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SBYD NewsBrief: The Latest in Sports-Based Youth Development 

The Youth Sports Collaborative Network's free e-newsletter was previously named YSCN Update. In January 2021, YSCN changed the name to SBYD NewsBrief to reinforce the importance of the Sports-Based Youth Development model to teach sports.  We call this the SBYD Way!

Sports Based Youth Development (SBYD) is a model of youth development that uses the delivery of sport intentionally and primarily to achieve  positive non-sports-based outcomes. These outcomes include social emotional learning (SEL); critical pro-social relationship skills such as fair play, playing by the rules and teamwork; respect for your opponent; better academic performance and educational attainment; and improved health and wellness.

SBYD NewsBrief will report on programs and services of nonprofits applying the SBYD model in underserved communities. Reporting will also include research on youth health and wellness, impact of SBYD programs, foundation activities, webinars and conference on positive youth sports practices, fund raising events and latest research, and government legislation and regulations affecting SBYD programs.

Anyone may subscribe to SBYD NewsBrief, but only YSCN members and partners will be given preference in reporting their program news, awards, and job openings. Sample issues are below.

Have some news to share? Then please send to [email protected]. Will try to include as many as we can, though members have priority coverage.

Please share SBYD News Brief with your Staff, Colleagues, Board and Partners. They can view recent issues below and obtain their own free subscription at this link. YSCN does not share its subscriber list!

A Sampling of SBYD NewsBrief

January 23, 2025 
A Youth Sports Collaborative Network E-newsletter     
 
CONNECT
Coach Across America, formerly Up2Us, is hosting on February 10 at 3pm est a Call for Partnership Webinar to explore how we can collaborate to support coaches who inspire the next generation. Webinar will discuss Partnership benefits, Stories from coaches changing lives, and Opportunities to work together. Register
 
DC SCORES announced that Kayla Nelson, a DC SCORES alumna and freshman at Coolidge Early College Academy, has been named the 2026 DC Youth Poet Laureate! Kayla first discovered the power of poetry through DC SCORES in 2022 when as a 11 year old she won the Shine Award for Best Individual Performance. Watch Her 2022 Performance 
 
Good Sports donated in 2025 over $13.6 million brand new equipment for 521,832 kids in 27 different sports. More Details
 
Harlem Lacrosse looking for its next class of Program Directors—leaders who inspire student-athletes on and off the field. Program Directors wear many hats -- coach, tutor, mentor, and advocate. Check out the job description and watch a short video to see what a day in the life of a Program Director looks like. Questions contact [email protected]
 
Leveling the Playing Field continues to expand their operations. Read what they are doing in Atlanta,  Baltimore,  Greater Washington DC,  Ohio,  Philadelphia,  South Eastern Michigan,  Western NY
 
Positive Coaching Alliance announced the Top 28 Coach Finalists out of 250 submissions from across the US for its 2026 Coach of the Year Award. View These Finalists
 
LEARN  
The Sport Fundraising Summit is being held in London on February 25th and attendees to date are from 15 countries. Use  code SFS26 to reduce your fee by $50. The initial panel on Fundraising 2026 will feature CEO's from the FIBA Foundation, Beyond Sport, and Dallaglio Rugbyworks to discuss the results of Remedy's Fundraising in Sport for Good report. Cost is about $317 without discount.  Full Agenda  List of Presenters & Registration

The George Washington University Sport Philanthropy Program is holding the 2026 Sport Philanthropy Summit on the afternoon of February 26 in Washington DC to discuss current trends sport for good and philanthropy space. Speakers include the Washington Spirit, DC United Foundation, DC SCORES, The Athletic, Octagon, Coach Across America, 318 Foundation. Details & Registration 
 
Following the GW Sport Philanthropy on February 27 & 28 is the GW's Sports Industry Networking and Career Conference. Event includes meeting sports organization during lunch as well 1-on-1 interviews. Details of 2025 Program. More Details on 2026 Conference
 
Few Private Foundations Accept Unsolicited Requests: Of the 112,733 private foundations required to file with the IRS for fiscal year 2023 (the most recent year for which comprehensive data exists), 71% checked the box they do not accept unsolicited requests for funds. Thus, only 29% (fewer than 33,000 foundations) are open to considering new grantees. Details Here are some tips on how to reach this 71%.
 
Coaching HER® is a project of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota. The program has launched the Coaching HER® Educational Champions Program, a new initiative that equips instructors with ready-to-use, research-informed curriculum resources that can be seamlessly integrated into higher education, K–12 education, and coach development programs. All resources are free.

ADVOCACY
Missed the December Congressional Hearing on Benched: The Crisis in American Youth Sports and Its Cost to Our Future? A video recording is available from the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education. Need to advance about 15 minutes to get to the start of the hearing -- rarely starts until the Chair shows up.
The Witnesses are:
  • Tom Farrey, Executive Director, Sports & Society Program, Aspen Institute
  • Steve Boyle, Co-Founder & Executive Director, 2-4-1 Sports 
  • Katherine Van Dyck, J.D., Senior Fellow, American Economic Liberties 
  • John O’Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer, Changing the Game Project 
________________________________________________________
Want to see your news reported? Then please send your news to [email protected]
 
Encourage your staff, partners and Board to Sign up for a Free Subscription to SBYD NewsBrief at https://www.youthsportscollaborative.org/sbyd-news-brief.  Our Subscriber List is not shared with anyone. 
 
Youth Sports Collaborative Network
www.youthsportscollaborative.org
301-650-2321

March 20, 2025 

A Youth Sports Collaborative Network E-newsletter

NewsBrief Subscriber MeetUp at the Project Play Summit. Join Rob Smith and fellow subscribers at the Summit's Monday Breakfast (8am - 9am) under the tent in Lower Sproul Plaza. Grab your breakfast and take a seat at his table. If attending the MeetUp, please send an email to [email protected].
 
CONNECT
Unable to attend the sold out Project Play Summit at the University of California Berkeley?  Not to worry as you can still attend the Monday Plenary sessions as they will be live streamed. Register and Session Details
 
Alexandria Soccer Association and the Virginia Youth Soccer Association, in partnership with the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS), were awarded an Innovate to Grow three year grant from the US Soccer Federation. Starting fall of 2025, Soccer IN School, will bring to all 1,360 Alexandria second graders a two week soccer unit during their PE classes. Details
 
Girls in the Game (GITG) fund raising is all in for the madness of March. In addition to their NCAA Basketball Bracket Challenge, they have 3 other fund raising activities going on in Chicago.
— Order the Purple Haze special drink throughout March for Women's History Month at a Time Out Market bar and $1 will go to GITG
— Altar'd State's Mission Monday provides GITG 10% of Monday purchases through April at their Deer Park Store
— Watching NCAA Women's BasketBall Championship Game (4/6) and ordering at Whiskey Girl Tavern will result in a portion of your bar proceeds going to GITG
 
Up2Us is receiving Partnership Applications thru March 31 from youth sports organizations seeking fall coaches trained by Up2us and paid by AmeriCorps. Go to Up2Us 30 minute webinar and their website for more details about hosting a coach. Further questions can be addressed to Kim Crawford ([email protected])

LEARN
The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) released its 10 Years of Impact Report (2014–2023), highlighting its $63 million investment in education, health care, homelessness, and social justice in LA. Through Dodgers Dreamteam, LADF addresses health barriers to youth success with fitness programs, healthy eating initiatives, health screenings, mental wellness resources, and safe play spaces like Dodgers Dreamfields.

Soccer Without Borders -- Their 2024 Annual Report provides stories of resilience and leadership that moved SWB forward. Here’s a brief overview of what was accomplished --
7,757 youth participated in programs
73 countries were represented by participant,48 languages were spoken across SWB,
5,607 activities fostered learning, leadership, and community
402,519 hours of contact were made between coach-practitioners and SWB participants

Leveling the Playing Field - Last month, LPF Baltimore, Greater Washington, and Philadelphia each hosted Community School Coordinator Distribution Days. These events are exclusively for social workers in local schools to pick up free items. LPF served 70 schools, distributed 2,160 hats and 2,327 jackets and hoodies that resulted in $173,488 of gear distributed, doubling the amount of apparel and gear distributed to CSCs in 2024. More on Community School Partnerships
 
ADVOCACY
Play Equity Fund has been working in California on new state legislation, AB 749 Youth Sports for All, that will create, if passed, a Commission to study the feasibility of forming a California Department of Youth Sports charged with supporting and regulating youth sports. Contact [email protected]
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New Year's Issue: First Week of 2024 
A Youth Sports Collaborative Network E-newsletter 

3500 Youth Runners Receive Free Shoes, An SBYD Pioneer Moves on, Free SBYD Coach Trainings, Flat Giving Tuesday, Advocacy Success

CONNECT
Save on your registration for the Project Play Summit 2024 in Baltimore, MD, May 14 -15. Register now to get the lowest pricing. This event sells out every year.

Backyard Sports Cares, a member of YSCN, serves over 5,000 kids that live in underserved communities or are athletes with special needs. Based in Westchester County, a suburb of NYC, BYSC collaborates with local schools and community organizations to provide no participation fee sports programs to youth in Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains, Port Chester and Yonkers. Learn More

Students Run LA rewarded 3500 youth runners who stayed with their marathon training program and crossed the finish line of a 5K, a 10K, and a 15K run with a pair of running shoes. Shoes are courtesy of Nike who has provided SRLA with their shoes for 10 years. Students also receive  bright, reflective safety vests for running during the dark winter morning and evening courtesy of Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company.

Co-founders Women's Sports Foundation and ESPN announced the 2023 grant recipients for the Sports 4 Life Program. Supported by Gatorade, the program distributed $280,000 to 40 organizations across 23 states plus DC to more than 5,300 girls across 25 traditional, non-traditional, and adaptive sports.

Strong Girls United (SGU)teamed up with REVLY, the luxury active wear brand by former collegiate volleyball player Jordan Robbins. SGU gets a portion of every purchase, plus you can get their exclusive 20% off with code stronggirls. Shop Revl

LEARN
An SBYD Pioneer, Mary (McVeigh) Conor,  says goodbye to Soccer Without Border (SWB) after 16 years in the leadership role as Executive Director. Mary also began her career as Director of SWB Nicaragua in 2008 to establish a girls-focused program. As Executive Director, SWB grew from an all-volunteer organization with <$25,000 to become a global organization serving thousands of youth weekly with over 90 full and part-time staff and a $5 million+ annual budget. 
Learn more about Mary's lessons learned during her incredible successful journey.

The Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport released a new resource made in collaboration with the Los Angeles Clippers. The innovative guide provides practical tools to create healing-centered basketball drills for young female players. Download  Further, CHJS is offering free sports-based youth development and brain-based coach trainings.  Application opens January 8 till end of the month.
 
Harlem Lacrosse (HL) focuses on increasing academic performance by improving academic behaviors. Performance measurements include GPA improvement (especially for students who are struggling), school attendance, and long term measures of success like high school graduation, college matriculation, and college persistence. Review HL's 2023 collective academic impact.
 
Giving Tuesday 2023 Results Flat -- The number of donors who gave declined by 10 percent compared with last year. Donors contributed $3.1 billion to U.S. nonprofits on GivingTuesday, roughly the same amount as last year, which marked a record high for the giving day. This year’s donations were up by less than a percent, just $20 million. More Details

ADVOCACY 
2023 saw noted progress on the government funding of sports-based youth development front.
 
We start by congratulating the Play Equity Fund for its work in organizing the Los Angeles SBYD Community to secure $5 million for each of the next 3 years from the LA County's Care First Community Investment for grants to SBYD nonprofits. Watch this brief video that explains the nine plus month process to advocate and educate LA County Officials for the funds.
 
Heading back to the east coast, we turn to the state of New York where SBYD nonprofit access to mobile sports betting grants have been a problem. Accordingly, YSCN brought Laureus Sport for Good NYC, Project Play Western NY, and Play Sport Coalition together to send a formal letter to the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) on the difficulties NY SBYD nonprofits were having in applying to the county youth bureaus for the annual grants from mobile sports betting tax revenue. 

As a result OCFS issued a special advisory to the youth bureaus that the funding opportunity "must be widely advertised" with "adequate time frames for inquires and applications." Nevertheless, NY-based SBYD nonprofits serving "underserved youth" should contact their county youth bureau immediately for this funding opportunity -- Find your youth bureau to contact. 

We also found from our correspondence with OCFS that a new state $10 million fund, Youth Team Sports, is being distributed by the county youth bureaus this year. More on YTS funds
 
We Wish You and Your Organization A Successful New Year!
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February 22, 2023
A Youth Sports Collaborative Network E-newsletter  
Nearly 1 in 3 high school girls reported in 2021 that they seriously considered suicide - up nearly 60 percent from a decade ago, a new CDC Youth Survey found. More below in Learn 
 
CONNECT    
Attention DMV nonprofits! Tomorrow afternoon, the 23rd, you can register for free to the Sport Philanthropy Summit from 3-6PM in the Capitol One Arena. Organizers include Tackle What's Next and GW Sports Philanthropy Program. Speakers include Nats Academy, DC United Foundation, and Washington Capitals among others. Details 
 
Project Play Deadlines - February 28 is the last day to get the early bird registration rate to attend Project Play's 10 anniversary summit, May 17-18 in Colorado Springs. Also applications are accepted through March 1 to apply for a Project Play Champion. 
 
Harlem Lacrosse is now accepting Program Director Applications to work in one of their five regions: Baltimore, Boston, New York, Los Angeles or Philadelphia. Learn More
 
PeacePlayers US announced Sally Nnamani and David Cassel have assumed joint executive leadership operations as co-executive directors. Connect

LEARN 
The CDC has released its Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011–2021. Report provides the most recent surveillance data, as well as 10-year trends, on health behaviors and experiences among high school students in the US. CDC found across almost all measures of substance use, experiences of violence, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, female students are faring more poorly than male students. Download Report    Washington Post Article on Report
 
The State of of Volunteer Engagement from the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy reports from 1200 surveyed nonprofit leaders that nearly 50% said that securing volunteers is a "big problem." Further 64% are facing increased workloads and as a result 48% had to increase staff workloads,  Research Summary/Download Full Report
 
The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, created from the $1.4 billion sale of the Buffalo Bills, is working  to meet its 20 year expiration date by 2035, David Egner, the foundation's president, estimates foundation will likely end up giving closer to $2.4 billion to its two focus regions, Buffalo and Detroit, when it is done. foundation tries not to focus on the ticking clock, but it routinely collaborates with other philanthropies and government agencies to try to ensure that its work endures after it is gone. More Details
 
LeagueApps has reorganized its FundPlay philanthropic program into the FundPlay Foundation. To date LeagueApps has provided free software licenses to more than 400 youth sports organizations in underserved communities across the United States. This year FundPlay also is partnering with the LA Dodgers Foundation to build two state of the art Dodgers Dreamfields in Inglewood, California. Details

ADVOCACY 
The newly elected governor in New York has added $600,000 in her 2024 budget to the youth sports grant program that was to receive $5 million from sports betting tax revenue. Interestingly. the $600K was the additional amount that should have been available in the 2022 fiscal year if the state honored the legislation that stated the first year that 1% of mobile sports betting tax revenue received by the state, which would have been $1.6M and not the $1M made available, would go to the grant program. 
 
All NY youth sports programs serving underserved youth should go to their local county youth bureau and make sure your nonprofit is registered with them. Find your Local Youth Bureau

 

August 29, 2022  

A Youth Sports Collaborative Network E-newsletter  

CONNECT    
PeacePlayers held in late July its Friendship Games attended by 200 participants -- staff and coaches, alumni, and guests spent a week traveling to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Caesarea. The games were the first ever in-person 5 site global convening. Games were founded and inspired by Ed and Penelope Peskowitz.

As part of the 2022 All-Star Legacy Projects, Up2Us is partnering with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) and MLB investment of $1.3 million over the next 3 years to further sports-based youth development programming focusing on mentorship, recruitment, and training of baseball and softball coaches who work with youth in Los Angeles communities experiencing social injustice.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) will launch in November their grassroots basketball initiative in 11 US markets. The Jr. NBA Leagues, a national network of youth basketball leagues for boys and girls ages 6-14, specifically addresses access and equity issues that were exacerbated during the pandemic. Goal to reach half a million boys and girls by 2027.

US Soccer Foundation launched with adidas the Just Ball League to provide free, competitive neighborhood soccer in New York City and Los Angeles this fall. Mini-pitches will serve as league hubs.

LEARN
While the Biden Administration just announced a federal student loan forgiveness up to $10,000, nonprofit employees with federal student loans may also qualify for The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Waiver. A NYC nonprofit executive explains the process that worked for him. Note the October 31 application deadline.

A pre-pandemic study tracked the mental health and sports participation of more than 11,000 kids ages 9 to 13 from across the US based on parental reports instead of asking kids. The study found youth who played individual sports tend to face more mental health difficulties than peers who played no sports, and those who played team sports were less likely to experience these mental health issues than those who didn't play sports. Summary Analysis in Smithsonian.

Dial 988 -- Anyone experiencing a mental health, substance use, or suicide crisis can call or text 988 or chat with the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline from anywhere in the US. It is free, confidential and available 24/7/365. More Details

Data from the 2019 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) show that students with higher grades are more likely to engage in physical activity compared to students with lower grades. 66% of US high school students with mostly A’s played on at least one sports team (run by their school or community groups during the 12 months before the survey), compared to only 42% of students with D/F’s.

See CDC Infographic on Health Benefits of Physical Activity.

ADVOCATE
In only 6 months, NY is #1 in mobile sports betting tax revenue! With a 51% tax rate, the highest state tax rate in the US, New York collected $284 million from February - July. For a whole year the $5 million allocated from this tax to the state grant program for nonprofits providing sports to under-served youth will represent less than 1% of the entire annual tax revenue collected.

The PLAYS in Youth Sports Act has been introduced by Congressman Colin Allred (D -TX) due to the efforts of the Play Sports Coalition. The bill sets up a $65 million grant program by the CDC for national and local nonprofits that "can demonstrate a track record and plan for serving low-income and under-resourced communities, as well as providers of adaptive sports programming." Summary Details