America SCORES

Program Overview and Background

America SCORES runs a group mentoring program during after school hours that centers around a holistic (sports, arts, service) curricula. America SCORES matches mixed–age groups of same–school students in grades K–8 with teams of trained community–based mentors.

We remove all barriers to access (programs are free and take place at mentees’ schools after school); recruit mentors from school staff (adults ideally–situated to also support mentees outside of program hours); provide mentors intensive training and provide mentor teams ongoing in–person and onlinesupports; and embed the mentoring within a fun, evidence–based, whole–child curriculum integrating soccer leagues, poetry/spoken word writing/performance, and youth–led service projects. We deliver programming through a network of local independent affiliates deeply embedded in the cities they serve, in close partnership with local schools and school districts.

Mentee groups also enjoy once–in–a–lifetime experiences with local MLS/NWSL teams and professional spoken word artists.

Program Services

America SCORES creates mentee groups of 20–32 similar–age mentees (mixed 3rd–5th grades or mixed 6th–8th grades) and matches each group with 4 trained mentors. All mentors and all mentees in each group are connected to a single school or community center. Each mentee group meets after school 3–5 days a week for a total of 7–10 hours/week for a minimum of 20–24 weeks (split into two 10–12 week cycles).

Each mentee group practices soccer together and competes against other mentee groups in weekly soccer games and seasonal tournaments. Each fall, mentee groups also participate in poetry workshops and compete against other mentee groups in an annual international youth poetry slam series. Each spring mentee groups design and carry out service–learning projects together, culminating in a community service showcase.

Target Population

America SCORES focuses on school–aged BIPOC children (primarily ages 6–14 or grades 1–8) who are growing up in neighborhoods characterized by entrenched poverty due to systemic inequity. Many of our “poet–athletes”, as we call mentees, qualify for free/reduced lunch, attend underperforming, urban, Title I elementary and middle schools, and live in under–resourced, high poverty, inner–city neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas.