PeacePlayers US Storybook 2021 - Flipbook - Page 10
2021 UNITED STATES STORYBOOK
2021 UNITED STATES STORYBOOK
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?
Jen Burt could only describe what was unfolding before her eyes
as magical.
For nearly a year, the kids had slowly stopped showing up for
the after-school program at Baltimore’s St. Francis Neighborhood
Center, where Jen works as Director of Education. She didn't take
their absence personally or need to search far for reasons for the
drop off in attendance.
St. Francis was fully online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she
understood why kids would choose to bypass a virtual after-school
program after being in front of a computer all day for school.
So when the school year ended and restrictions on in-person
activities were lifted, the kids started to drift back to St. Francis.
But the program they had left wasn't the same one they found
upon returning. What they found was PeacePlayers.
During the months away from in-person programming, St. Francis
and PeacePlayers Baltimore developed a partnership that included
coaches and staff from PeacePlayers teaching conflict resolution
through basketball skills. It was just what the kids needed.
It was just what Jen needed.
"To be able to offer in-person programming for the summer coming
back into 2021 is one thing," she said. "But then to see the joy and
the conversation and just being together that could happen in a
space created by PeacePlayers – like it almost seemed effortless,
like it was just meant to be? That's why I use the word magical. It's
like it just happened.”
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Of course, it didn't just happen. PeacePlayers had approached St.
Francis with the same care and patience that they show all the
schools they approach. There is no hard sell, only explanation and
providing an opportunity to learn about the PeacePlayers program.
When PeacePlayers Baltimore's LaToya Fisher and Chinny
Nwagbo first reached out to St. Francis in early 2021, the timing
also happened to be just right.
"It's when we were looking for partners," Jen said. "They spoke a
little bit to this idea of changing the narrative of their communities
and how that's a multifaceted process. But the way in which both
[LaToya and Chinny] approached me with such intention for
specifically working with Black communities, that is definitely
something we were looking for.
“We're not looking for partners who are just performative
or who are doing the work for the wrong reasons. We're
looking for partners who are working with intention. And
I think that's what really struck me about them, and just the
organization in general.”
Jen, along with St. Francis' Volunteer and Partnerships Coordinator
Angela Miller were impressed enough with PeacePlayers that they
quickly collaborated on a 7-week program that launched in the
summer of 2021 for kids in Grades 3 through 8. The weekly sessions
involved basketball skills, of course, though Miller recognized that
the basketball portion was a means to an end.
"The kids had been behind a computer screen for a year," Jen said.
"It was just a physical outlet and that's what all of our kids needed.
It wasn't a forced competitiveness or set up that you have to like
basketball to interact with this. It was just a situation where we're
just going to practice these skills in small groups and it's going to
be super focused and you have a coach who's cheering you on the
whole way."
"The teachers were just like yep, we love them. Let's keep them."
The first group of weekly sessions went so well that a second session
was put in place for the fall. And just like that, a partnership was
born. Jen couldn't be happier with the wonderful PeacePlayers
coaches who have created a safe, nurturing environment for the
St. Francis kids. But the relationship goes beyond just showing up
at the gym at the prescribed day and time.
Ultimately, the reason this partnership has worked and will
continue is because the St. Francis faculty came to quickly trust
the PeacePlayers methods and all their coaches. Angela had a
gut feeling things would work out after LaToya and Chinny first
shared their ideas with them.
But it wasn't until the sessions began and everyone was able to see
the process in action that it was clear this was going to work.
"It's partially intuition," Miller said. "It's partially observing how
the coaches are interacting with our students and our staff.
PeacePlayers tried to bring people into the fold rather than exclude
based upon whether or not a student is athletically inclined or not.
Encouraging the intention and the empowerment of the moment
rather than the sort of competitiveness of it. I feel like you can
tell those things pretty quickly. I just feel like that was obvious
and then after the first session, we had glowing reviews from our
teachers during the summer.
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