A Special Birthday Wish…

All of us celebrate government when it makes smart investments that result in the betterment of all of our lives.  Great examples of this have been the Internet, our GPS systems, micro-chips, and even the vaccines that keep us healthy. In the same vein, I say we celebrate AmeriCorps.

Just think about it. Talented adults are teaching in thousands of schools because of AmeriCorps.  Millions of children are receiving health and nutrition education because of AmeriCorps.  Millions of seniors receive emotional support because of AmeriCorps.  Disaster sites like New Orleans are rebuilt again because of AmeriCorps.  And now, sports is being revived in inner cities because of AmeriCorps.

This week, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of AmeriCorps: one of our federal government's major success stories.   We need to recognize that AmeriCorps has often provided the seed money to “great ideas” that we have since taken for granted as they have become the fabric of our American lives.

My own program, Up2Us, was based on a simple idea: a coach can be the most transformative adult in a child’s life, especially children who are in underserved communities and lack adult role models. AmeriCorps provided me the opportunity to hire and train my first coaches in 2009.  Since then, thanks to public-private partnerships, I’ve hired more than 1,700 coaches who have committed themselves to serving more than 133,650 at-risk youth in more than 60 different sports.  This simple idea has had powerful results: our trained coaches can reduce violence by up to 40% in urban communities.  Our trained coaches can lead to significant increases in physical activity that reduces the risk of obesity.  And, our trained coaches have helped youth in the worst performing schools to refocus their energy into educational pathways that lead to college and successful careers.  And now, thanks to AmeriCorps, my program is ready to take the innovative training we have developed for our coaches and make it available to the estimated 6.5 million volunteer coaches who want to be more effective at teaching life skills to their teams.

Up2Us is just one example of the power of AmeriCorps has to light a spark that impacts a nation.

Happy 20th Anniversary, AmeriCorps.  When I Google “national service" on the the internet, I will smile broadly at how many of the 52 million results were made possible by you!   And, I’ll smile also knowing that Google was made possible by our federal government, too.

Paul Caccamo

Executive Director and Founder, Up2Us

What We Can Learn From Recycling

I had the opportunity to eat lunch at a high-end professional office building in NYC the other day.  The cafeteria was in the main lobby, and I arrived at the peak hour, so I settled on the last available table in a corner that also happened to be right near the garbage receptacles.   Oddly enough, as I devoured my subsidized gourmet platter of food, I couldn’t help but stare at the trashcans, one of which was blue, one green and the other a nondescript grey.  What I observed has stayed with me ever since.

Every few moments, a different group of executives would arrive with their trays of emptied bottles, plates, napkins and other refuse.   In most cases, they were all conversing as they approached the bins and slowed almost routinely to discard the tray’s contents.   That’s when I observed a pattern that I never expected: when the person leading any given group paused long enough to separate glass and paper into the appropriate containers, the others that followed almost unthinkingly did the same.  But when the person leading the group dumped all their contents at once into the grey container, the persons that followed DID THE SAME.  Almost without exception, everyone followed the leader.

Now, let’s be clear.  These were presumably, well-educated lawyers, financial managers, business leaders, etc. If you stopped any of them, they most certainly would acknowledge that recycling is good for the environment. Some might even know that recycling is the law in New York City.  Yet, everyone just followed the leader whether that leader recycled or not.  It’s that easy to make a poor decision.  Even when you have all the education, all the resources and all the knowledge not to.

I remained at my table in that cafeteria but this time I was no longer watching the bins.  I was thinking of the millions of kids living in poverty who also follow the leaders. These leaders make it easy to join a gang, become a teen mom, be a bully or just drop out of school. It can be hard for professional adults to separate their garbage, can you imagine how difficult it must be for a child to resist these kind of negative role models when they are surrounded by them and when no one else is there to set a different example?

This is why Coach Across America is so important.  We have allowed too many youth in this nation’s communities to be leaderless.  The result is the failing schools, the crime, and the bullying that have become far too common imagery on our nightly news.

It’s time to get serious and invest in a workforce of coaches to lead youth to make the “right” decisions.  For all children, a coach is someone they can look up to and trust.  A coach is a role model who can guide their decision-making.  A trained coach helps them to see beyond the easy choices to make the right choices.

Every child deserves a coach.  And by investing in one, maybe one day, every child will grow up to be the professional in that office building who approaches those garbage cans and knows exactly what to do.

Paul Caccamo President & Founder

Sports as a Promise

President Obama announced a bold new initiative to re-inspire the war against poverty in this country called Promise Zones.  These zones will target resources to some of the most underserved areas in the nation. But what exactly is our promise to the youth in these communities?

I'd like to promise them a coach who can guide them through the challenges they face and who can point them to toward a successful future despite the obstacles posed by poverty.

After all, we know that most adults who succeed in this country are able to point to role models who helped them make the decisions in childhood and adolescence that resulted in their future success.

Children in Promise Zones should be the focus of the Promise Zones.  And they should each have access to the same adult "guides" that kids in every affluent community often take for granted.

The best and most affordable way to do this is to promise each child a trained Coach Across America coach in partnership with local sports-based youth development programs.

By delivering these youth safe after school sports activities that appeal to boys, girls and children of different abilities, we introduce these youth to adult role models, their coaches, who can help them envision a life beyond poverty.  By providing them positive peer groups through sports, we provide them insulation from the violence, substance abuse and teen pregnancy that is pervasive in their neighborhoods.  And by giving them the joy of physical activity, we build their bodies and their brains.  Numerous studies are demonstrating that kids who are physically active do better in school, overcome stress more easily, and develop social skills that help them make better decisions in life.  What's more, we can even create jobs in Promise Zones by hiring and training the young adults in these neighborhoods to be the change agents I just described.  After all, young adults from these communities with a passion for coaching make the best role models and their participation can lead to a more sustainable impact.

President Obama made a promise to create Promise Zones to end poverty.

I encourage him to make a further promise to the kids in those communities—a promise to provide them a coach so that the hope and potential of this effort is immediately visible in the parks, schools, fields, and playgrounds throughout these zones.  That defines the kind of community change that is at the root of ending poverty once and for all….

I promise.

Paul Caccamo Founder & Executive Director

Support Up2Us on Giving Tuesday

Tuesday...Whose Day? My guess is that someone in your life inspired you when you were very young to believe in yourself and to dream that you could make it one day.

Maybe it was a teacher or a coach or a music instructor or a mentor.

Now just imagine growing up in a situation in which there is no adult to believe in you.   Through no fault of your own, simply because of circumstances beyond your control, you live in a house with an absent parent.  You go to an overcrowded school with a teacher who doesn't have time for you.   Your peers are getting involved in gangs or becoming moms at age 13.  And there are not enough coaches or mentors in your community to show you a different way…a way out.

Today, people across the country are participating in Giving Tuesday.   It launches the holiday season asking us all to take a moment and support a charity whose mission means something to us.

I’m asking you to consider Up2Us to be that charity. Support Up2Us’ mission to use sports to bring about change in the lives of our nation’s at-risk youth.

Please do it in honor of an adult who inspired you when you were young—that  special "mentor” or “coach" who taught you life lessons that still ring true with you today.

In return, your support will be used to hire and train coach-mentors to be there for kids who desperately need positive role models in their lives.   And Up2Us has got the magic formula to do it—it's sports-based youth development programs PLUS highly trained coach mentors.  The fact is, while kids in the most traumatic circumstances may lose their connection to most adults, they will still look up to their coach.  I want to train a national workforce of coaches in America to foster this trust and inspire in kids, no matter how desperate their circumstances, the skills and life lessons that will get them through school, to college and onward to a successful life.

Tuesday…Whose Day?

I say this day belongs to that adult who once inspired you. Honor him or her by making a role model possible for a child who needs one. Click here to make a donation.

Want to do more? Promote the link to your friends and followers on Twitter & Facebook using #GivingTuesday and @Up2UsSports.

Thanks for your support and have a wonderful holiday season!

Paul Caccamo Executive Director

Cutting Sports, Cutting Values

I'm often receiving links to stories about the power of sports. Recently, I saw a story of a high school football team in Michigan who made a secret pact that they would forfeit every scoring opportunity when they got to their opponent’s one-yard line.   They wanted to set up one of their teammates—a child who was labeled as “not cool” because he suffered from a developmental disability—to be in a position where he could successfully carry the football into the end zone and score his first touchdown.  By the end of that game, his teammates had succeeded.  They blocked the opposing team and cleared the way for this “uncool” kid to score a touchdown and be cheered on by the entire community. Afterwards, one of the other high school football players said in tears that he learned lessons from the whole experience that he would take with him for the rest of his life.  He explained that up until that moment he had never thought of anyone but himself.  But that touchdown helped him to realize that life is really not about “you,” it’s about the actions you take for others.

This story about the power of sports led me to ponder…what if every child in this country learned this lesson at a young enough age to guide their entire future?  What kind of impact would that have on our schools, communities, businesses and governments?   Then, I pondered an even more fundamental question…where do children go to even learn these kinds of lessons today?   Unfortunately, the answer to the last question is fewer and fewer places.

Too many children grow up in homes with parents who are overly focused on their own economic and personal problems to worry about their kids.  And too many of our schools are so focused on the test score that the concept of teaching values and ethics is almost nonexistent.

That leaves after-school activities like sports.  Sports programs, like that football program in Michigan, remain the one arena where kids learn to work together with values like teamwork, leadership and compassion.  When they are led in accordance with the Up2Us standards of sports-based youth development, sports impart on young people a sense of community and belonging that does shape their futures.

Which leads me to warn communities, parks, schools and other government officials as they create their 2014 budgets. The elimination of sports programs is the elimination of values.  And these are budget cuts which none of us can afford.

Paul Caccamo Executive Director

Sticks and Stones…

What if “someone” wanted to hate you? You did nothing wrong to this “someone.”  In fact, you don’t even know why this “someone” doesn’t like you.  It might be someone from work—someone from your community—someone you met at a social gathering—someone you hardly know.

Now, what if you get an odd feeling that this “someone” really is destroying you.   They are spreading rumors that are ugly and untrue.  The rumors are about your personal life.  They are not only untrue but they are embarrassing.  And now you suddenly have this sense that these rumors have gotten to your family, your neighbors, and your co-workers.  In fact, people are now talking about you behind your back.  Stories you don’t even know about.  And there’s no way to defend yourself because you don’t even know how this is happening.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Now you hear something vicious about you on the Internet, on Twitter, on Facebook, on YouTube, and even on Instagram.

This can’t be happening.  You did nothing wrong.  You don’t even know what caused this person to hate you.  But it keeps coming.  In fact, other people are doing it too.  You’re life really is getting destroyed.

What would you do?

Now, what if you’re only 14 years old?

Welcome to “Bullying 2013.”

This month across the country, several children have taken their lives because they couldn’t take the bullying.  And yet, we have made little progress on educating those responsible for our youth—our school leaders, our teachers, our coaches—on what to do about it.  In part, because many adults confuse “Bullying 2013” with “Bullying When They Grew Up.”  It’s not the same—it’s more vicious because there are more means to communicate it.

Starting this fall, Up2Us will partner with Ben Cohen’s StandUp Foundation to create a toolkit to help coaches use the power of sports as a solution to bullying.  While many youth may associate sports as an arena that fosters bullying, it in fact can be a powerful platform for preventing it.  Coaches naturally receive the respect of their athletes.  They are in a unique position to address diversity and inclusion among their teams and steer would-be bullies into pro-social behavior.  They can also be intentional about engaging those youth who are bullied into participating in sports and facing athletic challenges that can provide them a new sense of dignity and self-worth.  And, yes, all of this can take place in the context of “positive peer pressure.”  After all, that’s what a trained coach fosters, and that’s what sports are all about.

“Stick and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.”  That was once true before those names ended up all over the Internet.  It’s no longer true today.  Up2Us is proud to lead a national effort to end bullying through the power of youth sports in America.  Let’s get our community leaders and schools to do the same.

Paul Caccamo Executive Director

I would like to acknowledge Diana Cutaia for her work in this area and her support of this Up2Us effort.

Not Just Any Coach….A Trained Coach

Today, nearly every parent must leave their child in the custody and care of another adult during a good part of the workday.  During after school hours, this adult is often a coach. Yet, coaches across the country receive very little training, if any at all, on how to work with children. They may know their sport, but do they know how to address teaching sports in the context of a teenager struggling in school, or a girl coping with self-image issues, or a child who's being bullied?  Coaches should be equipped with basic tools to use sports to teach teamwork and leadership to every child during their practices.  Without this kind of training, many of the life lessons that a coach can impart are lost.  And, in some cases, this lack of training can result in coaches who are modeling the wrong behavior.  The result: an increasing number of American children drop out of sports because they feel more encouraged by the flashing victory lights of their carefully designed video games than the yelling of their untrained coaches.  And that needs to change.

I say we reverse this trend by requiring a minimum training in youth development for every coach in this country.   All coaches should undergo basic coursework on child development--emotional, physical and social---and how to maximize the sports experience to impart life skills.   This week, Up2Us completed its second National Coach Training Institute this year in New Orleans where coaches became certified in sports-based youth development.   The Up2Us Center is conducting four national coach training institutes this year, including upcoming trainings in Boston and Los Angeles.  Now just imagine if every one of the estimated 2-3 million coaches in this country, paid and volunteer, were required to attend such an institute or take courses online before taking the field?

Let’s stop imagining and start requiring.  Up2Us is leading the nation in developing professional standards around sports-based youth development.   We believe the future of youth sports is at stake.  Only when we prove the potential of our coaches to contribute to the success of the next generation of Americans will we ensure that schools and communities stop slashing their sports budgets.   And most importantly, by requiring this training in youth development, we send a reassuring message to all parents who drop their kids off at practice:  the coach who will oversee your child for these next few hours has been trained to help your child succeed in life.

Paul Caccamo

Executive Director

MOVE OVER “LET’S MOVE!”

Dear Mrs. Obama, I would like to propose a new slogan for your second term.

You have done a lot through “Let’s Move” in raising awareness about the epidemic of childhood obesity and its dangers to the health of the next generation of Americans.  But, I think we need to focus even more on the root causes of the obesity epidemic.  The fact that kids don’t move is in fact the symptom of a larger problem.  That's why I am recommending you change the logo to “Let's Mind.”

In the last four years, I've been honored to be an AmeriCorps recipient and to be responsible for placing nearly 1000 young adults as AmeriCorps coach-mentors in underserved communities across this country. The purpose of our Coach Across America program is to get kids physically active, and we measure our impact based on how many kids we inspire to exercise regularly through sports.

But the one thing I've learned from these coaches is that before we can get to the physical health of our children, we really need to address their mental health. The obesity epidemic is far worse in communities where kids are experiencing tremendous amounts of duress because of poverty. Many of these children do not have positive relationships with other children or with caring adults who can inspire them to make the kind of life changes that would lead to their better health.  So while the purpose of our program is to promote physical health, we also spend much of our time training our coach-mentors on mental health and addressing the trauma that so many urban youth experience in their neighborhoods.  Yes, we focus on their mind.

Breaking through the mindset of children who are often stressed, socially isolated or distrusting of adults is the first step to inspiring change in their lives.  Once this trust is established, our coaches can then influence our kids to regularly exercise (and to regularly attend school too!).   In a nutshell, these coaches create an atmosphere where the mental changes happen---the physical changes then follow.

“Let’s Mind” means something else too.

Many children grow up in atmospheres where they do not think adults “mind” about them.  They may come from homes that are dysfunctional or lack parental authority, or attend overcrowded schools where they see their teachers and other authority figures as not caring.   Consequently, they internalize this and learn not to care about themselves or others.  This contributes to our obesity epidemic and it also leads to our youth violence epidemic in which children do not value life.

We train our coaches to show kids that they “mind” about them. This is a powerful lesson for working with all children, even those who at first seem the most hardened.  After all, our coaches can tell you better than me: with a little minding all children are capable of amazing things….like regular exercise, doing well in school, and contributing to their communities.

So I say let's capitalize on what you started in the first term by getting at the root issue that isolates children from the kinds of activities that get them moving.

Let's Mind.

Sincerely,

Paul Caccamo Executive Director

Up2Us Coach of the Year…

Make that Connector of the Year! Up2Us is a national movement that is based on one very powerful word:  connections.

Far too many children drop out of school because they do not feel connected to their teachers or to other classmates. Far too many boys join gangs because they do not feel connected to society. Far too many girls find themselves as teenage mothers because they do not feel connected to adult role models.

Up2Us uses the unique power of sports to create connections.  Life affirming connections between kids and their coaches, kids and their teammates, and kids and the wider community.

Key to making these connections possible are our coaches who work everyday to give our youth this sense of belonging.   Properly trained coaches provide children the unique opportunity to develop their life skills in a nontraditional setting. For many kids in urban America who are isolated because of poverty, broken families and underserved communities, this coach may be the most critical connection of them all.

Tonight is the first ever Up2Us gala. It will be attended by celebrities, athletes, coaches and other stakeholders from across the country who believe in the Up2Us mission.  Every guest in attendance has one thing in common:  they achieved their success in life because of some connection that meant something to them and inspired them to be great. That's why the focus of this gala is to celebrate three special connectors, the Up2Us Coaches of the Year.

These Coach Across America coaches were chosen by kids and colleagues from their communities because of their impact on health, violence and academics.  Coach Ebonee from Los Angeles uses sports to connect at-risk kids to a lifelong love of exercise and physical activity.  Coach Michel from Chicago uses sports to connect gang members to positive peer groups who help them say to no violence.  Coach Payne from Boston uses sports to connect at-risk students in failing public schools to a renewed commitment to their education.

I have often written that Up2Us is the solution to the challenges of juvenile violence, school dropout rates, and childhood obesity. Up2Us is the solution because it is about the kinds of connections demonstrated by these amazing coaches. They deserve to be celebrated at a gala in New York with legendary figures like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wynton Marsalis, and Philip Seymour Hoffman in attendance.

They are the Connectors of the Year.

Paul Caccamo Executive Director

If I Had 1 Cent of Every NRA Dollar…

I'm not writing this blog to debate gun control and whether or not you have the right to bear arms. I'm writing this blog to discuss the dollars that go into this debate versus solving the real problem at the community level of raising a generation of Americans who value and respect life.

Let's start with the facts.  Every year in this country about 3000 children lose their lives to gun violence.  Another 17,500 youth are injured from guns.  A large number of the victims of this violence go unnoticed because they live in poorer, mostly minority communities where gun violence is commonplace and barely makes the nightly news.

However, this is all starting to change.  Gun violence involving children has now gone prime time.   This is partly due to the random nature of some of the most recent incidents, the fact that these crimes are occurring in wealthier communities and the sudden attention given to this problem at the national level by politicians.   And with prime time coverage, comes the debate and money being spent to fuel it.

If I had one cent of every dollar the NRA spent this past year, I would have $2,300,000.  That's right, more than 2 million dollars!

I would use this money to engage 32,500 kids in safe, structured after-school programs in the communities in this nation with the highest rates of gun violence.  I would ensure these kids have sports teams to belong to that reinforce life skills development and not gangs that condition them towards violence.  I would do this by hiring 200 adults to be "coach-mentors" for these kids everyday of the year.   I would train these coaches to use the power of sports to address conflict resolution, trauma and other mental health issues that these young people confront on a regular basis.   I would help these coaches maximize their time with these kids so that these vulnerable youth experience positive relationships with other youth, their coaches and community volunteers.   I would measure the success of these programs through the reduction of violent acts that take place among the youth participants and within our communities.

If I had one penny of every NRA dollar…I'd put it to less talk and more action.

Paul Caccamo Executive Director

Bringing a Positive Change to Sports Culture

We are trying to change the culture of sports.  And we are trying to do so in the face of an industry that is so often obsessed with money, glamour and winning that it frequently undermines the very values it should be championing. Sports are supposed to be fun for kids.  But too many adults are sending kids the messages that it is a corrupt and valueless endeavor.  These adults aren't just the athletes and coaches who perpetrate the egregious behavior, but the sponsors and endorsers who are far too willing to look the other way if another winning season is in sight.

We cannot look the other way.

Fewer children may be participating in sports than ever before because the next generation is turned off by the negative sports culture in which winning is often prioritized above all else.   The real tragedy is not that they might lead to a smaller pool of professional athletes and Olympians one day—but the fact that they result in fewer kids who learn the good stuff from sports….stuff that might just be essential for them to lead successful lives.

Sports provide kids places to belong; mentors who care; opportunities to challenge themselves and take risks; chances to learn new skills; physical exercise; a sense of discipline and the pathways to leadership.  Up2Us is leading the sports-based youth development (SBYD) movement because there is far too much at stake.  Kids need these skills far more than they need another headline about the despicable behavior of their favorite athlete or coach.   Ironically, in most cases, that athlete or coach has all the money and endorsements they need to make a comeback.  But for many kids where sports are a lifeline, the decision to stop playing may impact their academics, social choices and futures.

We’ve all seen the headlines this past month and this past year about the scandals involving coaches and athletes.  They are so ingrained in our culture that we can probably name a dozen of them off the top of our head.   So I’d like to end this blog with a SBYD Sports Trivia:

1. Name a basketball coach who spent 3 extra hours each day mentoring his players to ensure that they all graduated high school on time.

2. Name a high school soccer player who started a peewee league just so the little kids in his low-income community would have a safe place to be.

3. Name a rower who won a scholarship to college, and then turned down a Wall Street job just so she could go back to her inner-city neighborhood and coach girls like her.

4. Name a teenage boxer who was the first in his family to make it to college because his coach was the one adult who always believed in him.

How many of these coaches and athletes did you identify?

How many made the news?

Let's build a movement together.

Congress Needs Sports-Based Youth Development

Dear Members of Congress, I don't care what side of the aisle you are on, but it's time that you get outside and start playing ball. By that I mean baseball, football, soccer, lacrosse, swimming, track...

Yes, Congress, you need sports-based youth development.  Here are the rules: the first is that you need to form teams that are evenly split between your parties.  Second, we are going to incorporate special exercises before, during and after each game that maximize communication, teamwork and relationship building among your teammates.   Third, we will give each of you the opportunity to take ownership over parts of the team, and the rest of you will have to support the leader until it's your turn to be leader.  Fourth, we will emphasize having fun more than competition.   Fifth, you must model sportsmanship by high fiving each other after every game whether you win or lose.  Sixth, you will promise to continue this behavior not just on the field…but on the Floor.

Up2Us is more than willing to come down to Washington DC and set up your sports-based youth development day for all members of Congress on the Mall. Maybe we should take an entire week out so we can really gain the benefits of sports.  After all, Congress, sports is a critical tool for teaching individuals to get along with one another. It teaches teamwork, leadership, discipline and decision-making.   It also teaches you how to celebrate victories together and how to overcome losses. Finally, it helps to develop your brains so you can be more focused when the time comes to pass legislation.

So I say, let’s play ball.   I know that if you accept my invitation, you will overcome the present stalemate that you are experiencing.  You may even come to understand, firsthand, why public education needs to ensure that every child has access to the same benefits of sports-based youth development in their own schools and communities.  After all, they might just be in your seats one day too.

Paul Caccamo Executive Director