Grand Rapids, MI is great place however we our failing in the development and well being of our inner city youth. We must do more and step to the plate in the areas of academics and recreation, that lead to less time for our youth to find trouble.
About Us Kevin Scott and Ed Gordon founded the Youth Sports Alliance in 2006 while serving as a board members and program directors for the Grand Rapids Youth Athletics Organization (GRYAO). The YSA collaborated with the Michigan Black Expo Inc’s Youth Enhancement Division in 2008, a non-profit organization that has been in existence for over 12 years.
We are a consortium of concerned parents who have dedicated ourselves to helping our impressionable youth of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the ever changing set of problems and barriers they face in the road to successful lifestyles. Emphasis will be placed on inner city youth, and all youth of surrounding suburban communities are encouraged to participate.
Kevin and Ed came to the realization that the Grand Rapids community needed a strong results driven organization dedicated to getting our youth off the path to destructive behaviors that would not only focus on sports programming, by implementing Academics and Life Skills development programming into the mix. The (SAL) Sports, Academics and Life Skills concept was created and the pursuit to make this much needed organization reality moved into action.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide positive results driven after-school sports and recreation programs for youth ages 7-14, by using the youth participants’ love for organized sports as motivation, to teach them how to excel in academics and achieve their highest level of self fulfillment and personal development, in terms of physical, social, moral and spiritual aspects of life.
Company History
The Youth Sports Alliance (YSA) is a new organization underwritten by the Michigan Black Expo Inc. Youth Enhancement Division, a non-profit organization that has been in existence for over 12 years.
MBEI's mission is to engage employment creation, racism abatement and the bringing together of all people by engaging a new statewide industry out of the development of unifying cultures and MBEI-branded events, products and services.
The YSA and MBEI are based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The YSA Is More Than Just Sports!
The word “Sports” is part of our name and a key component in our community project however; our sports component fits into the larger context of our work in getting our community inner city youth off the streets, and away from the pulls and pushes of getting into trouble.
Research is proving that sports recreation opportunities are necessary for healthy development of young people “especially those in neighborhoods of poverty where other social options are minimal, and society’s negative influences are everywhere.
While many of your funding guidelines may not consider youth sports and recreation a high priority or see the value of funding projects involving youth sports, understand that many inner city youth see sports as a way out.
Our (SAL) Sports, Academics and Life Skills based programming model was developed from personally seeing what sports mean to inner city youth. We use our sports programming as a motivational vehicle to accomplish our goal of developing successful student athletes that lead to building future leaders of tomorrow.
Our main goal is to improve our youth in the areas of education, life skills, literacy and keeping them out of trouble, while helping our community prevent juvenile delinquency.
Click Here to Contact Us!