See what AmeriCorps members serving through Up2Us Coach and AmeriCorps VISTA have been able to accomplish during their service terms.
How AmeriCorps Has Helped Us #GetThingsDone
Jay's Way: Hoop From The Heart Charity Basketball Tournament
Play Fair, Play IX: 32 Years of NGWSD
Up2Us Coaches Nationwide Participate in MLK Day of Service
Ambassador Kim Vandenberg Hosts Swim Clinic for New Orleans Youth
Up2Us Sports athlete ambassador Kim Vandenberg hosted a swim clinic for 30 girls from long-standing partner ReNew Schaumburg Elementary. The school, in partnership with The New Orleans Recreation Development (NORD) Commission, the American Red Cross and Up2Us Sports, launched their swim program in advance of the 2017-2018 school year. Up2Us Sports placed two coaches in the program to teach students swim skills and life skills throughout the school year.
2017 Gala Honors Top Female Athletes and Coaches
On Monday, May 15, 2017, Up2Us Sports held its’ 5th Annual Gala, celebrating powerhouse female coaches and athletes. Up2Us Sports presented its Legacy Award to Mollie Marcoux Samaan (Director of Athletics at Princeton University) and Angela Ruggiero (four-time Olympic medalist in women’s ice hockey), who was unfortunately not able to attend due to a family emergency, but who was honored just the same.
She Can Coach: A Campaign in Support of Women Coaches
Up2Us Sports is launching She Can Coach - a fundraising and awareness campaign focused on the importance of growing opportunities for women to coach and ensuring young girls in vulnerable communities have great female role models in their lives.
Research from the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sports proves that girls drop out of sports at a higher rate than boys and that girls’ participation is strongly correlated with female role models.
Support the 2017 Up2Us Sports Gala and Support Women Who Coach!
Support the 2017 Up2Us Sports Gala
Up2Us Sports Female Ambassadors are History Makers
Women's History Month is held annually in March to highlight the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It started with the first International Women’s Day in 1911, grew to National Women’s History Week in 1980 and was officially recognized in it’s current form in 1988. We believe that sports history is also worth celebrating this month, particularly the historic and impactful achievements of female athletes. They have been winning medals, setting records, and smashing the glass ceiling for decades. Up2Us Sports works with six female ambassadors who have all made their mark on their respective sports, and each hold a small - or in some cases, large - piece of history.
Attend Workshop on Using Sport to Address Trauma at the International Trauma Conference
Up2Us Sports Chief Program Officer Megan Bartlett will be leading a workshop on using sports to address trauma with Lou Bergholz and Sean Rose on May 31, 2017 at the 28th Annual International Trauma Conference in Boston. More information on the workshop below.
Workshop Title:
Harnessing Your Competitive Spirit: Physical activity, trauma-sensitive coaching, league-level play, and the intervention methodologies that are shaping sports-based stabilization
Workshop Overview:
Interested in a healing medium rooted in competency, self-regulation, identity, physical activity, rituals, routines, and pro-social connection? Then you are interested in the unique role that sport can play in healing. This pre-conference, on the emerging field of sports-based stabilization, will bring together practitioners from the clinical and sport worlds to examine the ways in which sport can be shaped into a therapeutic modality. Participants will spend the day exploring the key elements of the sports-based stabilization framework: unlocking the power of physical activity; learning the skills of a trauma-sensitive coach; and, embedding the core therapeutic elements into the sport experience to create a league that promotes healing. By participating in a sport training session, participants will learn firsthand the elements of a trauma-sensitive warm-up, how to build competency through sport drills, and the hidden opportunities that exist in sport to facilitate therapeutic conversations. Leading practitioners in the field of sports will further bring these elements to life through stories that describe the impact of their work in sport and trauma. Participants will leave with a “playbook” of design principles and techniques that can be integrated into any intervention, but are ideally used to build a trauma-sensitive sports league.
This pre-conference will be active and is designed for maximum accessibility. No previous sport experience is required and participants of all abilities are welcome. Comfortable clothing and athletic shoes strongly recommended.
SPEAKERS
Lou Bergholz Chief Knowledge Officer Edgework Consulting
Lou has been working on the frontlines of youth development for over two decades, from residential treatment centers to camps working with children infected and affected by HIV. The Edgework team is dedicated to working with organizations, and communities to help them solve their complex people problems. For close to 15 years Edgework has been creating trauma-informed interventions in the US and abroad that apply academic research and clinical practice to populations without reliable access to definitive clinical care.
Sean M. Rose, M.Ed. Executive Director JRI Connecticut
Sean has more than 22 years of experience in education, treatment, and mental health with families, children, and adolescents. He has held various leadership roles in the public and non-profit sectors, and has successfully partnered with state and local government to advocate for and serve youth with complex trauma, mental health, and behavioral health issues. Over his career, Sean has successfully managed programs aimed at enabling youth to develop to their full potential, from residential to recreational. Most recently, Sean was appointed as the Executive Director for Justice Resource Institute’s Connecticut division. He earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Lesley University and was awarded a master’s degree in education and school administration from American International College.
Megan Bartlett, MA Chief Program Officer Up2Us Sports
Megan has spent her career working in, designing, and advocating for programs that use sport as a tool for positive youth development. At Up2Us Sports, she helped build the first national service program placing coaches as mentors for youth in underserved communities, and created the innovative training program that has provided thousands of coaches with the tools to take a trauma-sensitive approach to sport. She has extensive experience working directly with youth as a college and youth soccer coach, camp director, and in community mental health. Megan earned a MA in Urban Policy and Planning from Tufts University and a BA in Psychology and Sociology from Wesleyan University.