Beyond Soccer

Beyond volley:march 2021 marked the one-year integration of volleyball into our year-round sport, health, leadership, and academic support model. Although the timing was extremely challenging with the unforseen and unforgiving covid-19 pandemic, the program persevered. At the end of the fiscal year, almost 200 youth and teens including 118 new players, benefited from volleyball run by director and assistant director of Beyond valley, marino and leti valdez. Their efforts, which included 9 months of weekly remote programming support, finally resulted in 45 hours of in-person volleyball activities in spring 2021. It marked the first time since our pre-pandemic merger with merrimackvolley for Beyond volley that kids could finally benefit from in-person physical activity and mentorship. Volleyball also started replicating the organization's sports-based youth development Soccer model including offering pathways for youth as 4 years old and engaging older youth as jr. Coaches and coach mentors.

Leadership through sports/youth jobs:despite covid-19 halting in-person activities, we still hired and compensated eight (8) lawrence teens as part of our commitment to youth jobs, with most of that focus over the summer months. Despite the forced reduction, we still committed more than $20,000 in wages and other leadership development support during fye21. It also meant hiring new Beyond volley teenagers and connecting a host of those players to paid covid-19 tracing project with partner mass hire. We are proud of the new ways our youth hires, and coach mentors maintained meaningful connections with our younger elementary and middle school players and teams, including through regular wellness checks, zoom calls and next-level remote programs that rewarded kids for connecting with teammates, practicing their skills, contributing to their families, and staying active. With health & wellness director lindsey mcardle at the helm, these youth hires developed two 6-week remote programs that included daily challenge themes, like #fridayfitness, #tuesdayconnect, and #thankfulthursday. Participation points were awarded as kids jumped on zoom calls, sent pictures or videos of themselves helping around the house, connecting with a teammate, or community member, completing 10,000 daily steps, or making healthy smoothies, for example.

Lawrence youth soccer:despite being the only community unable to participate in essex county youth Soccer league competition because of high rates of covid 19, Beyond Soccer's new director of Soccer development, chris marin, successfully relaunched in-person Soccer activities. It was also the first time he was at the helm since his onboarding, thanks to a 3 year sustaining grant from the blue piano fund. After addressing significant barriers to play, like permit challenges and field concerns, including helping us champion a safe return to sports campaign, collecting almost 1,000 support signitures, and coordinating meetings with the lawrence mayor and recreational department to ensure the city's safe and continued opening of fields, courts, and facilities, 250 youths finally benefited from those Soccer experiences, with 149 first-time players. The parents were so grateful for healthy outlets where their children could finally play and connect with others after so much sendentariness. In total, 14 hours of weekly activities were sponsored in spring of 2021. Our staff of paid and volunteer coach mentors expanded from 5 to 22, including many former players as part of our leadership-through-sports focus. All spring activities were offered 100% free to families.