AMERICA SCORES

America SCORES inspires urban youth to lead healthy lives, be engaged students, and have the confidence and character to make a difference in the world.

America SCORES is a 501(c)3 nonprofit focused on inspiring urban youth to lead healthy lives, be engaged students, and have the confidence and character to make a difference in the world.  America SCORES’ core programming centers around an innovative, team-based, school-based model that integrates poetry/spoken word, soccer, and service-learning into a cohesive whole-child program, which we deliver through free after school programs and summer camps.  Through a network of independent affiliates, America SCORES serves more than 10,000 students at Title I schools every year across North America. For more information on our affiliates: http://www.americascores.org/affiliates. 

America SCORES strives to be an anti-racist organization. We are committed to applying an intersectional approach to equity and advancing the many dimensions of equity in everything we do.  Read our collaboratively-developed Guideposts for Advancing Racial Equity & Inclusion: http://www.americascores.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/America-SCORES-Guideposts-for-Advancing-Racial-Equity-and-Inclusion-Statement.pdf  

America SCORES works closely with both the professional soccer industry and professional spoken word artists. Throughout our nearly 3 decades of operation, we have been recognized internationally as a model for sports- and arts-for-youth development.  America SCORES was the focus of a Volkswagen Group of America-sponsored public service ad that aired repeatedly during the 2019 Women’s World Cup, including right after the final goal.  Among many other accolades, we have received the following national/international recognition:

• Finalist, International Peace & Sport Award (2019, 2020)
• Finalist, Robert Wood Johnson Sports Award (2019)
• Best Practice Honoree, Library of Congress Literacy Award (2018)
• Recipient, President’s Council on Fitness, Sport and Nutrition Community Leadership Award (5 times over the past decade)

Our poet-athletes and coaches have escorted USMNT and USWNT players onto the field at game days across North America; rode in the 2019 Women’s World Cup Championship parade in NYC; visited the White House multiple times; and spoken to packed audiences at Aspen Institute conferences and the Women’s Sports Foundation Gala.  Our impact and programming also have been featured by the Wallace Foundation in Afterschool Programs: A Review of Evidence Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (2019); the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for Children’s Wellbeing; the Harvard Family Research Project (in two separate publications); and the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities (Coming Up Taller Award).  America SCORES features in two documentaries -- Soccer in the City (2019) and Our Words Our Cities (2021), both of which are available on our YouTube page: www.youtube.com/AmericaSCORES1