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Team-Up for Girls
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Discussion about entry
Team-Up for Girls
This is discussion about Team-Up for Girls.
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Hello Lee, I'm wondering
Hello Lee,
I'm wondering what kind of training the volunteers receive. Is it a training on sports skills or does it involve other type of women empowerment workshops?
Your "multiply-effect" is interesting. Do you see it replicated in other countries?
Women Win would love to hear your stories (successful, challenging) and the progress of your project.
Women Win is the first ever international women’s fund that supports sport and physical activities as instruments for social change and women’s empowerment.
Women Win will use the competition to find a fellow between the ages of 15 and 65 years old that positively change the lives of women and girls in their community through sports.
Join the group by going to http://sportforchange.changemakers.com/en-us/group/womenwin. Click at join the group.
Participate on the debates going to the groups page and clicking at Topics being discussed.
Good Luck!
Hi Renata, All of our
Hi Renata,
All of our volunteer coaches receive 2 full days of training in the principles of sports-based youth development. On the first day, they learn the Building Blocks for Quality Youth Sports, which is the model we've developed to identify the elements of high-quality youth sports program. They learn how to apply the Building Blocks to design great drills and practices for their teams. On the second day of training, volunteers learn behavior management skills and how to foster positive group dynamics. They also learn how to work with diverse populations of athletes and the specific needs of girl players!
If you're interested in learning more about our model, I'd encourage you to check out our website. In particular, you may want to look at our Building Blocks-- which are posted on the Resources page of our site: http://www.teamupforyouth.org/ourwork/resources/
There's definitely potential for our program to be replicated in other countries. So far, we've focused our work in Northern California but, we plan to expand to Southern Califonia by the end of 2009.
Thanks for your comment!
Lynne Lee
This is great info. I
This is great info. I participated as a coach in the NIKE PLAYCORPS program as a college student, and your program seems very similar. I know some areas were able to sustain the program but on a much smaller scale once the funding ran out. Looks like you have built a system to keep the funding stream open.
A thought with respect to the development of coaches may be to add an online forum with which coaches can connect with each other. A forum in which they can report challenges they face with feedback from colleagues or your team on strategies to overcome and improve. It would also be another level of the program in which these college students can also partake in another phase of development by offering professionals in the workplace the opportunity to speak to coaches about transition from college athlete to the working environment and how skills transfer.
Hi Hoopsgal, Thanks for your
Hi Hoopsgal,
Thanks for your post and thanks for the great ideas! I'd love to hear more about how the skills you learned through coaching translated to the work environment after you finished college.
In the past, we hosted an online forum for coaches to network and share best practices. We did it through our own website and coaches from our programs could log-in to participate.
These days there are so many more great social networking tools out there! We've begun using sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter-- sites that our coaches use all the time anyway-- to create an online community for our coaches. It seems to be working!
Lynne
Team-Up for Girls changes
Team-Up for Girls changes the lives of girls left behind by Title IX -- inner city and mostly minority girls who have don't have the facilities, the coaches and often the parental support that suburban girls enjoy. Team-Up for Girls does the challenging work of changing the landscape of neighborhoods by improving facilities, working with community leaders and sending in trained, caring coaches so that ALL girls benefit from the transformative experience of participating in sports.
Thanks for your comment,
Thanks for your comment, Joan! We love having your support.
Lynne
Hello Lynne, Its great to
Hello Lynne, Its great to have you in the competition! It sounds like you're having excellent impact and I love the campaign, building a field and replication components of your work! Fantastic work engaging college students. I know from personal experience that this is not always an easy task. Clearly you're "blueprint" is a good one!
You mention that you will educate policymakers on the importance of girls' sports and how they can take a stand. Could you please expand upon how exactly you would do this? Have you already started this effort? Do you have existing partnerships or relationships with policy makers? What, if any, have been the outcomes thus far?
You mention, as a desired outcome, coaches having easier access to funding streams for community service. Do you know of any other organizations that are working on this that you could partner with?
Lastly, could you share with us a story about the impact that your work is having on the young women that participate?
Thank you and keep up the great work! Dana Frasz
Ashoka's Changemakers
Hi Dana, Thanks for your
Hi Dana,
Thanks for your post! I'm happy to share some more details about how we help policymakers take a stand for girls' sports.
On the state level, we continue to work on the implementation of AB2404, which mandates gender equity at facilities run by local community centers and park and recreation departments in the state of California.
On the federal level, we are working to promote HR6, a piece of legislation introduced a few weeks ago by Congressman Mike McIntrye that calls for a National Coaches' Appreciation Week in September. We are reaching out to the California delegation to Congress, the members of the Congressional Youth Sports Caucus, and the members of the House Education and Labor Committee which is considering the legislation, to educate them about the importance of coaching, especially for girls.
In the spring we will release a report that we created with the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport. The report examines barriers and benefits to participation in sports for low-income girls and will contain recommendations for policy, research, and practice. We will distribute this paper to lawmakers, such as the ones mentioned above. We also plan to coordinate site visits to community-based girls' sports programs so that state and federal legislators in the Bay Area and their staff can see firsthand the power of sports for girls.
We are excited and motivated by President Obama's commitment to creating a culture of public service. His administration will initiate a range of national service corps, modeled on successful programs such as AmeriCorps. Our program could be scaled up on a national level to funnel even greater numbers of college students - particularly women- into volunteer coaching positions that fit President Obama's vibrant vision for public service. There is already congressional interest in youth sports and there are organizations such as America's Promise and City Year that are focused on expanding service opportunities. As we advance our work, we will seek partners, such as these, who are experienced in the realm of national service.
In regards to your final question, we have noticed that the college women who participate as coaches in our program are inspired to explore careers such as teaching, youth work, and other professions that allow them to engage with young people and make a difference in their communities. At the same time, they improve their self-confidence and develop their abilities as leaders-- both of which are important skills which will translate into other aspects of their lives.
Thanks again for your questions!
Best wishes,
Lynne
Team-Up for Girls supports
Team-Up for Girls supports girls of color living in urban neighborhoods to transform their lives and sense of self through participating in organized sports. By providing trained coaches, resources and access to sports programs, Team-Up for Girls helps ensure equity and access to structured youth development programming for all girls.
WRIGHTDA, Thanks for
WRIGHTDA,
Thanks for participating on this site and supporting our cause!
Lynne
I think that Team-Up for
I think that Team-Up for Girls is a very powerful group and all of the young ladies that come in contact with you women are blessed!!!
Thank you for your support,
Thank you for your support, EASPORTS!
Lynne
The Team-Up For Girls
The Team-Up For Girls campaign always reminds me of the strong female coaches that I had growing up. It is because of their strong mentorship that I am coaching young girls today and pursuing a career in sports based youth development.
What excites me the most about this program is the potential it has to empower young girls to not only embrace an athlete identity as a young person but to grow up and eventually give back to other young girls. 10 years from now these young women will be more inclined to coach other young girls because of the experience and opportunities that they were given at a young age.
Thanks for sharing your
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Lynne
The Team-Up for Girls
The Team-Up for Girls program sounds like such an amazing opportunity for girls living in disadvantaged and underserved communities. As a 5th grade teacher in Watts I see first hand the conditions in which these girls live. They are surronded by gang violence, drugs, and crime. Most of them do no have strong female role models to look up to in the community.
Although they may look up to their teachers, that does not compare to the unique personal experience and attention they get from participating with female coaches in this program. This program gives these girls a sense of empowerment and strength that they cannot receive by sitting in the classroom. They are being challenged to meet physical demands that they are not used to because they have never seen themselves as athletic.
However once they have achieved success it gives them a huge sense of accomplishment which in turn builds on their self-esteem, self-perception, and their motivation to set higher goals for themselves.
This increased sense of self will transfer over to all aspects of their life. Having confidence will allow the girls to believe that they can achieve anything they set their minds to, no matter how difficult the challenge may seem. This program will allow girls to meet their full potential and achieve dreams they may have thought were not possible.
Hi Ellie, I loved reading
Hi Ellie,
I loved reading your post! Thanks for writing such a thoughtful response to our entry.
As an educator, you may be interested to learn about the convening that we hosted last fall. We brought together researchers from universities throughout the country to learn about how sports impacts academic outcomes for low-income youth. Next month, we'll release a paper with our findings that outlines a research and policy agenda for the field.
In the mean time, if you want to know more, you should check out the fact sheet titled "Youth Sports Participation and Educational Outcomes" on our website: http://www.teamupforyouth.org/ourwork/resources/
Best wishes,
Lynne
I am so excited about this
I am so excited about this campaign! Girls don't get the same opportunities as boys to participate in sports, especially in low-income communities, yet there are so many benefits for them if they do. Studies have shown that, in addition to being more physically fit, girls who are athletes have lower depression rates, higher grades, lower pregnancy rates, use less alcohol and drugs, and are more likely to attend and complete college. Sports are a powerful part of a girl's life, and all girls deserve to have the opportunity to participate.
I think Team-Up for Girls is
I think Team-Up for Girls is a great idea. It provides girls with the opportunity to learn and grow into strong women through sports. Then, it allows these strong women to coach and pass on the same life lessons and skills they've learned to even more girls.
Sports played a huge role in my life. When I was in college, I was only able to play recreationally. I would have loved the opportunity to give back to the community by coaching young girls.
Team-Up for Girls is a
Team-Up for Girls is a wonderful program. Girls do not always receive the same encouragement and support in sports as they should. Thanks for leveling the playing field.
This program really puts a
This program really puts a smile on my face! In my work with Coaching Corps I have had the pleasure of seeing the positive impact that female coaches have on girls firsthand. One of the most powerful stories comes from a female coach and a soccer team of 3rd and 4th grade girls. The Coaching Corps coach was placed with this team and realized very early on that none of the girls on her team believed that they could be athletes. The girls didn't see themselves as strong and/or tough. In fact, they told their coach that they were completely opposed to sweating. When the coach asked one of the girls why she felt that way, the girl simply replied "I've never really sweat before." Their coach let them know that as athletes they were most likely going to sweat and that sweating is something that athletes did. To which the girls responded that they didn't want to be athletes. This soccer coach shared this with me and was heartbroken to realize that these girls had never been given the chance to play before. Being on a team was new to them so we decided that we had to create an athlete identity on the team so that the girls starting believing that they could be and were athletes. In turn, that would show the girls they were strong enough to compete and tough enough to have fun, even in the face of a loss.
It was a great idea but we had to brainstorm how to realistically create this athlete identity. She had the idea of getting all of the girls matching sweatbands and hair ties so that they could have their hair out of their faces when running across the field and a way to control this new experience of sweating. At first the girls were resistant to wearing the sweatbands and the hair ties but the coach told the girls that the bands and ties matched their team colors and it would show team spirit to wear them. Soon the girls were coming to practice with their hair tied back ready to attack the field. I came out to see a practice and the coach was running with the girls on the field with her hair tied back and sweating quite a bit in trying to keep up with the nine and ten year olds on the team. What was a group of girls without confidence at the beginning of the season had been transformed into a unit of strong, confident young women who believed in themselves and their abilities. It helped me to realize that sometimes it's the smallest of things that can help girls realize their potential. Sometimes it's a sweatband and a hair tie. Sometimes it's providing a chance to let the girls play. And sometimes it's a strong female coach who believes in herself and her abilities to support a group of girls in finding their confidence, their strength, and their identities as athletes.
Team Up For Youth is am
Team Up For Youth is am amazing organization run by wonderful people. They have done so much to help Bay Area organizations like ours to do a better job of recruiting, supporting and working successfully with at-risk girls. Having worked with Team Up beofre, I strongly believe that the Team Up For Girls initiative is sure to have a huge impact on girls in the Bay Area. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the comment in
Thanks for the comment in support of our entry! We love working with Soccer Without Borders and we really admire the work you're doing for girls in the Bay Area and around the world!
Best wishes,
Lynne
I remember being in high
I remember being in high school and wanting to join the cross country team. Even though the coach was a super sweet, inspiring man, I felt shy because of all the guys on the team and didn’t join. When I began coaching co-ed cross country years later, I made a point of having a male co-coach for the boys and I concentrated on building the girls team.
Because I was an English teacher at the school where I coached, artsy girls who might not participate in athletics otherwise joined the team. The greatest satisfaction I had was watching these young poets become athletes. Coaching provided a chance for me to help somewhat shy girls—as I had been in high school—bust out of their brainy shells, gain greater body awareness, and become strong, confident young women.
That’s why today I work at Team-Up for Youth to promote the opportunity for ALL girls to have opportunities to become stronger and more confident young women through sports.
Team-Up for Youth is an
Team-Up for Youth is an exemplary organization doing wonderful things in the Bay Area community. They have taken on the task of leveling the playing field for girls and championing for girls sports. Getting more girls into the game makes for a extraordinary achievement, both for the community and the world at-large.
This is a great project and
This is a great project and Team-Up does really fantastic work. I was wondering about how you work with the organizations where you place the coaches -- so much of the experience of coaching is determined by the larger structure of support -- are expectations for families and referees and the other coaches consistent? etc., etc.
Congratulations on the success of the project.
Jill Vialet
President/Founder Sports4Kids
www.sports4kids.org
Hi Jill, Thanks for the
Hi Jill,
Thanks for the post!
One of the most important components of our work is supporting organizations that host our coaches. Over the years, we've learned how important it is to screen organizations to make sure that we're picking sites that will be a good fit for our coaches. However, it's also important to provide on-going support to these organizations to develop their capacity to engage volunteer coaches.
Before we enter a partnership with an organization, we screen them to make sure that they offer a quality program where coaches and young athletes can thrive. All potential organizations complete an application and then we perform a site visit to observe a typical team practice.
Before coaches begin their placements, all new host organizations attend a 2-day training that focuses on coach supervision and program design. The training helps program directors analyze the systems they have in place (and don't have in place) to support the success of coaches. For example, we look at different systems to provide formal and informal feedback and we talk about the importance of providing professional development opportunities to coaches.
This training encourages supervisors to take responsibility for the quality of their programs and helps them identify what structures need to be in place so that coaches can run successful programs. In the short term, our goal is to make sure the coaches that we recruit have a great experience. However, in the long run, we aim to build the capacity of the organization so that anyone who coaches there-- whether we recruit them, or not-- is supported and encouraged to become the best coach they can be.
Lynne
I've been competing in
I've been competing in sports my whole life, and I know that any athletic talent I get comes from my mom (don't tell Dad I said that). My mom has tremendous athletic ability, but unfortunately, she wasn't able to participate in sports as a youth. It just wasn't done in the Hawaiian sugar-plantation worker community where she grew up in the 50s.
She discovered the joys of tennis in her adult life. But she shouldn't have had to wait that long. Girls in every community, whether or not they have natural athletic gifts, should be able to experience the joys of play and participation in Sport. I love the Team-Up for Girls approach that advocates for girls right to participate, as well as increases the number of female coach role models available to these girls.
I'm so glad that there's
I'm so glad that there's people like you guys making a difference in girls' lives these days! It's very admirable and I'd love to help in any way possible! Keep up what you're doing because it's amazing!
This is really cool...Gives
This is really cool...Gives everyone a chance
Patricia Henry
Thanks for your comment of
Thanks for your comment of support, Patricia!
Hi Lynne, Congratulations on
Hi Lynne,
Congratulations on being selected a Gamechangers finalist! What important work you are doing mentoring girls from vulnerable populations through sport. Do you have gender specific programming for girls? Have you thought about partnering with women athletes from women’s colleges?
Thanks and good luck,
The Gamechangers Judges’ Panel
Hi Cynthia, Thanks to you
Hi Cynthia,
Thanks to you and the rest of the of the judges' panel for your support!
We've found that after age 10, both boys and girls do better in single-sex sports programs. According to our model, we normally place our volunteer coaches at understaffed sports programs that are already active in local communities. Some of these are co-ed and some aren't.
We do a really thorough training for any site supervisor who will manage our volunteers so that they are well-versed in our model for youth development. The training gives us an opportunity to broach issues such as this one and help educate after-school providers about what constitutes high-quality, developmentally-appropriate sports programming. We encourage supervisors to consider single-sex programs if they're not already implementing them at their sites.
Too often, we've found that schools and community centers don't have any programming for girls at all. Of course, we know that these communities are the ones that can use our volunteer coaches the most! For these situations, we've developed a girl-specific 12-week soccer curriculum that our trained coaches can deliver. We give them soccer equipment and we organize competitive play with local teams. This programs allows a college-age woman volunteer to walk onto a middle school campus with a bag of soccer balls and deliver 12 weeks of skill-based lessons to girls that have never had the chance to play organized sports! It's a great opportunity for the girl players and it helps schools build athletic programs for girls, where no programs previously existed.
When we recruit college women to volunteer as coaches, we're looking for women who can commit to at least one season. This normally adds up to about 50 hours of service. Unfortunately, we've found that women athletes who play at the college-level just can't make that kind of time commitment. Their schedules are already so full with practices and games, in addition to academics, that it's hard for them to make an on-going commitment. Instead, we look for women who grew up playing sports-- probably competitively in high school-- but are not active in sports at the varsity college level. They have the perfect mix of athletic skill and passion that we're looking for in volunteer coaches.
However, we still see women college athletes as an invaluable resource for our program and we look for oportunities to partner with them. Each year, in conjunction with a local college campus, we host a Girls Sports Day. This event invites low-income girls to play for a day with varsity women athletes. The athletes lead sport-specific stations that the girls visit to improve their skills and sample new sports. Girl Sports Day is a great chance for girl athletes to get passionate about sports and interact with college players. It also gives them the unique opportunity to visit a college campus-- many of them for the first time. We believe the event improves their academic and athletic aspirations and allows them to imagine themselves as college students or athletes.
I hope I've answered your questions!
Best wishes,
Lynne
Team Up for Youth is an
Team Up for Youth is an amazing orgranization and has been an influential partner of the Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative (BAWSI). Because we serve young girls and women in under-represented communities through after school physical activity programs led by volunteer women athletes, we are excited to see Team Up for Girls launch in our communities. We serve girls in 3rd-5th grades, so it is important for our girls to know that there may be an opportunity to continue their physical activity and newfound love for soccer with Team Up for Girls. Team Up for Girls is a natural extension of the life lessons we teach through sport and physical activity and is especially critical for the target age group.
Congrats and best of luck!
Susan Armenta
Program Director, BAWSI Salud Por Vida
Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative
Hi Susan, Thanks for all the
Hi Susan,
Thanks for all the words of support! We so appreciate our partnership with BAWSI! It's an honor to work with your organization to make a difference for girl athletes in the South Bay.
I hope to see you at the Giants game on May 30th!
Lynne
Dear Lynn- Congratulations
Dear Lynn-
Congratulations on your great programme. I would be very interested in seeing the report you helped create with the TUCKER center. We also do work with girls from low income communities and would love to see the research.
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
cameron@boxgirls.org
Hi Heather, Congratulations
Hi Heather,
Congratulations to you, as well, for making it to the final round!
I'd be happy to add you to our distribution list so that you receive a copy of the report that we're doing with the TUCKER center, when it's ready later this year. In the mean time, I'll send you a report that we did called Learning to Play and Playing to Learn-- which studies the connection between academic outcomes and sports participation for low-income children. We released it earlier this year and it's part of the same series as the TUCKER center paper.
Best wishes,
Lynne