our scalability, a pressing question to engage as we grow will be: how do we maintain and perpetuate our culture of character and integrity as our community expands?
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? To date, In the Arena has been financed by cash contributions from private sources. However, in years to come, the organization will diversify its funding sources by seeking support from operating foundations who have matching funding priorities and possibly even from corporations. Like most US-based NGOs, though, we will likely pull the majority of our funding from private sources (87% of the US's independent sector funding came from private sources in FY2006). To that end, even as ITA broadens its revenue streams, we will continue to cultivate and grow our community of private citizen supporters with the knowledge that this funding source represents our most efficient (and lowest) cost of capital.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization. In the Arena's annual budget in FY06/07 was $181,000. Since inception In the Arena has raised over $350,000. Our fiscal year ends on September 30th and we've just completed and submitted our first form 990 to the IRS, which will be available on Guidestar shortly.
We have just one Staff member (me!) and I serve as Executive Director. Our Board of Directors consists of five wonderfully-committed and capable individuals, including a former interim head of the USOC, a nonprofit governance expert, Nike's first employee (back when it was still Blue Ribbon Sports) and a Tuck School of Business professor with expertise in entrepreneurship. Further, we're empowered by our corps of Arena Athletes, the individuals who are on the front lines of the organization, out there working with today's youth day-in and day-out in the most innovative and uplifting ways. In the Arena's Roster currently features 12 athletes and we accept applications (and add athletes) on a quarterly basis. What is the potential demand for your innovation? The demand for In the Arena's programs is powerfully broad. We're a youth development organization, so as long as there are children making their way into adulthood, there's a need for our innovative services. There are virtually an unlimited number of places where In the Arena can run its programs: in schools, summer camps, after-school programs, church groups, team settings, community centers, you name it; and there is an attractive pool of athletes who would qualify for our programs.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? Like most nonprofits, In the Arena will be able to grow its programming only to the extent that it raises funds to support it. With just one full-time fundraiser, and in today's wonderfully bustling and ever-expanding independent sector, time will be our greatest challenger. It will be incumbent upon In the Arena to divine the revenue streams that yield the greatest output for the minimum expenditure of time.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. In the Arena was born out of my experience as a teacher, a coach and an elite athlete. I've been fortunate to witness first-hand the attention that today's youth will reflexively award an athlete, more so than almost any other profession. Given the privileged place that sport holds in our culture (for better or for worse), an athlete -or even better: an Olympian- walks into a room and children will pay attention. The quality and the clarity of that attention is, in my opinion, the single-most undervalued, underperforming commodity, we, as a country, have produced. It’s like we’ve won the lottery and we’ve stuffed all ten million under the mattress and are refusing to invest it. It occurred to me that if we, as a group, can find a way to put that capital to work in a sensible, meaningful manner, then I think we can take some impressive strides towards mitigating root causes that plague adolescents as they navigate their way into adulthood. So using sport as a lever, I asked myself, "How do you effect the maximum change for the maximum number of youth at the minimum cost?" In the Arena is my answer and to date, the results have been inspiring: athletes, programmed overachievers that they are, are far outperforming my expectations (and I have high expectations!); program participants are thriving as a result of their prolonged contact with these impressive role models and the community responses have been unilaterally positive. It's a win-win-win.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. AMORY ROWE is the founder of In the Arena. Having witnessed first-hand the way in which athletes magnetize the attention of this country’s youngest and most impressionable citizens, and dismayed by the dearth of high-caliber role models in many communities, Amory established In the Arena in the fall of 2006 with the aim of effecting positive and meaningful change at the youth level. Amory’s belief in the uplifting power of sport and the value of civic engagement were born of her own experience as an athlete, a teacher and a coach.
As an undergraduate at Princeton, from which she received a BA in English in 1995, Amory played on the varsity field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse teams, co-captaining the field hockey and lacrosse teams her senior year. Amory’s teams won five Ivy League Championships and one National Championship (in lacrosse). In addition, Amory was awarded individual Ivy League honors six times, All-American honors four times, Academic All-American honors her senior year and holds the distinction of being Princeton’s first athlete, male or female, in any sport to be named a First Team All-American three years in a row. At graduation Amory received the C. Otto von Kienbush Prize as one of the school’s best female scholar-athletes. As a member of the U.S. Women’s Lacrosse Team in 1997, Amory traveled to the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, where her team defended its world title by defeating Australia in the Championship game. After lacrosse Amory made a transition to individual sports, competing for Reebok Boston in cross country, indoor and outdoor track. Her running paved the road to a career in triathlon; she entered the world of multi-sport in 2001, turning professional in 2003. In 2004 Amory was the U.S. Pro Duathlon National Champion and the top-ranked U.S. duathlete, achieving a #4 world ranking. Amory’s athletic pursuits were balanced by her service as a teacher and coach. Her first post-collegiate job was as a Teaching Fellow at the Dunn School in Los Olivos, CA. From there she took a post as assistant coach of the Harvard women’s lacrosse team and, subsequently, served as an English teacher and coach (field hockey and lacrosse) at Buckingham Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge, MA. Prior to founding In the Arena, Amory served as Executive Director of the U.S. Athletic Trust, a not-for-profit that provides logistical and financial support for college-graduated aspiring Olympians. Contact Information:
Amory Rowe
Founder, Executive Director In the Arena (NGO: 501(c)(3) organization) amory@in-the-arena.org In the Arena Box 381513 Cambridge, MA 02138 United States Tel: 888.952.7362 Fax: n/a Website: www.in-the-arena.org Discussions about this entry |
