A Funding Boost for Nonprofits That Help City Youth
Players on the Vaux Big Picture High School football team call Valencia Peterson “Coach V,” but unlike the team’s other coaches, she’s not drawing up X’s and O’s.
Peterson trains the coaches in a specialized curriculum to teach their players how to recognize domestic abuse and prevent it in their homes and schools through her organization, Open Door Abuse Awareness & Prevention.
About 21% of men in the U.S. reported being victims of intimate partner violence before age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When Peterson gathers the boys at Vaux to take a knee, she tells them she wants to create an environment where they’re comfortable talking about problems in their lives.
ODAAP is a small nonprofit that brought in about $141,000 in revenue in 2023. It works with a handful of boys’ athletic programs in the area and operates a separate non-sports mentorship program for high school girls as well as one for all genders.
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Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative hosts 'Philly Girls Got Game' for second year
Hundreds of teen girls enjoyed a basketball clinic on Saturday, all thanks to the Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative.
The second annual Philly Girls Got Game is all about inspiration and addressing the disparity in athletic opportunities.
"Today I feel like it's a great opportunity to be here. We're balling out, we're hooping today. Great experience, very grateful," said Amia Etreie.
Players from Big 5 women's basketball teams take time to spend with younger players.
"It feels good because I look up to them. Like, I pray to be like them so it's great," said Etreie.
Etreie is 14 years old. The Women's Sports Foundation says that's the age when girls are twice as likely as boys to drop out of sports.
Philly Girls Got Game Day is trying to combat that statistic with this clinic, particularly in underserved communities.
"It makes me sad because you shouldn't give up," Etreie.