Our Mission

Project Coach works to bridge the economic, educational, and social divisions facing youth in economically and educationally underserved communities. PC inspires and empowers urban youth to be agents of social change through the craft of coaching. Coaches train in leadership, job-skills development, academic growth and fitness and wellbeing improvement and deploy those skills as youth coaches in neighborhood elementary schools in need of enrichment and recreation. Sport, we believe, can be a powerful catalyst for individual and community change: We share our passion and our model with youth development programs throughout the US and abroad, including the Boys & Girls Club, Harlem RBI, the US State Department's Special Fellows Program, the Partnership for After School Education and others.

Our Success

• 100% of Project Coach teen coaches graduate from high school in a district that graduates only 61% of students.
• 95% of Project Coach coaches enroll in college.
• PC youth coaches gain a 28% improvement in GPA, on average, after two seasons in our program.
• PC Afterschool provides three hours per week of consistent, healthy levels of physical activity for 150 Project Coach players, the majority of whom attend schools without weekly PE programs.

Our Approach

Project Coach teams Smith College faculty and students, Baystate Health professionals, and Springfield Public School educators with inner-city youth in a sports-based youth leadership program that teaches teens to coach and mentor kids in neighborhood elementary schools. Our approach empowers youth to be successful coaches, engaged students, model leaders and proactive community members. As a laboratory after-school program for Smith College’s Department of Education and Child Study, Project Coach is committed to providing leadership in the field of youth development by developing curriculum, preparing graduate students, and conducting research in the fields of youth development and urban education.