Every Kid Sports
By Albert B. Kelly
The thing that is so brutal about poverty is that it touches every aspect of a family’s existence. It is not as if the impacts of poverty are confined to one area of a person’s life or one aspect of family’s daily life, but it touches everything. The other brutal and ugly fact is that it stretches over generations. Parents cannot hand down to the next generation what they never had and this deficit, left unfilled, extends unto the third and fourth generations and perhaps beyond.
Because poverty erodes every aspect of a family’s life, the impacts are built into the lives of children. To be sure, those impacts are felt in the most basic areas of life such as food insecurity, a lack of clothing, healthcare needs that go unaddressed, substandard education, and inadequate shelter; but the impacts also creep out into other areas that many people don’t ever consider.
One not so obvious area where poverty has a huge impact is in the area of youth sports. Providing organized youth athletics is not an inexpensive undertaking. Youth sports leagues must charge a certain amount in registration and sign-up fees in order to fund the activity. This includes everything from liability insurance to equipment, uniforms; and funds to pay for officials, and field maintenance.
Some sports have lower cost entry points while others, like football and hockey, can be extremely expensive. Go into any low-moderate income community, and you will find families struggling to pay registration fees so that a child can participate. For families with more than one child, it’s that much harder.
But that’s where “Every Kid Sports” comes to the rescue. Every Kid Sports provides youth sports grants to kids from income-restricted families so that they aren’t prevented from playing on a team or in a league because mom or dad can’t afford to cover registration fees. While those receiving a grant must come up with at least $10 per child for registration, eligible families with “Every Kid Sports” can receive anywhere from $150 quarterly to $600 annually depending on number of children and need, etc.
The program is for youth ages 4 to 18 years old. To determine financial need, parents or guardians must submit enrollment documents with the child’s name and current dates of enrollment for one of the following: Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, or Certificate of Eligibility (COE) for Migrant Education Programs. Upon approval, an electronic payment card will be issued virtually to the parent/guardian allowing them to pay the child’s registration fees online.
The one condition is that the recreational youth sports league (or school athletic program) the child wishes to join must be able to accept registration payments via VISA debit or credit as the program cannot accommodate programs that only process fees using cash or check. The program does not provide grants for travel teams or club teams.
With Every Kid Sports in mind, I encourage parents and those who operate youth sports leagues to visit the website at https://everykidsports.org/every-kid-sports-pass/ as the website has a lot of information and an extensive FAQ. I also encourage those in a position to donate, to consider doing so as this program is vital and will have long-lasting positive impacts for the young people it helps.
I say that because not a week goes by when I don’t hear someone comment that we need more positive and productive things for young people to do, whether to keep them off the streets and away from bad influences, to promote good health, or simply to keep boredom away.
But more than that, I think that for so many young people, sports and athletics provides them with opportunities to build self-confidence, learn discipline, the value of hard work, as well as get a taste of what it means to work and coordinate with others on a common goal. That might sound like basic stuff to some, but in era that sees more young people isolated and tethered to a device, sports can be a great teacher without being pushy.
Finally, sports and athletics is one of the few ways that those living in poverty can dream about breaking the chain of poverty. We know that most every kid that steps onto a field won’t grow up to be a professional athlete, but a few will and until they show themselves to us, why shouldn’t every kid have the chance to dream their dream? Maybe it starts with Every Kid Sports.