Beat the Streets LA Programming Support

Play Equity to Advance Mental Health (sponsored by the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Beat the Streets Los Angeles provides access to youth sports through the sport of wrestling free of charge. We believe all youth should have a safe place to grow and learn. Youth sports can help kids improve their physical health as well as their social and emotional health. Since inception we have also placed an emphasis on growing girls wrestling. Beat the Streets Los Angeles leads the country in girls participation. Nationally girls account for about 10 percent of participants in the sport. Our organization has 30 percent participation from girls. By removing all economic barriers and hosting sites in some of the most underserved communities we believe we are helping address income inequality. Putting an emphasis on creating opportunities for girls in the sport helps address play equity and providing safe places for kids to practice with trained and certified coaches helps address community safety.

In the 2022-23 season we are operating program sites at 20 locations throughout the Greater Los Angeles Area and one program site in Ventura County. The programming at these locations run from September through June and hold weekly wrestling practices. We currently have over 1200 youth registered across all of our programs and 33 coaches receiving stipends. We also host multiple events throughout the year for youth to participate in, including clinics, competitions, camps, and university tours. High school aged youth in our programs also have an opportunity to apply and take part in our Tomorrow's Leaders program, a leadership program dedicated to developing the next generation of leaders. Registered youth in these programs range in age from 6-18 years old. Of the 1200 currently enrolled youth, 30% are female and 70% are male. Fifteen percent of the households we serve are non-english speaking, the vast majority of which speak Spanish. Sixty-five percent of the youth we serve report receiving free or reduced federal aid for the school lunch program. The ethnic breakdown of the youth we serve includes: 73% Latino, 13% White, 5% Asian, 4% African American, 2% Filipino, 2% Pacific Islander, and 1% Native American. All of our coaches are required to attend our annual coach and mentor training weekend seminar, pass a FBI/DOJ background check, maintain First Aid and CPR certification, and complete Safe Sport training.

By leveraging wrestling as a medium, BTSLA aims to help young people develop important life skills such as resilience, discipline, self-confidence, and teamwork. Our four core pillars are mastery of wrestling, enhanced academic achievement, healthy living, and character development. By empowering youth, we intend to stimulate community engagement and foster a sense of social responsibility among participants. We are proud that one third of our current coaches are BTSLA alumni. We hope to continue to grow in a sustainable way. A large component of that is creating the leaders of the next generations to come back to the community they were raised in to serve as coaches, mentors, and leaders.

All participants are required to fill out a comprehensive survey that measures two key areas; fitness and activity, as well as social and emotional learning. Our survey questions are derived from a partnership with Beat the Streets New York. We were able to leverage our own experience as well as the expertise provided by our sister organization's partnership with program evaluation expert, Hello Insight. An example question, "how well does this statement describe you?" "If things get tough or stressful, I have a way to deal with it (such as counting to 10, exercising, talking to someone)." Our youth respond with a 5 - describes me very well, at 35% and 40% rate themselves a 3 or below. For those kids that have been in the program for four or more years, 60% rate themselves as a 5 - describes me very well. We believe these numbers show, having a safe athletic outlet for the kids in our program is providing some help regarding ways to deal with their overall stress level.