Happy Monday!

It's the start of another week here at Sport in Society. Per usual, we checked in at the office this morning before going our separate ways. Rather than developing an entire list of goals for the week, Meg asked us to each compose a logic model for our respective Y's. These logic models will help us to continue to make progress in Chinatown and Hyde Park. They will be extremely beneficial when sitting down with perspective community partners. It will give them a better idea of what exactly we are trying to achieve at the Y. Knowing how competitive the five of us are with each other, Meg made the smart move in making this a competition. The two top logic models will attend the Celtics game on Wednesday. During the first half, the two "chosen ones" will be manning a Sport in Society table at the Garden. But, after halftime they will be able to watch the game. It will be interesting to see who wins. I have a feeling the boys want to go more than the girls, but do not put it pass Lucy to pull out the upset.

This week at Hyde Park will be a transition back into our capacity building work. Last week was school vacation week and Aubrey and I were given the responsibility of coming up with activities for the kids. After a long and tiring week, we are both ready to get back to the grind. Over at Chinatown, Frank and Lucy are getting used to their new schedule and running the PE program and after school program.

Playworks

While Frank and Lucy already did an incredible job describing the amazing experience of working with Playworks, I would like to talk about it a bit as well. First and foremost, seeing the excitement and joy that these kids had being on a college campus was tremendously rewarding. After the scavenger hunt, I heard one kid say that when they go to college they want to to go to Northeastern, and I'm sure the sentiment was shared by many others as well. This is a testament to the excellence of Northeastern, the beauty of the campus, and the kindness that lies within the student-body.

When the student athlete panel was announced, the kids were overwhelmingly happy to be in the presence of college athletes. They cheered after every sentence that the athletes uttered, and when the panel was done they were asking the athletes for autographs. The kids did not respect the athletes solely for their athletic prowess either; several kids asked how the athletes were able to balance playing sports and doing homework. The fact that at such age the kids already understand the academic challenge of being in college is truly extraordinary.

Having the opportunity to meet these fantastic kids was really for me. It makes me want to work with kids in the future. It also makes me feel very strongly about the proposal to cut the funding for service. If the proposal goes through, Playworks would be severely affected as a large number of their employees are through AmeriCorps. The impact that Playworks has on these kids is remarkable. I do not know what these kids lives are like aside from Playworks, but I can guarantee that having such positive role models as the Playworks employees, along with the amount of fun they having playing games and the large amount that they learn through the workshops is a big, positive influence on their lives

Best Week So Far!!

As I awoke on Wednesday I had no idea what was in store for me over the next two days. As I walked over to Ruggles Station at 745am to meet my students, I was preparing for the worst. I can honestly say that when I was a kid and I was on vacation from school, all I wanted to do was hang out with my friends, play video games and just “chill.” I was fully expecting these kids to not want to be at the conference and, in turn, questioned how responsive they would be to the bullying curriculum that I was about to drop on their heads. Oh man was I wrong, the kids that showed up were off-the-wall excited to be here and participated to the best of their ability whether it was during the lesson plans or in the four square arena. Working with these young kids at Northeastern gave me an opportunity to step back and reevaluate my time here and how I have used it. I never realized how fortunate I am to go to a university that is constantly flowing with energy and activities all throughout the campus. I also never realized how much of a role model I was to kids like these during my time on the football team here. During the conference the kids had an opportunity to meet some student athletes of Northeastern that play such sports as track & field, soccer, field hockey and basketball. When these athletes entered the room they were showered with a greeting similar to those the players on the Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots normally receive. The kids were going nuts; they were so excited to meet these young adults as they were viewed as heroes in their eyes. After we spoke with the athletes, we had finally reached the climax of the conference: a campus scavenger hunt. Seeing these kids sprint around and in between college students heading to class and jumping/swinging on the statues was fantastic. They were literally having the time of their lives but with the good times often come the bad times as the two day conference was coming to an end. As we walked the kids back to Ruggles and into the open arms of their parents I was overcome with feeling of joy. I was with my group for less than 16 hours and the relationship that grew between us seemed as though I had known them for 16 months. I had just as much fun as the kids if not more during my time with them and being part of this conference has really motivated me to get back to the YMCA bright and early Monday morning at 8am with my other students.

Northeastern students hit the road next week for Spring Break but we will be back trying to make a difference. Have a great week!

Playworks Junior Coaches Leadership Conference

Playworks, an amazing national organization that runs recess in Boston area schools, held their annual Junior Coaches Leadership Conference (JCLC) at Northeastern’s Curry Center this past Wednesday and Thursday. In their own words “Playworks is a national nonprofit organization that supports learning by providing safe, healthy and inclusive play and physical activity to schools at recess and throughout the entire school day” (find more information at http://www.playworks.org/ ). Playworks places dedicated and passionate adults (coaches) in the schools to reach their goals. Many of these coaches are energetic young college graduates involved in Playworks through AmeriCorps. Playworks chooses students at each school that they work with to act as Junior Coaches who help their coaches provide a safe and fun recess, while simultaneously developing important leadership skills that allow them to become leaders in their schools. The JCLC is held for these students during their February vacation to promote leadership skills and this year bullying prevention. The addition of the bullying prevention aspect of the conference was a result of the close partnership between Playworks and Sports in Society. SIS and Playworks worked closely to plan the JCLC and to use SIS’s Project Teamwork curriculum to create a JCLC specific bullying curriculum that utilizes the importance of bystanders in preventing bullying.
I was lucky enough to act as a substitute coach for the A.C. Whelan School of Revere throughout the JCLC. The group of Junior Coaches that I worked with was a great bunch of fifth graders who really understood their role and were dedicated to acting as leaders in their school. Some of the highlights of the JCLC included, three bullying training sessions which I was able to facilitate to my group of students, lunch in Matthews Arena while the Northeastern women’s hockey team practiced, a student-athlete panel/small group discussions with NU athletes, and a scavenger hunt around Northeastern’s campus. Each of these activities gave the students a look into college life and the life of leaders and athletes. Many of the students had never been on a college campus before, so this experience opened up a new world to them. At the end of the conference when asked who wanted to go to college all the kids raised their hands and many wanted to play sports in college too! Another great aspect of the conference was that kids from all over Boston and its surrounding communities were in attendance, allowing JCs to meet other kids like them from different areas.
All in all the JCLC was a great experience! The Playworks staff was a very open, welcoming, and fun group to work with and the kids were fantastic. I will be going back to the Wang YMCA with more experience in facilitating curriculum to students as well as a abundance of new fun games to teach the kids.

Making Community Connections

The past few days have been very successful in regards to making community connections. Frank and I dropped in at the office of Jerry Foster, the director of club sports on Monday and were received with lots of useful information, including an introduction to a few members of the Squashbusters staff. We hope to be able to partner with Squashbusters in the future as they are a great organization that was very open to working with the Y and talking with us! We left on Monday feeling accomplished, we felt we had made a great connection that would be lasting and beneficial to the youth we serve at the Wang, as well as the Hyde Park through Kristen and Aubrey.

Tuesday, all four YMCA-SIS co-ops set out to travel into BU territory to the office of Girls’ LEAP…as can be expected we were reminded of how much we love NU while watching the hordes of students walk up and down Comm. Ave. in the freezing cold. We were greeted at Girls’ LEAP by a friendly, all female staff, and Lola, the office dog (which of course we think should be an addition to the SIS office). Our meeting was successful and we found that SIS and Girls’ LEAP have many shared goals as both strive to create awareness surrounding issues of violence, especially violence perpetrated against women, in some capacity. We were all very impressed by the Girls’ LEAP program and feel it would be a great asset to the girls in our respective Y’s who we have found to be often disengaged and not as self-confident as we would like. Moving forward we hope to collaborate with Girls’ LEAP, and may even be able to bring them to the YMCA for Healthy Kids Day in May!

All in all we are making great progress in building community relationships and opening doors to the possibility of future partnerships and general awareness about SIS and the Wang/Hyde Park Ys. I am looking forward to more such meetings in the coming weeks as we begin implementing more concrete programs!

Teen Life Community Service Fair

On Sunday, I represented Sport in Society at the Teen Life Community Service Fair, which took place at the Chestnut Hill Mall in Newton. This event provided an excellent medium to inform people about the Sport in Society mission and community service opportunities, as well as establish connections with other non-profit organizations for Sport in Society to potentially partner with in the future.

The event was attended by a tremendous amount of people, as I was constantly approached at my table by people looking to learn more about Sport in Society. The vast majority of the attendees were high school students, or parents looking to find volunteering opportunities for their high school-aged children. The students that I talked to had a variety of interests that they are interested in pursuing volunteer opportunities in. Most were looking for summertime opportunities, as they are quite busy with school at the moment.

At the fair I met representatives from Brookline Quest, an organization dedicated to helping Brookline area children with special needs. Brookline Quest helps organize Special Olympics teams, and is generally dedicated to improving the physical fitness of their participants. Another organization that I talked to at the fair was Boston Greenfest. Boston Greenfest is an annual environmental festival put on by the Foundation for a Green Future. At this festival they have a section that is specifically for health and fitness, and they would like Sport in Society to contribute to this section at the upcoming festival in August.

Overall, I found the event to be a very rewarding experience. When describing Sport in Society to people, I made sure to stress the importance of the relationship's that we have developed with all of our incredible partners. Finding a plethora of potential volunteers, combined with meeting a pair of potential future partners made this event a great success.

Lawrence Double Dutch Coaches Training

Wednesday was by far one of the best days I’ve had at Sport in Society. Wednesday afternoon Caitlin, Ben, Kristen and I headed to Lawrence, MA for a double dutch coaches training. After getting a bit lost (on the impressive campus of Lawrence High School!) we arrived at one of the Lawrence elementary school gyms filled with eager phys. ed. and health teachers from the Lawrence area. These excited and dedicated individuals are hoping to emulate the progress that has been made in the Boston schools to start up double dutch teams and programs in gym classes. After getting a talk about the basics of double dutch (including its history, which began with the colonial Dutch in New York) students from the Mildred K-8 school in Mattapan gave a demonstration. The demonstration was great and even more amazing once we found out that the girls on the team had only been doing double dutch since November!

When the demonstration was over all the training participants got the opportunity to learn to do double dutch (both jumping and turning the ropes). Needless to say the SIS group was eager to join in (I for one had been looking forward to this ever since Caitlin told me about the training). We were not afraid to look silly (and we did!), so we jumped right in line. While we defiantly got tangled in the ropes and tripped a few times, I think I can say that we all enjoyed the experience and were impressed by the difficulty and skill that the sport requires. By the end we all were able to get in and out of the ropes and turn the ropes successfully at least once, which I consider a big accomplishment for our first try at double dutch!

The day was a lot of fun, but it was also an educational experience. I was extremely impressed by the demeanor, poise, and maturity of the students from the Mildred school. The girls (6th – 8th graders) did a great job helping all the adults learn to do double dutch. They were not afraid to correct us or patiently explain what we were doing wrong and how to fix it. The girls also shared with us how much they loved the sport and why. Many of them pointed out that they did not think double dutch was a serious sport until they saw a competition and that they worked very hard to get good at the sport. Through listening to the girls speak and seeing the way they acted I was convinced that double dutch would be a great program to start up at the Wang. I think double dutch will give the girls at the Wang an exciting new opportunity to be part of a team and compete in a serious sports environment while gaining self discipline, confidence and having fun! I can’t wait to start work on implementing a double dutch group at the Wang, and possibly even starting up a YMCA double dutch league!

Busy Week

This has been an eventful week for me back at the office. With Sport in Society poised to make presentations (more details on what we are presenting will come in a later post) to multiple Major League Baseball teams at spring training, I was assigned the task of finding which teams held their spring training in Florida. In addition, I had to determine the location of their stadiums, and the distance to the nearest stadium. This was a fun project, and it cumulated in the creation of a map showing where all of the teams were located. One interesting I learned from this was that all of the teams are in a cluster south of Orlando and north of Miami. Also, the majority of teams are on or near the coast.

On Wednesday, Caitlin, Lucy, Kirsten and I went to Lawrence to attend a double dutch training session. For those unfamiliar with double dutch, it is the same as jump-roping, but with two ropes. This was an excellent experience, as we got to learn from some superb double dutch coaches and players. A team from the Mildred school in Mattapan was present, and their players had an impressive demonstration, showcasing the fancy moves that they obviously have been working very hard on. We then had the opportunity to try out double-dutch for ourselves. It was rather difficult, although we all had flashes of success.

Thursday was a very exciting day, as we had our quarterly retreat. Everyone in the office assembled at a restaurant in Wellesley to discuss the progress that we have made on our goals from the previous quarter, our plans for the next quarter, and how it all fits into our long-term strategic plan. Being a co-op, and a relatively new one at that, I lacked the knowledge to make any significant contributions to the discussion. However, it was still fascinating to hear about all of the projects that we have completed, are currently working on, or have planned for the future. It was also nice to hear updates from each staff member and co-op about what they have been doing lately.

This Past Week.....

This may actually be the first post on this blog where I am not about to complain about Mother Nature ruining my work week. As the weather was frigid, but clear, Lucy and I made a great deal of progress this week. As the week began on Monday, Lucy and I sat down and spent a great deal of time preparing for our meeting with the Executive Director of ther Wang YMCA. When all of us met last week it seemed as though we all left the meeting with a great deal of unanswered questions and nagging concerns. As we prepared for the meeting, we made sure to clearly articulate our current and long-term goals for the Y in an effort to have us all get on the same page.

What was assumed to be a brief, concise meeting actually turned out to be a near two hour ordeal and it seemed as though we could have went another three if we weren't interupted. We entered the meeting with a more confident swagger as we both knew what we wanted to say and how we wanted to say it. When the meeting concluded it didn't seem as though we resolved everything but we definietly took steps in the right direction. We are working to make our future goals a reality, its a process that will begin with us and hopefully continue long after our departure.

This last week of work at the Y did not really take place in Hyde Park at all. Due to the snow we were only able to head out to the YMCA Monday and Friday. Although the snow proved to be a valiant foe I feel like we were able to be productive and make great strides throughout the course of the week.

From the beginning of last week our eyes were set on Thursday, which was the day we had a meeting scheduled with the principal of the Irving middle school. Thursday morning was spent in the office prepping for our big day. As it got closer and closer to 3:00 the nerves definitely began to rise, however we had a game plan and we were confident that we were going into that meeting with everything we needed. It was finally 3 o’clock and we there Kristen and I were at Irving Middle school, greeted by an excited and hopeful middle school principal. We spent the first half of the meeting detailing to him our role and some of our hopes and goals. We then opened dialogue about the different problems facing middle school youth in the area. Of the problems he listed I feel like one of the most important was the simple fact that there was just not enough space for the youth to be active. It was at this point we realized that a partnership with the Hyde Park YMCA and Irving middle school was not only a great idea but almost necessary. After discussing the value of a partnership like this one and coming up with an idea of what something like this would look like we left eager to figure out the logistics of all this with our supervisor.

Friday was also an extremely eventful day for us. First thing Friday we had the opportunity to sit in on a staff check-in meeting and were able to present to, the majority of the staff some of our ideas and tell them about the meeting we had and other meetings we were in the process of setting up. One idea that went over particularly well was Kristen and I’s idea of having a YMCA hosted dodge ball tournament for adults and kids. Not only would an event like this work well to market the different facilities that the YMCA has, it would also do well as a community bonding event. I feel like it was a very great chance for us to sit in with the staff and really give them an idea again of what we are trying to do and the different routes and ideas we have aimed at our goals.

Friday Reggie our direct supervisor also tasked Kristen and I for writing a blurb about our sports week, teen drop-in events coming up which were both going to be published in the YMCA newsletter, which was a very exciting opportunity.

The week did start off slow however there were many really important events that occurred towards the end of it all that really have us excited about what we are doing. Not only have we taken the first couple steps into the community but we have gotten the positive support and feedback from those working with us that has really inspired us to keep moving in the directions we are.

The Wicked Weird Week (with a Boston accent)

Hey Guys!

So as my title states, this past week was the weirdest one yet. Thanks to the "snowmaggedon" that Frank so cleverly came up with, we were barely at the Y. The only days we spent in Hyde Park were Monday and Friday.

Monday, Aubrey and I ran the teen center for the second week. It was going smoothly until 5:50, ten minutes before we were supposed to leave, a teen came in seeking homework help. We ended up staying until nearly 7 oclock helping him with his work. Although we felt obliged to help him, Aubrey and I have both decided that setting clear rules about Mondays is in our best interest. That is one of our goals for this week.

Tuesday was spent in the office, where most of our time was used for venting our frustrations (sorry Meg!). However, once we were all able to speak about the different issues we were facing, the four of us felt alot better about going back to our respective Y's. We learned that patience is in fact a virtue and that in due time things will work themselves out. Fingers crossed...

The rest of the week was a huge success for Aubrey and I. On Thursday we got to sit down with a principal of a near by middle school and discuss the issues facing teens in Hyde Park. We are attempting to meet with as many principals and program coordinators dealing with middle school youth in the area. Our goal is to compose a collective list of problems that these kids are facing and create curriculum or programs that can be facilitated to help them. The principal we met with LOVED the idea. He was eager to create a partnership with the YMCA to accommodate his 6th grade students this fall. We are currently in the process of figuring out all of the details. We are also setting up more meetings for this week.

Friday was another exciting day in Hyde Park. We sat in on a weekly staff meeting and presented our ideas to everyone. Every body was extremely excited about the dodgeball tournament that Aubrey came up with. They feel like its a great way to market to the surrounding community. Given their support, we are really excited about moving forward and seeing what we can accomplish here in Hyde Park.

Goals for the week:
1. set up more meetings with principals and community program managers
2. choose SIS curriculum to facilitate during Tween Week
3. finalize march/April teen schedule
4. create rules for Teen Center on Mondays

A Good Monday Morning

The best part of my work week occurred bright and early Monday morning. Monday I went straight to the Wang YMCA at 8:30am excited to be a part of the Quincy Upper School’s PE classes (which are held at the YMCA and taught by YMCA staff) for the first time. Although I enjoyed all three classes the first class of the day was the most rewarding.
During the first class I spent most of the time working with one group of sixth grade girls who I found sitting on the bleachers. They were huddled in the corner talking quietly to each other and did not look very happy. After introducing myself to them and learning each of their names I asked them what they were up to and why they weren’t participating in any games/physical activity. I was told that one of the girls (who was visibly crying) was very upset because she had lost her art project. After talking with her and trying to help her solve her problem, but failing to fix the situation, I suggested I teach them the game “head catch,” which my fellow co-op Kristen had taught me. I thought this would distract her and in the process she would have some fun and feel better. At first the girls were hesitant to participate, they just wanted to talk and sit, but I eventually convinced them to try it out. They liked the idea of the game and in the end the girl who had been crying was the first to start playing. Even though the girls complained that it hurt to “head” the ball they still told me they want to play “head catch” again next week! This was a success not only because I was able to get a few girls up off the bench and participating, but also because when the girl who was crying began participating in the game it brightened her spirits and illustrated the power that physical activity has to the health of not only our bodies, but also our minds and spirits.
I think this situation is a great example of how important it is for kids, especially in a community with such high academic standards, to have time to exercise and have fun. Throughout our time thus far at Sport in Society we have talked a lot about the importance of sport in kids’ lives and how unfortunate it is that so many students don’t have the opportunity to participate in physical activity. Seeing the transformative nature of physical activity and sport in such an everyday situation brought many of the larger ideas we have been talking about home to me and I think it helped to reground me in the work we are doing.

The Week of Snowmageddon

Five days..... It is February 4th and Boston Public Schools have already been closed five days now due to the crazy amount of snowfall that we have received. We got to spend time at YMCA on Monday and Tuesday but had to miss Wednesday as the kids were told to stay home as Boston got murdered with close to two feet of snow. Even though this week was somewhat abbreviated, we still managed to get a lot done in the little time we had at the Y.

One of the best moments of the week, for me personally, was when a group of 50+ sixth graders came running into the gym at 8:30am on Monday and a number of them recognized me. One of my main goals for last week was to become more comfortable with my new surroundings at the Y and as soon as the work week started I was greeted with a number of smiles and 'hellos.' I was already two minutes into my Monday morning when I reached my first goal of the week which was to simply be remembered and feel welcomed.

My colleague Lucy and I spent most of Monday and Tuesday at the YMCA, we spent the mornings assisting with the P.E. classes and the afternoons in meetings with the staff. Being able to split our days like this gives us an opportunity for equal face time with both the students and the staff which is crucial to our success over the next six months. During both P.E. classes the students were given the option of Free Gym again, same as last week. While scanning the gym I noticed a large number of kids just casually shooting around or just standing there so I became a bit proactive. On one court I organized a 5v5 half court basketball game, on another court I organized a game of 'knock-out' and Lucy spent time interacting with the girls who were huddled in their groups on the sidelines. I immediately noticed that these kids have a much better experience and become more active when there is structure behind their activities.

The word 'structure' is going to be a very popular term within my entries as it is not just something these kids want but NEED. Over the next couple weeks we hope to develop and facilitate curriculums in addition to physical activity to help give these kids a healthy mind and body. We hope to start doing this as early as Wednesday when we will be with the "Stay & Play" program which operates with a more smaller audience of about thirteen kids. The result of this may foreshadow our time at the Y as a whole and I cannot be more anxious.

Til next time....