For the sixth consecutive year, Up2Us Sports has received funding from PennSERVE, Pennsylvania’s state service commission. For the 2021-2022 year, the $152,000 grant will support 14 Up2Us Sports coaches in the North, Northwest, South, and West sections of Philadelphia, as well as economically vulnerable suburbs.

These national service members will be responsible for 1,600 young people served in a variety of athletic and holistic educational development activities that are designed to improve physical fitness and social dexterity, with the ultimate goal of leveraging these improvements to better themselves and their community.

Since 2016, PennSERVE has provided grants for 79 service members, who have served 6,096 youth throughout the state of Pennsylvania.

“PennSERVE and Up2Us Sports will continue to partner to advance our aligned missions to improve lives through national service and volunteerism,” says Hillery Gladden, Up2Us Sports’ Senior National Director, Programs. “At Up2Us Sports that means training AmeriCorps coaches to transform the lives of youth. Sports-based youth development has never been more critical as we come out of the COVID-19 crisis and as young people are wanting and needing to participate in social interaction and play.”

PennSERVE is Pennsylvania’s state service commission. State service commissions were created in the National and Community Service Trust Act as amended in 1993. State service commissions are governor-appointed public agencies or nonprofit organizations made up of more than 1,200 commissioners - volunteers leading the nation's philanthropic and service movement. The nation’s 52 state service commissions operate at the state and local level granting more than $252 million from federal national service funds while matching these federal dollars with over $300 million from state and local sources to support service and volunteerism in America. These funds support more than 40,000 AmeriCorps members.

We are currently actively recruiting coaches and host sites nationwide. If you are interested in becoming a coach-mentor or hosting a coach in the Greater Philadelphia area, please contact dbolden@up2ussports.org.