New England

OUR MISSION

The mission of America SCORES New England is to empower youth through an innovative combination of soccer leagues, writing, creative expression, and service-learning into a single after-school program. We inspire youth to lead healthy lives, be engaged students, and have the confidence and character to make a difference in the world. In the 2009-2010 season, Boston SCORES served 1,500 Boston public elementary and middle school students, ages 8-14, in after-school, summer and winter programming.

Why SCORES?

Keeping Kids Safe: 21 percent of Massachusetts K-12 youth are entirely unsupervised in the afternoon (Afterschool Alliance, 2006). Youth who are not enrolled in after-school programs during these hours are 50 percent more likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol, 3 times more likely to skip classes, and 5 times more likely to be “D” students (Afterschool Alliance, 2007). America SCORES Boston keeps Boston youth safe and supervised during the high-risk after-school hours, and helps them develop the vital life skills they need to succeed in the future.

Promoting Health: In communities in Massachusetts, the childhood obesity rate is 35 percent (Mass. Health Policy Forum, 2008).  Children are also not getting the exercise they need.  The students attending Boston schools with SCORES programs attend physical education class only 45 minutes each week in elementary school, and 115 minutes per week in middle school (Boston Globe, 2009). Over the course of the SCORES program, SCORES elementary and middle school poet-athletes get the exercise they need by practicing and playing soccer 204 minutes per week and 240 minutes per week respectively.

Improving Literacy: Boston Public School students are also not making the grade. On the 2009 statewide MCAS exam, 70 percent of BPS students in 3rd grade, 69 percent in 4th grade, 63 percent in 5th grade, 57 percent in 6th grade, 52 percent in 7th grade, and 41 percent in 8th grade had scores “in need of improvement” or lower in English Language Arts (Mass. Dept. of Education, 2009).According to an independent study undertaken by America SCORES, SCORES poet-athletes showed across-the-board improvement of their writing.

Fostering Community Leadership: Youth who volunteer in their communities are more likely to abstain from drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, succeed in school, graduate from high school, and vote (Afterschool Alliance, 2004).  They are 50 percent more likely to say that they will probably graduate from college, and two times as likely to discuss world affairs with adults (Corporation for National & Community Service, 2007). After participating in the spring SCORES program, each SCORES poet-athlete will have created, designed, and implemented a service-learning project.