SQUASHBUSTERS INC
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Mission Statement
SquashBusters is a sports-based after-school program based in Boston & Lawrence, MA and Providence, RI. Through academics, athletics, community service and other forms of meaningful engagement, we challenge and nurture under-served youth to recognize and fulfill their greatest potential in life.
About This Cause
Overview SquashBusters is an urban youth development program that uses the sport of squash in combination with academic enrichment, community service, and high school and college counseling, to contribute to the long-term health, happiness and success of its students. The distinguishing characteristic of SquashBusters, relative to other youth programs, is that is focuses on depth more than breadth. The program works with young people 3-4 days each week of the school year from grade 7 through grade 12 continuously. It also commits fully to helping every student apply to, enroll in and graduate from college. SquashBusters stays formally involved with every participant until he/she turns 25 years old. Goals The long-term goals of SquashBusters are to ensure that its students: • Enroll in and graduate from college • Develop a deep sense of character and personal integrity • Embrace lifelong habits of health and wellness Background SquashBusters was founded in 1996 by Greg Zaff, a native Bostonian and former world-class squash player. SquashBusters is the first urban squash and education program in the United States (today 11 others have replicated themselves on the Boston model). Greg started the program because he wanted to make a contribution to his city and to young people who enjoy less privilege and opportunity. For the first several years, SquashBusters operated its 160 day/school year and summer program on courts and classrooms donated by the Boston YMCA, Harvard Club of Boston, and Harvard University. Then in 2003, SquashBusters took a giant step forward by moving into its own youth center – the SquashBusters Center at Northeastern University. The facility which houses eight squash courts, four classrooms, staff offices and a fitness center, provided SquashBusters with a permanent home and allowed the program to triple its enrollment to over 100 middle and high school students per year. Funding for the building was raised by SquashBusters in return for Northeastern donating the land, committing to manage and maintain the facility at its expense, and granting SquashBusters a free 50 year- lease. SquashBusters has just entered its 19th year of serving young people. In September 2012, we expanded to Lawrence where we now serve 48 middle school students from two Lawrence public schools and hold all academic and squash practices at Brooks School and Phillips Academy. Our aim is to develop Lawrence in alignment with Boston so as to support our students until they graduate from college. Enrollment, Student Selection and School Partnerships SquashBusters serves and supports 260 students. 210 of these participants are middle and high school students who enroll in our school year and summer program and 60 of these participants are in college. They receive support and counseling in course selection, summer job searches, financial aid and other topics from our School Placement and Outreach Director. The major entry point for SquashBusters is middle school. The program recruits 6th and 7th graders through school partnerships we have with Boston and Lawrence Schools. The school partnership model is very important to our program because it signals to students and families that we care about school and that academic success is most important. Partnering with schools also allows our program to carefully track school assignments and the individual academic progress and challenges of our students. In Boston, our three primary middle school partners are the James P. Timilty and John D. O’Bryant Schools in Roxbury and the William B. Rogers School in Hyde Park. Our 80 high school students attend 22 different Boston public, pilot and charter high schools. In Lawrence, our two school partners are the Emily G. Wetherbee and Arlington Schools. All students in grades six and seven are given the opportunity to join SquashBusters. What SquashBusters tells them when we first meet in the gymnasium where we conduct squash clinics is that the program is looking for the most committed, eager, hard-working and good sportsmen and women. We value these qualities most because all young people have control over their own attitude and effort and we want every person to have an equal chance to earn a spot in the program. We then test the students by hosting 15-20 tryout practices. We want to see who is going to show up consistently without excuse making and who is going to demonstrate the most effort and the best attitude. We do not choose kids based on athletic or academic talent. Results SquashBusters understands and measures its impact after nearly 20 years of serving Boston youth. 1. SquashBuster students stay in school and go to college • 98% of our students stay in middle school and high school, matriculate from grade to grade, and graduate high school • All alumni, since the start of the program in 1996, enroll in college at a 93% rate. Looking at a smaller group of these alumni - those who graduated from the continuous middle and high school program in the SquashBusters youth center - 98% matriculated to college. This compares very favorably to the 49% college enrollment rate for BPS students at large • Four years later, 78% of our college students graduate, and 95% of these graduates are doing so from a four year college. This compares very favorably to the 62% four-year college graduation rate for BPS students at large. 2. SquashBusters students are healthy and fit Our students exercise vigorously at least 80-100 days per year. They run on the squash court, stretch, and do sit ups and push ups. We regularly measure their performance and progress is very evident. Students and families both describe the health and fitness aspect of the program as incredibly important to them. Squash is clearly the athletic centerpiece of SquashBusters, but our program goes out of its way to expose students to other sports and types of physical exercise. Every year, we bring in experts to teach yoga, Latin dance, Capoeira, and lacrosse. SquashBusters also sends many of its students to summer camps where they are exposed to many sports. 3. SquashBusters students are honest, caring, and hard-working people Although hard to quantify or to prove, our students consistently impress others by the kind of young people they are. Volunteers, community service partners, private school squash coaches, college admission officers always report how respectful, polite, engaged and caring SquashBusters kids are. It is a culture we have worked very hard to create and maintain – one where everyone is expected to be polite, invested, concerned for others, and honest. It is very evident if one comes to meet our young people and it is a strength of the program that gets talked about by people who visit the program. For more information, please contact Greg Zaff, Founder and Chief Executive Officer @ g.zaff@squashbusters.org or 617-373-7375