HARLEM LACROSSE AND LEADERSHIP CORPORATION
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Mission Statement
What is Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership’s mission?: Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership ("HLL") is a youth services organization that uses lacrosse as the "hook" to provide at-risk students with academic intervention, behavioral support, mentoring, leadership training, and admissions counseling. HLL operates eight programs and serves over 300 students from New York City and Baltimore. Our mission is to provide a safe, structured environment for children to compete and learn while they develop into leaders for their community.
About This Cause
Our programming empowers students to achieve their potential and break the cycle of poverty by providing daily study halls, mentoring, push-in academic support, and vigorous, character-building lacrosse instruction. We actively recruit special education students and students identified by school administrators as most vulnerable to academic decline and school dropout. HLL Program Directors are stationed at each school site and work with students throughout the school day and the calendar year. This intensive, full-day, year-round intervention is what our kids need to reach their full potential. HLL has clung tightly to its mission of recruiting the most economically disadvantaged children in the school communities it serves. HLL's four schools in Harlem have a New York City Department of Education Economic Need Index of .92, compared to a city average of .79. Within those schools, HLL takes the most challenged students: 98% of HLL students are eligible for free or reduced lunch, while only 76% of middle school students in Harlem are. And 45% of HLL students speak a language other than English in the home, either as the primary or secondary language, far outpacing the same figure for both our school communities and Harlem overall. Perhaps most importantly, 32% of HLL students receive special-education services, nearly double the figure for students overall at HLL's school sites. HLL's Program Directors actively recruit the students who are identified by our school site administrators as either qualifying for special education, being disruptive influences in the classroom, or possessing other risk factors such as homelessness. Nevertheless (as discussed below), HLL students measurably outperform their peers at our school sites and students of similar demographics citywide. HLL Program Directors are stationed at each of our school sites so that they can tutor, coach, and mentor students throughout the school day and the calendar year. HLL empowers our students to reach their full potential by providing the following services: -Lacrosse instruction focused on building teamwork, self-esteem, growth mindset, perseverance, and healthy habits two to three times per week after school and on weekends and for five to six weeks in the summer. -After-school and weekend tutoring sessions two to three times per week throughout the school year, during which our staff will help students complete school assignments, develop core-competencies in literacy and math, and participate in long-term service learning projects, as well as academic sessions for five to six weeks in the summer. -Community service events and projects for students to assist those in need in their surrounding neighborhoods, to build leadership skills, and to pass on to others what they have learned. Past examples include partnering with St. Mary's Manhattanville Church to provide meals for their food bank, CityMeals-on-Wheels to deliver meals to the elderly, the Central Park Conservancy to beautify areas of Central Park, Filling in the Blanks to spread awareness about and address food insecurity among children, and BuildOn to complete fundraising for and construction of a school in Nicaragua. -Weekend athletic, leadership training, and career exploration events with partner organizations, institutions, and communities. In the past year, HLL has taken college trips to institutions including the University of Virginia, Howard University, Skidmore College, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania and HLL has connected students to career mentors from organizations such as Goldman Sachs, LinkedIn, Morgan Stanley, the NCAA, Revlon, and the Peace Corps. -Admissions counseling, which provides free academic tutoring, test preparation, essay counseling, advising, and school visits to connect students with the educational opportunities that best fit their needs and to prepare them to earn admission to the academic institution that will set them on the path to long-term success. HLL's holistic and intensive model enables our students to set and achieve new goals that often seem unimaginable to children from their neighborhoods. HLL students achieve average core class GPA increases of five to ten points each year. In the past year, 89% of HLL students completed the year with a passing grade in English, 87% completed the year with a passing grade in math, 90% completed the year with a passing grade in science, and 93% completed the year with a passing grade in social studies, with 90% earning a passing GPA overall in core classes. Over the same time period, only 76% of children not enrolled in HLL at our school sites passed English, only 77% passed math, only 82% passed science, only 79% passed social studies, and only 72% earned a passing GPA overall in core classes. We consider these discrepancies to be the greatest indicator of our success, especially given the fact that our students come from significantly more disadvantaged backgrounds and have significantly greater learning needs than their peers at our schools sites. Since 2011, HLL students have maintained a 100% on-time graduation rate from middle school. HLL's admissions counseling services have helped thirty-six students earn over $9.1 million in scholarship offers to elite private schools, including Groton School, Peddie School, Episcopal High School of Virginia, and Cardigan Mountain School. Of the thirty-six HLL students to go to boarding school, nine have an IEP, speak English as a second language, have lived in shelters, or were identified by the school as having significant behavioral challenges. HLL students at independent schools have an attrition rate that is half that of all students who attended independent schools during the 2014-2015 school year. HLL's admissions counseling services have also helped students earn admission to colleges that include the University of Virginia, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, SUNY Stony Brook, Bates College, Colby College, Dickinson College, Haverford College, and Hobart College. Students enrolled in HLL and HLL alumni avoid risk behaviors and high school dropout at rates superior to those of their peers. The teen pregnancy rate for female HLL students ages fifteen to nineteen is 0%, while the teen pregnancy rate for African-American women of the same age in New York City is 10.1% and the teen pregnancy rate for Hispanic women of the same age in New York City is 8.2%. The high school dropout rate for HLL alumni is less than one-fifth of the citywide rate for African-American and Hispanic students.