The Team Enrichment Program
This project's parent organization is Harlem RBI
It operates in United States
It uses Multiple sports
Entered the Sport For Social Inclusion Award
More about The Team Enrichment Program
The neighborhood of East Harlem is known as one of New York City’s most disadvantaged areas where youth are considered at-risk. In fact, only 33% of African-Americans and Hispanics (comprising 99% of program participants) in the community have a high-school education and less than 10% have a college degree, 58% of youth in the district drop out of high school and the unemployment rate is 17.1%.
Furthermore, youth in East Harlem typically attend failing schools and have inadequate opportunities for positive development during after-school hours, and the neighborhood also has the highest rates of childhood obesity, asthma hospitalization and diabetes in New York City. In order to combat these challenges, the Team Enrichment Program provides youth with comprehensive, year-round sports and enrichment activities.
Youth who join a team in middle school are expected to commit to the program until they graduate from high school and matriculate to college or gain full-time employment. Team membership not only provides healthy physical activity, but also creates further opportunities for youth to develop teamwork, communication, leadership and conflict resolution skills that will help them to make positive life choices and ultimately break the cycle of poverty into which they were born.