Nonprofit Positive Coaching Alliance Offers Free Resources to Support Youth Sports During COVID-19 Shutdown
I get email. I get lots of email. Generally from people with things to sell. Fortunately, some of what comes my way bucks the make-a-buck trend, grabs my attention and is for an obviously good cause. And when I can I like to pass along what interests me because I think it will be of interest to you.
I hadn't heard of the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) prior to receiving an email from the nonprofit organization yesterday. I'm glad they reached out. While I don't have children, I was a kid once myself (believe it or not) and I care about youth sports. And this strikes me as a cool project, one worth knowing about.
Since the PCA can explain their work better than I can, I've decided to run their press release below, as written:
Campaign to Deliver Resources and Much Needed Connections to Sports Community and Beyond During Global Health Crisis
Mountain View, CA, April 8, 2020 – Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), the leading non-profit dedicated to transforming youth sports to provide character development in youth athletes, announces its “Life is a Team Sport” campaign to support the millions of youth athletes, coaches and parents currently left without the benefits of youth sports. Leveraging more than two decades of work developing youth character and life skills, PCA will extend access to its curriculum and national network of youth sports experts.
“From our perspective, there’s no better time to reinforce the character-building aspects of youth sports,” said Chris Moore, CEO of PCA. “Both because the sports hiatus has left many of us with extra time and also because it’s never been more important that we work together as a team for the benefit of us all. Life is a team sport, and now more than ever, we need to be good teammates to one another – including to our family, friends and our broader communities.”
Sports will be back and PCA wants to use this “off season” to get its team ready to make the most of everything youth sports has to offer. To do that, PCA is offering its 60-minute interactive online athlete course for free to everyone for as long as necessary. Typically available for $30, the specialized course includes PCA National Advisory Board members, Doc Rivers, Julie Foudy, Shane Battier and other top coaches, athletes, and experts teaching student-athletes how to make positive contributions to their teams on the field and off.
Also during this time at home, PCA will work to share relevant resources designed to help build character while working to connect its extended team of millions across the country, even when it can’t be together physically. These include:
· Movie Discussion Guides for teams (or families) to watch apart and then come together virtually to discuss
· Weekly Facebook Live streams with expert PCA trainers to deliver tools, community and resources each Tuesday afternoon
· Weekly Facebook Live streams with some of the celebrated sports figures on PCA’s National Advisory Board (recent events included Julie Foudy, Lindsay Gottlieb and Greg Dale)
· Weekly Friday emails sent to the entire PCA network with helpful resources like a recent article on managing disappointment during Corona virus-related cancellations and postponements
“Given the trauma kids are experiencing during this global health crisis, training for our youth coaches will be more important than ever when these kids return to sports,” added Moore. “PCA is proud to deliver training that will ensure coaches are trained in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in order to support kids across the nation as we all start the transition back.”
PCA has also transitioned some of its in-person training to virtual content to help coaches, athletes and parents connect during this difficult time while continuing to leverage the skills obtained on the playing field to work together as a team. Following very positive customer feedback on its first live coaching workshop conducted via Zoom this month, PCA is following participant recommendations to offer additional workshops to schools and youth organizations, partnering with PCA to help them even better serve their communities during this time of school closures and sports cancelations. Schools and youth serving organizations, can visit www.positivecoach.org/zoom for more information and to sign up for more information about these Zoom workshops.
