The players on the V-Big Picture High School football team refer to Valencia Peterson as “Coach V,” but unlike the team’s other coaches, she doesn’t write X’s and O’s.
Peterson trains coaches in specialized curriculum and, through her organization Open Door Abuse Awareness & Prevention, teaches athletes how to recognize domestic violence and prevent it at home and at school.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 21% of men in the United States report being a victim of intimate partner violence before the age of 18. When Peterson gathered the boys to kneel before Vaux, he told them he wanted to create an environment where they felt comfortable talking about life’s issues.
ODAAP is a small nonprofit organization that generated approximately $141,000 in revenue in 2023. We work with a small number of men’s athletic programs in the area and also run non-sports individualized instruction programs for high school girls and all genders.
“I’m pretty much a one-man show, but I don’t want to be that way,” Peterson said. “We want to get support from organizations that believe in our cause and understand the impact we can make.”
That’s a goal the Philadelphia Youth Sports Cooperative hopes to accomplish, as it plans to establish a $5 million endowment this year for small youth sports nonprofits, including the Petersons. The joint venture is raising money for the Philadelphia Youth Sports Foundation and aims to begin recruiting in the spring. Its mission is to enhance funding for nonprofits, as well as provide training to apply for grants and maintenance of spaces in which nonprofits operate.
“As a nonprofit leader, we know how difficult it is to pay all the bills when you’re raising money dollar for dollar,” said Beth Devine, executive director of PYSC. “Being able to apply for a $5,000 grant makes a difference in how much time you have to spend on actual work.”
The youth recreation environment has improved in recent years, and the city has completed or is in the process of renovating dozens of recreation centers. Philadelphia Youth Basketball opened a 100,000-square-foot indoor basketball and community center in North Philadelphia in July.
But challenges remain, as former Mayor Jim Kenney’s turnaround program, which initially planned a major renovation of the city’s rec center funded by the soda tax, fell short of its initial goals.
» Read more: North Philadelphia’s youth baseball field is in sorry condition. They can’t wait long for MLB’s help.
On the other hand, some parks, such as the Athletic Recreation Center in Brewerytown, a historic field where Vaud’s football team practices, are heavily used by the public and require city funding for regular maintenance. The condition is poor due to the lack of. According to the Trust for Public Land, public and private investment in Philadelphia’s parks equates to about $109 per person per year, ranking it 62nd among the 100 most populous cities in the United States.
This collaboration awards grants to benefit as many organizations as possible. In a pilot program earlier this year, the amounts ranged from $500 to $4,000. Devine said the amount would relieve pressure on nonprofits to raise money themselves and not pass on the costs of expanding programs to families.
“At the end of the day, we don’t want kids to face any hurdles when it comes to playing sports,” Devine said. “Kids should be able to go to rec and find a program to play, and it shouldn’t be so expensive that they can’t do that.”
Shannon Gamby, executive director of On Deck Circle, a youth baseball development organization, said the grant could help his organization self-fund and move away from the need to frequently solicit donations. He said there is. The organization received $4,000 from the PYSC pilot program and used it to hire staff and purchase refreshments, field space and equipment this fall, he said.
“Many of us have other jobs,” Gamby said. “We are working hard and literally begging family and friends for donations and struggling to get grants to make this happen.”
Founded in 2009, PYSC started as a network of sports-based youth development organizations and became a nonprofit in 2015. Tax records show it operated in 2023 with fewer than 12 employees and just over $1.2 million in revenue. The joint venture offers membership programs for youth development organizations, including training for coaches and nonprofit managers. We also advocate for accessible and fair sports programming.
PYSC’s pilot fund required nonprofits to serve children ages 5 to 18 with an annual budget of less than $150,000. The cooperative may add more requirements in the next grant, but they want to make it as easy as possible for nonprofits to participate. Funding is available, Devine said.
“As soon as I saw the number of applications I received, I thought, ‘This has to happen,'” Devine said. “We must take this effort beyond this first small funding round.”
» Read more: One of Philadelphia’s most historic baseball stadiums is in shambles. Activists in the neighborhood are appealing for help.
Open Door Abuse Awareness and Prevention received $500 for PYSC’s pilot program this year. Peterson said every bit helps and she hopes to one day have enough funding to offer more training in trauma-informed coaching and provide scholarships to the coaches she works with.
“Every year there’s something new and we want to keep doing something every year, but we can’t keep doing it without funding,” Peterson said. “There’s so much work to be done and so little money coming around.”
“Playing Fields, Not Killing Fields” is a series that examines the state of Philadelphia’s youth recreation infrastructure and programs, a collaboration between the Inquirer and the Claire Smith Center for Sports Media and the Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting. . This project explores the challenges and solutions for sports as a viable response to gun violence and a force for revitalizing urban neighborhoods.
