Up2Us Sports was awarded, for the second time, a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). The funds will be used to launch the Multi-State Coach Mentoring Initiative, which will place 65 coach-mentors in 12 major cities to support sports-based youth development programs that are designed to prevent youth violence.

The first $1 million grant from OJJDP was awarded to help reduce youth violence in low-income, disadvantaged neighborhoods. Up2Us used these funds to place coach-mentors in 12 cities at 25 host sites from March 2013 through March 2014.

In one year the coach-mentors made a big impact:

• 66 coach-mentors served over 4,800 youth;
• Less than 1% of program youth committed a delinquent offense;
• 40% of youth reported an increase in physical activity;
• 86% of coaches reported that their programs provided more opportunities for youth to be physically active than they would otherwise have had.

Additionally, these youth were measured on a set of eight attributes, called High Impact Attributes (HIAs), such as discipline and positive identity, which are developed through sport and have been linked with various positive life outcomes. At the end of the program, 88% of youth reported competency on the HIAs, with 43% of youth increasing this competency during program participation.

The new cohort of OJJDP-funded coach-mentors will be trained at Up2Us Sports’ four-day National Coach Training Institute in Chicago from Feb. 28 through March 3.