Framingham resident helps inner city youths - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News

Framingham resident helps inner city youths - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News

Project Coach Goes Global: Andy Wood in France

By Andy J. Wood, Project Coach Director

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

Heywood Broun, US journalist (1888 - 1939)

MARSEILLES, FRANCE: The brisk sea breeze, a pleasant 55 degree temperature, and faint sounds of the familiar early morning routine - all while the Eagles and Redskins battled it out live on Monday Night Football with painful French dubbed announcing - were all stark reminders that this certainly wasn't Western Massachusetts anymore. Indeed, while the Project Coach fellows and youth coaches were about to hit the hay after another Monday night academy session, the program was just waking to a whole new audience 3500 miles west, in Marseille, France.

PC Director Andy Wood in Marseilles, France.

As a part of the Institute of Training and Development's partnership with the State Department, I'm currently attending a series of meeting and workshops in France's southernmost city to help develop an exchange program between French and American youth over the next 18 months. Our series of appointments began early this morning, with an opening breakfast hosted by the interim Counsel General at the American Consulate in Marseille - Philip Richards - who expressed his gratitude and delight that youth from his region had been selected to take part in the program. Accompanied by the wonderful Madame Josette Steinbach - a former high school teacher from Strasbourg fluent in four languages, who has spent over twenty years in the Public Affairs departments of various US Consulates - we were able to establish the criteria for selecting the ten prospective youth coaches from the city, as well as devise an appropriate application and interview procedure for evaluating the candidates.

Shortly following this meeting, I attended a planning session with Francois Noel -  the Head of Sports Facilities and Planning in Marseilles (no small feat in the second largest city in France) - Madame Steinbach, and Mrs Julie Hooks-Davis of the organizing agency, ITD. In addition to exchanging ideas (where possible in our foreign tongue, although the astute translator Ned was on hand when this wasn't possible), all members of the planning committee placed utmost importance in selecting youth of excellent moral character and leadership potential, over sporting ability or competitive prowess. Mr Noel - a former professional judo champion himself - espoused the very same values of PC in this respect, and it became quickly apparent that the goals of the Marseille Sports Bureau aligned very neatly with those of PC and ITD.

The remainder if the late afternoon and evening was devoted to meeting with prospective youth at two of the ten potential sports clubs shortlisted from the 150+ in Marseille, informing them if the program and fielding their questions. In the spirit of PC, we even managed a couple of games of 'freeze tag' and 'sharks and minnows', the latter of which was played with particular gusto and energy by a group of French u16 national players at the first club we attended!

Tomorrow promises to be equally fruitful, when we will meet with members of the mayors office, attend a luncheon hosted by the consulate, and visit 4 more sports clubs in the city for potential applicants. 

Andy Wood - 11/16/10.

Project Coach @ The Smith Sophian

Smith helps community through Project Coach

A great article by Yuna Kim of the Smith Sophian was published today in print and online, detailing the development of the program and some of its latest accomplishments. Check it out below, and via the title link. Thanks to Yuna for a detailed and thoughtful account of our program.

Issue date: 3/4/10

Since its founding in 2004 by two Smith professors, the Project Coach program has trained hundreds of high school students from Springfield to be sport coaches for elementary-aged children. Through sports, the program promotes health and nutrition, as well as values of sportsmanship and teamwork.

Education and child study professor Sam Intrator, who co-founded the project with exercise and sports studies professor Donald Siegel, believes that the significance of Project Coach is the ability to make a difference in the community.

"What's meaningful to me is working with my colleagues and students to make things happen beyond the walls of Smith. Together, we learn every day about how to create a program that matters to kids and matters to the community," said Intrator.

The north end of Springfield, which has an 80 percent minority rate, ranks as one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the state. It suffers from high crime rates, persistent drug and health problems, few after school programs and a lack of opportunities for youth employment. However, Intrator and Siegel saw an area with good facilities, under-utilized due to a lack of organization, and an abundance of teenage youths willing to create change.

Project Coach currently employs 25 students from five Springfield high schools as sports coaches for Springfield elementary students. Although Project Coach works with soccer in the fall and basketball in the spring, its main focus is not on the sports themselves. Instead, sports serve as a powerful hook to involve adolescents in activities that promote positive youth development.

Graduate students in Smith's education and child study department take responsibility for four to five high school students and monitor their performance in the program, as well as their social and character development. Project Coach provides academic support for the high school students, checking their grades every two weeks, preparing them for standardized tests and helping them get into college.

One Project Coach participant, Dwayne Henry, mentioned that a graduate student previously involved with Project Coach had assisted him with his schoolwork.

"I was struggling in school with math and English, and she helped me every day before Project Coach," Henry said.

Other high school students say Project Coach helped decide their futures.

"I originally wanted to be a teacher, and Project Coach has helped me to grow and make the decision to become a teacher," said Francesca Rodriguez.

Project Coach also aims to provide caring and reliable adult figures for student participants.

"It's good because I don't have a relationship with older people outside of Project Coach," Henry said.

Similarly, the elementary school students participating in the program benefit from their interaction with the high school student coaches. The coaches and the children come from the same community, have attended the same schools and share a common culture, which inspires the children to connect with their coaches.

Coaches in the program must be committed and reliable, as well as prepared to work in a professional manner. The students are paid to work for the program four afternoons a week, for a total of six hours per week. Andy Wood, Project Coach program director, said that although most students would volunteer whether or not they were paid, they deserve the payment because they are held to high standards.

"It's been a really eye-opening experience and helped me understand the capacity that the youth have for development and for growth when they're put in a position of genuine responsibility and when they're asked to be positive role models for children that need somebody to look up to," said Wood.

Project Coach also provides the opportunity for different students and faculty to work with each other. Undergraduate students involved in Project Coach work as researchers and reporters.

Marie Wallace '11, an education and child study major who works with Project Coach and writes for the Project Coach Daily News Blog, values the hands-on experience she has gained from this program.

"Learning about theories and educational issues in the classroom is one thing. But going to Project Coach and seeing a person like Sam [Intrator] actually make a difference in the lives of teenagers makes it all seem worthwhile, and it is truly inspirational," said Wallace.

Smith has various physical, human and historical resources, and its proximity to Springfield makes it possible for it to contribute to the local community. Intrator recognized that Project Coach could not have been successful without Smith's support. Smith awards four fellowships to students pursuing their master's degree in the education and child study graduate program, which consist of a tuition waiver and a small stipend.

Project Coach in the Press!

College coaches city youngsters

The Republican
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
By FRED CONTRADA


NORTHAMPTON - Loeb G. Rosario knows exactly where he wants to be a dozen years from now.

"I want to be under the big lights, making the big decision to win the game," the Central High School sophomore from Springfield said.

The 16-year-old has a jump on that dream, thanks to Project Coach, a Smith College-sponsored program that gives Springfield teen-agers the tools to navigate the playing field as well as the field of life. Recently, Rosario was among a batch of teens learning leadership skills and training regimens under the tutelage of Smith professors Sam M. Intrator and Donald S. Siegel.

Siegel, who heads a master's program on coaching, came up with the idea for Project Coach while on sabbatical in 2003.

"The question was: Can sports be used to leverage education?" he said. "Sam and I did a lot of talking about that. There had to be mechanisms that taught certain things. The best way to do this is to teach kids to be coaches."

Now in its seventh year, Project Coach runs a sports league that plays at Chestnut Street Middle School and German Gerena Community School in Springfield. There are currently 25 high school students coaching 120 Springfield elementary school pupils in basketball and soccer. The program raises money to pay the coaches minimum wage salaries, and the teens, in turn, spend one day a week on special community health projects. One young coach recently gave a presentation on diabetes 2, which Intractor said is a huge health problem in north Springfield. The program also includes training on how to deal with bullying.

Rosario, who has been with Project Coach for three years, said he has seen the effects of the program in his school work as well as on the court.

"It teaches you how to be responsible and get things done on time," he said. "We have to get the kids to be there on time. They look at us like role models, basically."

Jaytoe E. Teh, 16, is a junior at Putnam Vocational Technical High School and an All-State soccer player. He said Project Coach has made him a better person as well as a better coach.

"It's helping teens and little kids at the same time," he said.

Some of the coaches-in-training recently took part in a research project by Smith senior Helene M. Parker, who was using weight-sensing equipment and a computer to study balance. Her findings could help the young coaches teach their players how to attain better stability.

Siegel said one of the program's goals is to get its teen-age coaches nationally licensed so that they can coach in any state.

Francesca M. Rodriguez, 17, a senior at Springfield Renaissance School, loves sports, but said Project Coach has been her avenue to a different career.

"I want to be a teacher," she said. "This helped me finally decide, because I love working with kids."

Rodriguez has applied to Hampshire College, where she hopes to study special education teaching at the elementary level.

http://www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-27/1266999378286590.xml&coll=1

Project Coach on TV!

This past Wednesday, Project Coach was delighted to host Jackie Brousseau and her team from NBC news affiliate WWLP Springfield 22 News at the first annual Project Coach retreat held at Smith College.







The media's visit proved to be one of the highlights of a successful day's coaching and learning - interspersed with a good dose of fun! - as coaches experienced a wide range of activities while on campus. After Co-Founder Sam Intrator had already visited the News 22 studio earlier in the morning to film a live interview during the morning broadcast, the day began with Exercise and Sports Science professor - and fellow PC Co-Founder - Don Siegel, along with department colleagues, leading coaches through a series of sports science lab experiments that challenged our teens to think about the application of power and balance in sports, and how such data is collected and processed. Graduate assistant Will Bangs proved to be the show-stopper at this event, defying college and high school basketball players to claim the vertical leap crown with a whopping 29 inches!

Next, the coaches worked with their redshirts in the Smith gym to refine their coaching styles ahead of next week's first 'live' session with one hundred elementary school athletes, before heading down to the squash courts to participate in a racquetball clinic kindly hosted by Smith College Squash Coach, Tim Bacon. Coaches quickly took to the sport, and were appreciative of Coach Bacon's knowledge, instruction, and great sense of humor!

Before breaking for lunch, coaches had time for one more workshop, this time generously led by Kia Johnson and her team of theater students. PC youth worked alongside their college counterparts to hone their "coaching voice", develop positive body language, and practice quick and effective methods of communication.

After the success of the February retreat, plans are already underway for a follow-up session during the April vacation.







http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/Project-coach-shows-teens-new-skills

http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/program-turns-city-teens-into-coaches

Article about Project Coach from Youth Today

The following is an article in Youth Today-- a leading publication in the field featuring our work: 

How To Promote Leadership Skills Through Sports

2/1/2010

From YouthToday.org 

by Deborah Huso 

Sports seems to be a natural avenue to youth development, especially for leadership skills, because kids naturally gravitate toward physical activity and competition. But using sports to reach at-risk youths is a lot tougher than it appears.

“The mistake we make is [to believe] that sports builds character. In and of itself, it doesn’t,” says Don Hellison, professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-author of Youth Leadership in Sport and Physical Education. Hellison says sports is a good medium because kids like it, but there has to be more to it.

His co-author Tom Martinek, professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, agrees. “You have to have a set of core values that drives what you do,” he says. “The program has to teach kids life skills, not just sports skills.”

Why Teens Make Good Leaders

Hellison says a key to teaching kids to be leaders through sports is to eliminate the emphasis on winning. Instead, he suggests showing youths how to work with other kids in the community or showing them how to plan a lesson and then teach it to others.

That’s what Project Coach in Springfield, Mass., does. “In most communities, teenagers are looked at as vulnerable and as threats,” says Sam Intrator, co-project director for Project Coach. “We see them as inspired assets.” This is especially true in the north end of Springfield, where impoverished communities lack the parent volunteers to run sports programs for children. That’s why Intrator and fellow Smith College (Northampton, Mass.) professor Don Siegel decided to turn the community’s teenagers into coaches to have them to fill the shoes normally filled by adult volunteers. Their program teaches at-risk teens to lead younger children through participation in basketball and soccer.

“Teenagers have traction with younger kids in the coaching world,” Intrator says. “And leading kids naturally builds self-esteem for them.”

Teenagers participating in Project Coach receive salaries, and Intrator says making it a paying job is part of the strategy. “Our coaches feel professional,” he says. “They’re getting paid, and they’re making a tremendous time commitment.”

What Works

“Teenagers want to be on that horse,” says Patricia Broersma, who runs the Transformational Adventures with the Horse program in Ashland, Ore. “But we start with the groundwork first.”

For Broersma, that means working with youngsters on identifying the obstacles that stand in their way and then symbolically conquering those obstacles through increasing skill in horsemanship.

Intrator says it’s also important when trying to teach kids leadership through sports to give them a very real opportunity to lead. “Whether you’re doing sports or theater, what really works is when you work together, not in a hierarchy,” he says.

Broersma says she finds that a big part of teaching leadership is showing youths they can control their own destinies. She works with teens from a residential treatment facility and tries to create an environment in working with horses that encourages kids to see their lives as an adventure they must work their way through. “They start seeing themselves as in charge of their own stories,” Broersma says.

Kids can also be inspired when they are provided with something to which they wouldn’t normally have access. The Notah Begay III Foundation (NB3) in Albuquerque, N.M., for example, gives Native American youth on several nearby reservations the chance to play and develop skills in golf. “Golf can be a hard game to sell, because it’s very expensive,” Notah Begay Jr., head coach for the foundation’s Junior Golf Program, says. But when kids see the opportunity to be like Notah Begay III, a PGA pro, they want to be a part of it. “It’s not common for a full-blooded American Indian to be a pro golfer,” says Begay of his son.

Both NB3’s Junior Golf Program and Project Coach make use of a process of ongoing personal evaluation, through which kids analyze how they have performed. Hellison says this is central to making sports a leadership tool. “Have the kids self-evaluate at the end of the day,” he says. “Did you make this a better program today?”

Get Connected

As with any youth program, community connections are important to success. Project Coach has developed close working relationships with schools in Springfield, as well as local community organizations, and relies on both for recruits and for space to conduct its programs. “We’re very embedded in the community,” Intrator says.

The NB3 foundation has a strong relationship with To’Hajiilee High School on the Laguna Pueblo, which the golf program serves. The school provides uniforms and transportation. At the same time, the golf program requires participants to maintain passing grades in school. Program leaders say it helps youths develop the skills they need to build better lives. “A lot of kids on the reservations fall off the map after they graduate,” says Begay. By partnering with the school system, Begay hopes to inspire more Native American students to reach for higher goals, just as his son has.

Martinek says sports can be a great way to level the playing field for at-risk kids. “They get to experience a leadership role in a program,” he says. “These kids don’t usually have a lot of opportunity for leadership in school.”

“If you ask a teenager to lead and give them structure to do so, they can do remarkable work,” says Intrator.

Deborah Huso is a freelance writer based in Blue Grass, Va.