2009 Applicants
Baskets 4 Hope
NikeRetail Location: 6 Stanford Shopping Center, Suite 6-A, Palo Alto, CA
Website: www.baskets4hope.org
Kids Involved: 315
Our Mission
Baskets 4 Hope seeks to design and implement athletic and educational programs that enhance the abilities, confidence, and self-esteem of inner-city youth. By directly empowering the future leaders of tomorrow, Baskets 4 Hope hopes to transform the prevalent culture of violence in the Bay Area.
Rex Brown Jr. founded Baskets 4 Hope after his high school friend was murdered in San Francisco. Rex and his staff recognize that reaching out to others and getting involved is one of the best ways to become the change we wish to see in our community and potentially the rest of the nation and world. We don't do it for the experience or the glory, we do what we do because it's the right thing to do.
Our motto is, "Hope Through Hoops." We believe the power of sport can inspire, educate, motivate, and support the goals of higher education, community service, and a healthy lifestyle.
Baskets 4 Hope seeks to instill our event participants and staff with leadership and a feeling of empowerment. By hosting free, safe, and drug-free events, we attempt to provide an environment that can foster teamwork, discipline, and a sense of hard work.
Every staff member of Baskets 4 Hope was able to reach such goals as going to college with the help of youth sports. For that reason, we strongly believe youth sports is a vehicle to an improved life, both physically and mentally. By providing mentoring, we support our teenagers' goals and challenge them to aim higher.
With the onset of budget cuts in the areas of education and recreational programs severely affecting California, we believe this Nike Grant would be an investment not only in our community or youth sports but instead, an investment in the future of all the teenagers' lives we have changed and vow to continue changing.
Although our program was founded due to a tragedy, our organization is passionate due to a simple belief: the power of sport can support, inspire, and move teenagers to aim higher athletically, educationally, and socially as a way to improve themselves and their communities.
If we are fortunate enough to be awarded with this Nike Back Your Block grant, we believe such financial support would provide our organization an opportunity to reach a higher ground.
Football,
Mentoring,
Co-Ed,
High School,
Basketball,