• Sports are still the best way to keep many youth away from drugs, delinquency, and the negative influences that are ready to siege youth’s idle time and craving for excitement, especially in the city.

• At the Boston Broncos organization, the youth get a chance to build skills that are very necessary for today’s careers: leadership, diversity, management, teamwork, organization, problem solving, decision-making, health and safety and punctuality.

• Sports teams are a natural “peer support groups” for young people.

• Sports are cost-effective. The Boston Broncos reaches over 1,500 youth a year; it is Jamaica Plain’s largest youth program.

•   Sports reach youth who will simply not participate in counseling or tutoring program. Once we reach them, we build relationships that allow us to support them in all areas of their lives, not just sports.

• Our unique blend of sports and education helps bridge the achievement gap that afflicts city youth. An Educational Resource Center , offering academic support and college access-is vital to the approach. Once in our program we will continue to support them throughout there college years.

• The Boston Broncos Organization builds on Jamaica Plain’s strengths: diversity, voluntarism, and neighborhood pride. Several youth serve as assistant coaches and peer leaders and have a voice in organization and program directions. Our programs teach the value of being active in the community and calls upon safety as an ongoing issue.
  

   Mission and History

Mission- The mission of the Boston Broncos Organization is to prepare the young people in Jamaica Plain and other Boston neighborhoods for success in education, employment, and community in life by breaking down racial barriers, developing skills and self-esteem, promoting non-violence, providing personal support, and offering safe structure activities.

History- The Boston Broncos was founded in 1999 with several little league teams by a coalition of neighbors concerned about the safety of their children and neighborhood. Today we have grown to leagues for boys and girls numbering over a thousand. We are the primary source of athletic training and educational support for thousands of city’s youth. Today it is one of the most organized and structured programs in the city.

  Organization Structure and Program

Structure- The Boston Broncos board of Trustees (see attach list) include 7 members. Most live in Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Roslindale, Dorchester and Roxbury we have strong ties to the Boston community.

The board approves The Broncos budget and reviews major program initiative. The Treasure overseas the finances and fundraising for the organization.

The board has extensive partnerships with the city of Boston , youth centers and youth agencies, providing facilities and other capacities for our programs and many neighborhood resources for our participants.

The Program- The Boston Broncos offer, sports, academic and personal help to over 1,000 boys and girls ages 5-18. These activities include baseball, basketball, softball, and traveling teams.

Girls Outreach Project- Despite well-documented physical and psychological benefits, girls’ participation in athletic is limited by lack of opportunity and gender stereotypes. Girls living in poverty, especially girls of color are most limited in their access to physical activity and sport.

Boston Broncos have always included girls, but we need to include them more in the sports and education. We proposed to remedy this situation by introducing an outreach program geared exclusively for girls. This will be done with new staff, new partnership, ad input from the girls themselves.

Project initiatives include: An expanded girl’s softball team ages 9-18, girl’s basketball year round ages 13-18, and expanding educational resources at the grammar and high school level. In the summer the girls will attend educational classes two times a week for one hour and in the fall and winter 3 nights a week. All participants will be supervised by adult tutors; teachers and mentors while on the ball field and the classroom.

New Baseball academy & Little League- We are extending out little league baseball program in two ways (1) to add more youth ages 8-12 for little league programs and to expand the T-ball program ages 5-8. This will introduce children to baseball and offer them fun; physical fitness; positive attitude on diversity, education and achievement; and teamwork skills. (2) To offer a year around baseball and softball Academy to compliment the existing programs by several hundred this summer, thus enabling the most talented participants, ages 13-18, to build their skills and conditioning, even while participating in educational planning and preparation and college orientation and access. Although games are in the evening during the summer 5pm-9pm all boys will participate in the educational process two times a week and on weekends. They will be supervised by coaches, teacher, tutors and older mentor while on the baseball field and the classroom.

Cultural Exchange: Dominican Republic and Venezuela- The past several years our teams have been able to participate in international baseball tournaments in the Dominican Republic and the United States . We hope to expand our tournament program to include Venezuela in the near future. Benefits of the trip included new friendships, broadened horizons, recognition of hard work, and bridges built between many cultures that have much to share.

  The Boston Broncos Constituency

The Boston Broncos offer organized sports, academic support, and personal help to over 1,000 boys and girls ages 6-20. We stress teamwork, fun, and skill- building rather than victory; this attracts children of all abilities and interests.

The majority are low-income and at-risk. Many are not involved in other youth Programs, 80% are from families with at least one parent absent, physically or emotionally, this is often due to drugs, alcohol or gangs.

The participants are mostly new immigrants from the Latin Americas which largely settle in Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park or Dorchester .

Growing up in Jamaica Plain is hard when 70% of residents and 80% of children are arriving and live in poverty. A perpetual housing crisis places many low-income families in constant transitions from one home to another.

  How the education resource center meets the youth needs

Our staff and coaches will have close relationship with participants enabling them to encourage hard work, providing tutoring and homework, and help them plan for the future. This combination of athletic and educational achievement takes many powerful

Forms: ·

• Sports build leadership and life skills; help kids succeed in school; promote esteem, teach nutrition, exercise, and motivate youth to continue their education.
   

• We will provide tutoring and a place to study, and the people that deals with college counseling will begin seeking out children as early as Junior High School.
   

• Staff, peers, and volunteers will show participants that college is possible. We will push them and give them support to make the most of their current educational opportunities and to achieve at a high level. The range of educational services is a natural and comfortable extension of participation in our sports programs.

The Boston Broncos participants come from homes with little tradition of Higher education and attend schools that offer little support. Ask them whether or not they plan to go to college they will say yes, but ask what steps they have taken (e.g. selecting colleges, taking SAT), and you will find they have done little or nothing.

These young people may see college as s dream or fantasy, but most do not see it as a realistic option and have done next to nothing --- and, in fact, don’t know what to do to make that dream a reality.

  The Educational Resources Project Goals and Objective

The Educational Resources goal is to help students to set goals for higher education and translate these goals into concrete plans and actions that will ensure educational achievement and progress. Our objectives are:

1. To provide school support and college awareness, preparation and guidance to 250 youth.

2. To include youth, staff, and volunteers from diverse ethnicities and neighborhoods in these activities.

3. To involve girls in educational motivation and awareness support activities in numbers, scope and impact equal to boys.

4. To tutor 190 youth in the SAT, SSAT (independent school admission), and MCAS testing.

To guide and assist at least 50 youth who would benefit from applying to an independent school.

1. To offer college awareness activities (e.g. tours) and college counseling and support to at least 200 youth.

2. To provide financial aid planning and assistance for at least 140 youth who are applying to college.

3. To offer regular after-school academics and support for 50 selected at risk high school participants.

4. To monitor all education resource participants and to offer them personal support.

Project Program outcomes are:

1. Strengthened participant self-confidence and motivation achievement.

2. Enhanced levels of achievement and promotion project participants.

3. Expand participant’s awareness of, and readiness for college enrollment.

4. Improve participant performance in MCAS testing.

5. At least 18 youth admitted to and enrolled to independent schools.

  Project Description 

The Education Resource Center will be open and staffed every weekday afternoons. We will target high school juniors and seniors, but will get younger students to start thinking about and planning for college; many urban students don’t think about college until their junior or senior year. And most drop out of high school altogether.

These are the specific Educational Resource Services:

1. We will use the relationships between the participants and staff and volunteers to encourage youth to pursue educational goals and services.

2. We will expose youth to college options through speakers, mentors, and alumni.

3. Our staff and volunteers will provide and allocate time for youth to do their homework in a class room environment.

4. We will offer individual assistance to prepare students for the MCAS Exam and the SAT. In Boston , 35% of the 2006 senior class had not passed the MCAS and did not graduate in June.

5. We will help students attend independent schools which offer scholarships and financial aid.

6. We will pilot a new English as a second Language program (ESL) for immigrant’s youth. Students will attend three days a week for two hours a session.

7. We will help juniors and seniors with admissions and financial aid process, including preparing personal statements and other parts of the application. We will assist parents especially Latino, who often simply do not understand how to complete financial aid applications.

We will help athletically gifted youth to identify the right college, contact coaches, and obtain scholarships. We periodically sponsor College Showcase, which enables   college baseball, coaches to meet and watch high school youth for recruitments

  Broncos Funding and Sustainability 

Current Funding- We are seeking funding from many foundations that will support our present programs and our new Educational Goals. We continue to receive support from the City of Boston and Individual donations and in-kind donations in the form of volunteers, donated offices, facilities and equipment.

We will approach more private funders that we have not approached and target appeals around specific projects, e.g. the Girls Outreach project, and the Educational Resource Center .

We are researching potential new public and private grant sources that make long term or multi-year grants.