America SCORES Milwaukee

Organization: America SCORES Milwaukee

Year Established: 2004

Website

Contact Information: 414-358-2711 (Contact Submission Form)

Disciplines: Sports, Literature

MPS vendor status: Current

The America SCORES methodology combines sports with academics. SCORES' formula starts with soccer -- a team sport for boys and girls, no matter their height, weight, speed, etc. -- and uses it as our building block for social camaraderie among at-risk youth.

Most people would not consider soccer and poetry common activities within urban communities; but as we all know, two major crises exist in our public schools today (especially in major metropolitan areas): more children are obese today than at any time in our history and illiteracy levels are on the rise.

America SCORES has proven that healthy activities such as team sports can be used as an important building block to create a safe and positive learning environment for reading and writing. We engage participants by creating fun and organized soccer teams at public schools. When participants are not at soccer practice, we require that they commit every other day after-school to literacy workshops.

With poetry, children are able to write freely about anything they can imagine which makes it enjoyable. As SCORES students become comfortable with their writing, they can then revisit their work and perfect it so they are proud of what they have accomplished.