Coaching Corps

For my practice experience I will be working with Coaching Corps, an organization that uses the power of sports and service to improve educational, health and social outcomes for underserved youth. They are partnered up with many organizations across the Bay Area, looking for assistant coaches to help run youth sports teams as well as serve as mentors for these kids. The partner organization Coaching Corps assigned me to was Berkeley Youth Alternatives, a non-profit, community-initiated organization located in Berkeley, CA, that provides a multitude of counseling resources and after school programs for troubled youth, including sports fitness. I am currently an assistant coach for a 5^th grade girls basketball team, where my responsibilities extend not only into the realm of basketball instruction and sports discipline, but also into the role of a mentor and guiding figure. 

One of the aspects of my organization I love the most is Coaching Corps strives to utilize their students volunteers beyond the couple weekly practices they attend and carry out larger events to directly address other areas of these children's lives like the importance of education. One of those events will be occurring this Sunday, April 13. Coaching Corps will be hosting Take Your Team to College Day. This event will bring the kids we serve to the Berkeley college campus and will give them an opportunity to explore the possibilities of higher education. At this year's event, we have kids coming from Bears Youth Basketball, Willard Middle School, and MLK Jr. Middle School. This is the agenda they provided us:

10:30AM-11:45AM Volunteers Meet Up & Introductions

Help with any set ups/preparations and receive a tour guide map with talking points to review; participate in an ice breaker and form a buddy system when the kids arrive; interact with the kids!

11:45AM-12:45PM Campus Tour

Give a tour of the UC Berkeley campus! You will not give a tour alone; you will work with a buddy of your choice as well as a student-athlete. All tour maps, stops, and talking points will be given to you so no prior knowledge is necessary at all.

12:45PM-1:15PM Scavenger Hunt

Help out with a Scavenger Hunt that includes Sather Gate, Campanile, and more! 

1:15PM-2:10PM College Student Panels

Be a part of a panel with student athletes and discuss college life, give advice and info about staying active. 

2:10PM-2:45PM Activity & Pick Up Game

Participate in a quick activity and a soccer pick up game with the kids!

2:45PM–3PM Closing

Closing remarks, hand out goodie bags, answer any questions, and take photos.

As you can see it's a packed schedule filled with many positive experiences and provide these children with opportunities to learn about higher education as well as do the things they love, like sports. Juxtaposing the two in an event like this is a great way of teaching these underserved children to associate the fun they have with sports with school.

The reason why I bring this up is not only because this event is quickly approaching, but because of our discussion of visual documentation both in class and discussion. Many of the photos on Coaching Corps's website display exactly these sort of events of youth empowerment and support. That is how they market their cause and receive funding. In our discussion when we were looking and analyzing each other's photos (from our respective organizations), we discussed what our organizations were trying to get across. It's nice to see those pictures come to life and witness what they were trying to get across first hand through this event.    

Are We Really Helping the Poor?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/12/anti-poverty-programmes?zid=301&ah=e8eb01e57f7c9b43a3c864613973b57f

There has constantly been debates on whether or not anti-poverty programmes are actually helping the poor. The article, “Are We Helping the Poor?” published in 2013 goes into detail on the main debates people have over assistance programmes which prove how poverty statistics have been wrong for several years. It is shared that “[S]tatistics using the official poverty measure do not provide an accurate picture of poverty or the role of government policies in combating poverty,” by Columbia University researchers Christopher Wimer and Liana Fox. There is proof that these government assistance programmes reduce poverty by about 40% since 2010 based on the US Census Bureau. However, this is solely based on studies conducted but where is this information coming from? And how come there hasn’t been visible improvement on the poverty struggles of millions of the poor living in the United States?

Based on the Columbia University Research there has been a decline in child poverty and amongst those in deep poverty but where is the proof of this and how was this study/research conducted? The reason I chose this article was because it made me question the reliability of the research published. Mr. Drum (an impressive figure) stands within my same thoughts. He states that ‘While poverty among the elderly has fallen impressively since 1967 (around the time Medicare was introduced), the percentage of poor Americans aged 18-64 hasn't budged much. The figure dipped from 1967 to 1979, but today is right back where it was 35 years ago, at 15%.” The poverty problem hasn’t improved. Government assisted programs, in my opinion, do help families support but these families are stereotyped for it and these programmes do not get these families out of poverty, its only a way of helping maintain the home under certain circumstances.

Mr. Alhert also believes that this study is flawed and argues that “Welfare benefits will dampen some recipients' drive to seek employment, whether they are technically impoverished or not,” because welfare programs can give more financial help than actually having a job. The anti-poverty problem is a continuous cycle. There are those that believe that these programs do help, and I believe this too. However, certain programs can only help a family so much and do not allow them to get out of poverty without having more resources of getting a proper job in order to maintain a household. Some of those impoverished cannot get a job because they do receive more financial help by not having one which allows them to take care of their children and do much more during the day. However, this is going to be the same routine for them. They have no other opportunities for a brighter and more secure future. So this leads me back to the question of whether or not we are helping the poor with government anti- poverty programs which include social welfare and others. The research conducted by Columbia University states that it has but in all honesty, I feel that it has only left the poor in a deeper poverty trap than they were before. The research does not take into consideration other factors that affect poverty rates in the United States. There should be a system that deliberately tries to increase the amount of those impoverished seeking employment in order to live above the poverty line in the United States.