Sport in Society Co-ops

So our first full week is coming to an end. Not only am I feeling really good about all the relationships Blake and I have fostered with the kids and the staff at the Hyde Park YMCA but I am also extremely excited about the projects we have coming up.

The week immediately was off to a good start, we were given the opportunity to run the teen center solo on our first day in. We were in charge of looking after the kids and helping them with pretty much anything they needed. We also had to figure out different ways to get them involved and active, which, as rookies, I feel we did a good job. Our supervisor also gave us the opportunity to come up with an activities schedule for the m0nths of March and April. For this Blake and I researched different activities, prices and locations and scheduled them out between the two months.

Just a few moments ago was, what I feel, the most exciting thing we've had to do thus far. After spending the last couple days of this week creating a resource sheet detailing contact information for the 42 middle schools in the immediate Hyde Park area Blake and I sent out emails to the different principals. In our message we introduced ourselves, our mission and proposed the idea of possibly meeting to discuss different issues facing their respective communities and their teens specifically in hopes to create, or further, partnerships and set up different programs geared towards the teens. I feel like this was our first official step towards our role as "community operatives" and it was a thrilling experience in itself.

I feel like the kids are very excited about what we're trying to do here and quick to give us their ideas and opinions on everything that we propose, which is an extremely useful relationship. I feel like a majority of the kids are now comfortable with us willing to contribute to the activities we run with them.

I am eager to hear back from the principals we communicated with to begin formalizing partnerships and really getting a sense of the different communities we're going to be working with. I feel, for the most part, kids in the area are just looking for things to get involved with and my goal is to give them that opportunity.

I am anxious to get back into the office on Monday see where these following weeks are going to take us!