THE 10-YEAR STORY OF SPORT FOR GOOD NEW ORLEANS: THEN, NOW, & OUR FUTURE

Our Identity 10 Years Ago

On September 25, 2006, the city of New Orleans rallied behind one of the biggest blocked punts in NFL history, which revived the city after the most catastrophic natural disasters America had ever seen. In that moment, New Orleans recognized the true value of sport as it rebuilt our morale and community and leveraged its influence to regain economic stability. This moment laid the groundwork for the Sport for Good New Orleans movement that was to come nearly 10 years later.

In the years following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans received an influx of national financial and political support to combat the increases in violence, poverty, and homelessness that followed the storm. However, by 2014 many of those national investments were beginning to dry up. Companies were announcing that New Orleans was no longer a key market, philanthropic organizations were citing the changes in their focus areas, and national politicians had moved on to newer problems. In response to this plight, Laureus USA, with the support of Mercedes-Benz USA, determined that New Orleans was a prime city to launch what would eventually become the global Sport for Good City movement. This strategy recognized that the people of New Orleans needed to lead the next phase of recovery and provided resources and backbone support to a community-driven movement. Sport for Good New Orleans was built to connect an already existing, but relatively siloed, network of leaders using sport as a tool for youth development and social impact. In those early moments, we discovered the significant impact of sport-based youth development in pockets of the city and on school grounds, while also finding there was not enough coordination for deeper impact, lack of resources directly invested into programs leveraging sport, and limited awareness on the impact sport has on young people and communities. We believed that, together, we could change that and reignite the unifying power of sport that we felt in 2006.

What We’ve Accomplished & Learned in 10 Years

Since our inception ten years ago, Sport for Good New Orleans has built a cross-sector coalition of nearly 30 diverse partners dedicated to improving the lives of youth and community through the power of sport. It’s also been the catalyst for an innovative placed-based model that has since spread to 7 additional cities in the US and across the globe. Our vision is that New Orleans becomes a place of endless opportunities for youth to participate and lead in sport, encouraging a healthier, more collaborative, and vibrant New Orleans. Here are some accomplishments since 2014:

• Laureus USA’s Sport for Good New Orleans has invested $2.9 million grant dollars through 67 grants impacting 20,924 youth thanks to five different funding partnerships.
• Through our partnership with Allstate Sugar Bowl, Brees Dream Foundation, and Nike, Laureus USA invested $500,000 into programs impacting over 1,500 youth in New Orleans east, which houses the densest population of youth with the least amount of youth services.
• Sport for Good New Orleans has hosted five New Orleans Day of Sports, which bring youth together for a “Try-Athlon”, exposing young people to a diverse range of sports and connecting them to programs that they can get involved with beyond that day. Through the Day of Sport, we have partnered with over 18 youth sport programs that have impacted over 600 youth. Day of Sport has invited new partnerships with the Terron Armstead Foundation, New Orleans Saints, ErgoFit, Xavier Cheer Squad, Tulane Athletics, Nickelodeon, and more.
• Sport for Good New Orleans has provided funding to support the development of grant partner tools and evaluation metrics and continues to support the development of partner programs. Yeah! Yoga is a grant partner that leveraged our capacity building support to develop their Yoga Teacher Training, which supports leaders in communities most affected by the carceral system to ensure incarceration and recidivism rates of youth are reduced through yoga and mindfulness practices. With the additional $8,000 investment in capacity building, Yeah! Yoga has been able to impact more than 1,600 youth in juvenile detention centers.
• In Fall 2024, Sport for Good New Orleans will launch an initiative that will build greater access to sport in schools through a grantmaking strategy that facilitates healthy collaborations. The Pincus Family Foundation has provided $300,000 in seed funding to pilot this project.

Here’s what we’ve learned since 2014:

• Sport has positively impacted generations of young people and communities by way of civic engagement partnerships with youth-led initiatives that address gun violence, mental health, gender equity, workforce development, and educational outcomes.
• Sport has facilitated unique partnerships with brands, athletes, professional teams, local government, and parks and recreation departments to ensure youth organizations leveraging high-quality sports are part of an ecosystem of positive impact.
• Sport has built deep trust with a diverse community of partners through events, trainings, and capacity building experiences. This space has offered opportunities for collaborative partnerships to grow among stakeholders and ensure more young people have access to sport.
• Sport for Good New Orleans has learned that even in a small city, such as ours, there are some barriers to effective and consistent collaboration between youth sports organizations and schools. We have some ideas and strategies on how to break those barriers down to ensure we build greater access to sport for young people.

The Next Play for Sport for Good New Orleans

After 10 years of community building and advancing the sports-based youth development sector in New Orleans, we have identified an area of focus that will guide the next phase of our work: Growing in the Game. This multi-year strategy leverages the Sport for Good New Orleans coalition to increase the availability, quality, and effectiveness of youth sport programming throughout the New Orleans school system. Growing in the Game will create new opportunities for nonprofit and school partnerships, training and professional development opportunities for school staff, and grant funding supporting access to sport in schools.

As Laureus USA moves into this next phase of Sport for Good New Orleans, we are calling on you to join our team! We want you to reach out to us if:

• You are a nonprofit organization or school looking to more intentionally integrate sport, play, movement, mindfulness or meditation into the way that you serve young people.
• You are a coach or parent interested in learning best practices for developing young people through sport, play, movement, mindfulness, or meditation.
• You are a philanthropic institution, business, or team interested in investing in sport as a tool to unite New Orleans and address the challenges that we face.
• You are an athlete interested in making sure that young people have access to the same programs that you wished you would have had growing up.

Sincerely,

Tiffany Aidoo, New Orleans Program Officer

Laureus Sport for Good USA