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.