America SCORES Poet-Athletes Perform in New York City

Twenty-six incredibly talented SCORES poet-athletes from 13 cities traveled to NYC to perform their original poetry in front of 200+ guests at the New York Stock Exchange.

The event captured the attention of MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell who invited Xavier, a poet-athlete from DC, and Holly O'Donnell, Executive Director of America SCORES to join him on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell to talk about America SCORES on live TV after the event

The event was not only an opportunity for the America SCORES poet-athletes to showcase their work, but was also a chance for many of the young stars to get out of their neighbourhoods and head to New York City for the first time.

Through soccer, America SCORES provides low-income urban youth with opportunities to improve their health and fitness, as well as their literacy skills and self-confidence. The organisation works in the nation’s most economically disadvantaged and under-resourced neighbourhoods, in public schools where youth face numerous challenges including exposure to violence/crime, gang activity, high rates of childhood obesity and other health problems, and low rates of academic success.

America SCORES achieve their mission through daily after school and summer programming which combines soccer, poetry and service-learning. These programmes often act as extra-curricular activities for the schools who, in most cases, have nothing similar relating to soccer or the arts.

SCORES is addressing the opportunity gap which exists throughout the US. The term opportunity gap refers to the ways in which race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, English proficiency, community wealth, familial situations, or other factors contribute to or perpetuate lower educational aspirations, achievement, and attainment for economically disadvantaged students.

Using soccer as a tool for social change, America SCORES creates teams through the sport of soccer; brings these teams into the classroom to discover their voice through poetry; and as a team, they learn to use their voices to make a difference.