2023.03 -- US Storybook 2022 updated 4.14 - Flipbook - Page 35
THROUGH SUMMER
COACHING, TRINITY AND
JAVONN FIND OUT WHAT
THEY’RE MADE OF
JAVONN AND TRINITY | PEACEPLAYERS BROOKLYN
In the summer of 2022, six youth participants from PeacePlayers Brooklyn got to role reverse and see
what it feels like to run in a coach’s shoes. And as youth coaches Trinity, 17, and Javonn, 21, tell it, it
was a game changer of a summer. Trinity and Javonn coached PeacePlayers programs as part of the
Department of Youth and Community Development’s Summer Employment Program, which places
youth around the city with summer jobs for 25 hours a week.
Javonn has been a PeacePlayers Brooklyn fixture since nearly the beginning, while Trinity is a
newer recruit. But for both of them, coaching presented a paradigm shift, a sort of mirror reflecting
the people they have the power to be. The summer coaching gig challenged them in the best ways
possible, pushing them out of their comfort zone, and forcing them to do things that were scary
at first but ultimately helped them prove to themselves that they were more than up to the task maybe any task.
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