Up2Us Sports Statement from Founder & CEO Paul Caccamo on Proposed AmeriCorps Funding Cuts

The current Congress is considering a proposal that would zero out funding for AmeriCorps, the federal agency that supports national service. I wanted to share what this means in a very personal way.

Without AmeriCorps, a young girl in North Philadelphia will wake up tomorrow morning and discover that her soccer team has been eliminated. Her soccer team, led by her AmeriCorps coach, is a key motivation for her attending school every day. Her AmeriCorps coach was her first mentor to help her develop the confidence to look the other way when she faced bullying in the hallways of her school.

Without AmeriCorps, a boy in New York City will wake up to discover that his after-school lacrosse team has been eliminated. The team, run by an AmeriCorps coach, inspired him to overcome the temptations of gang participation and to instead aim for graduation from high school. It is his AmeriCorps coach who regularly meets with him to set academic goals and to encourage him that he can be the first one in his family to go to college.

Without AmeriCorps, a girl will wake up in East Los Angeles, and discover that her softball team has been eliminated. Being from an immigrant family, her team meant everything to her. Her AmeriCorps coach went the extra mile to ensure that she was not only part of the team, but also a team captain setting the example for other Latina girls to believe in their potential.

Without AmeriCorps, a boy will wake up in Chicago to discover that his basketball team has been eliminated. For this boy, the team is the first time he ever felt safe. His AmeriCorps coach helped him heal from the violence that afflicted his family. His coach even shared his own story of growing up in the same community and overcoming adversity. Now this boy wants to serve this community as an AmeriCorps coach too.

Without AmeriCorps, Up2Us Sports will not exist. We are the only national service

program that challenges young adults from underserved communities who play(ed) sports to translate their athletic passion into mentoring at-risk youth in their communities. Our program is not political: we use America’s greatest unifier, sports, to inspire the next generation of Americans. Members of Congress who played sports know firsthand that they learned some of the most important life skills from being an athlete. We have supported more than 4,000 AmeriCorps coaches who have made sports possible for more than 100,000 underserved kids in dozens of cities from Gainesville, FL, to Baltimore, MD, from Charleston, WV, to Seattle, WA.

I invite any member of Congress, before they vote on this bill, to come to the courts, fields, diamonds, gymnasiums, pools, and recreation centers that are operating with AmeriCorps coaches. Come and meet our coaches and come and meet the kids for whom these programs are a lifeline.

And then imagine these very same places without AmeriCorps.