Program
Overview | Building
Life Skills | Academic
Enrichment
Program Overview
Joy of Sports (JSF) has a variety of programs available
to reach the broadest audience possible. Our programs
aim to serve at-risk children and are designed to
appeal to different age groups. We use tennis, basketball,
soccer, and a multi-sports combination in our programs.
For younger kids, we offer the Star Power program
for pre-schoolers. For school-age children, our various
sports-based programs such as Soccer Plus and Basketball
Plus are available.
We provide all needed equipment and our coaches are
thoroughly trained by our staff. Our programs are
offered in partnership with local organizations including
schools, recreation centers, Boys & Girls Clubs,
and day care centers and are located at their facilities.
JSF programs are available on a year-round basis for
children ages 3-18.
JSF believes in the power of positive programs for
children — programming that supports and nurtures
the development of the whole child. Most physical
education (PE) and youth sports programs are enjoyable
for the youngsters who are naturally athletic. However,
we recognize that many kids have negative first experiences
with sports and get discouraged by being picked last
for a team, or told to sit on the bench, and are criticized
for not having skills equal to other kids. Their self-esteem
is badly damaged and they often form a life-long habit
of physical inactivity. We particularly try to reach
out to these kids to make sports a fun, integral,
healthy part of their lives.
Regular physical activity is a habit that is easy
to form as a child, but much more difficult later
in life. By starting early, children in our programs
learn healthy choices as well as life skills that
will serve them in any endeavor. Our philosophy, "Seeing
the Star in Every Child", enables coaches to
focus on helping kids develop at a level appropriate
to their skills. Praise and encouragement are given
based on children’s attitudes and needs rather
than the physical aptitude for sports. At Joy of Sports,
we truly want to bring the “joy” into
the learning process and onto the sports field!
Building Life Skills
We focus on teaching children key life success skills
that have been proven to positively enhance children’s
school performance and ability to attain goals. All
program participants are tracked before and after
to ensure program quality and success. Our unique
measured success provides a solid benchmark and guarantee
that our goals are being met and that the children
in our programs are deriving significant benefits
from their participation.
Our programs strengthen
the following life success skills:
Academic Enrichment
In addition to teaching children life success skills
through sports, our programs also focus on academic
enrichment in four key areas:
These additional areas of focus provide a complement
to the physical activity component of our programs
and allow children to apply the skills they practiced
on the field in the classroom.
“I
meet each student where they are at. Sometimes they
can be a challenge to get moving on the court, but
then walking back to the classroom, they tell me about
a personal problem happening in their lives. I see
they are opening up to me and I’m there to help
them any way that I can. It’s my job to give
them positive alternatives and hope. Anyone can learn
a forehand. We’re here to do much more than
that.”
-Jumanne Jahi, Joy of Sports coach for five years
Students:
To complete a Program Survey please click
here
