AmeriCorps announced that Up2Us Sports would once again receive critical funding for our national service coach program. Since 2009, AmeriCorps funding has allowed us to train and support over 3,900 coaches to significantly impact the lives of nearly 100,000 young people.
Welcome to a momentous occasion as we celebrate 14 incredible years of Up2Us Sports! Since our inception, we have been committed to empowering young people through the power of sports, national service and mentorship.
We hope you will read our latest Annual Report and we thank you for your support in helping us provide underserved youth with a coach who cares about them. This report covers our 2021-2022 program and fiscal year.
The Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children's Mental Health Innovation Awards—an initiative that aims to identify and fund mental healthcare solutions for children and young adults across the United States—honors a 2022 winner, Up2Us Sports.
Today, January 12th, 2023 is our 13th Anniversary, and we are expecting to have more impact in the year ahead than ever before. We will serve more kids, recruit more coaches, support more VISTAs (front office-based service members) and help more sports-based youth development programs across the country.
During college I had fallen in love with research and I wanted to know what it would be like to work at a non-profit which made data-driven decisions. Thus, I took a role as an AmeriCorps VISTA doing monitoring and evaluation at Up2Us Sports.
Please join us in welcoming the AmeriCorps VISTAs who will be serving at Up2Us Sports and its member organizations for the 2017-2018 program year. VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) is a national service program that utilizes the skills, talents and passion of more than 7,000 Americans annually to support community efforts to overcome poverty.
AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) is a national service program to fight poverty in America. Each VISTA member makes a year-long, full-time commitment to serve on a specific project at a nonprofit organization or public agency.
The Up2Us Sports AmeriCorps VISTA program, now in its eighth year, is a critical part of this effort.Each year, a cohort of roughly 30 Up2Us Sports AmeriCorps VISTA members are placed at member organizations all over the country and commit one year of their lives to service through sports. They mobilize community members, build partnerships, recruit and manage volunteers and help their organizations raise funds for program growth.
During her senior year at CUNY City College in New York City, Wendolyn Ebbert decided she wanted to join the Peace Corps after she graduated. She was majoring in International Studies and felt compelled to go abroad and make a difference in the lives of those in need around the world.
VISTA’s find out about the year-long, national service program in many different ways. For Sheryl Katz, she didn’t even know what VISTA was until after she had her heart set on working for Kids in the Game. She was working full-time at a law firm doing marketing when she realized it just wasn’t for her. “I wanted to work with youth who had backgrounds similar to myself - active, sports-driven childhoods,” said Katz.
Born and raised in New York City, Banks stayed local and attended Brooklyn College where she studied theatre. It was while there that she discovered her passion for working with youth. In a class she was asked, “what can you do when you’re not pursuing an acting role?” She realized then that she loved being around children and listening to them.
A Tennessee native, Ebbert attended a magnet school where playing a sport was required. She dabbled in all sorts of sports and thrived off the life skills she learned along the way. Her older brother attended NYU and on a visit, she fell in love with the city and knew she wanted to attend college there.
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![[WATCH] Morgan Stanley Innovation Awards Features Up2Us Sports](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58bddd12e58c6278e8a670e2/551e2744-c233-46e6-850d-bac0223d8f13/MHA+Innovation+Feb+2023+1.jpg)
