FAQs

  • A legacy partner of the 1994 World Cup, SCORES was started in 1994 in Washington, DC by public school teacher Julie Kennedy, who noticed that her students had limited access to after-school activities.

    Ms. Kennedy realized that the combination of two seemingly unrelated activities, poetry and soccer, complemented each other through mutual involvement in public performance, self-expression, and group support. The relationships that developed through teamwork and leadership on the soccer field translated to peer support in poetry workshops. The skills later allowed these poet-athletes to act as agents of change within their community through a variety of service-learning projects.

    The program quickly expanded throughout DC and, in 1999, Kennedy launched sites in Boston and Chicago. Today, SCORES has a presence in 13 cities across the US and Canada: Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, DC.

  • Founder Julie Kennedy would bring her Poet-Athletes inside when the weather was too bad for soccer and practice poetry with them. She found that soccer and poetry are a unique combination because both involve a level of vulnerability, bravery, and expression that make them a perfect pair.

    Our Poet-Athletes build teamwork on the field, trusting each other and themselves, so when they go into the classroom and begin to explore their feelings, they feel comfortable sharing them with each other and are able to truly use poetry as a means of healing.

  • Rather than creating a structure of winners and losers, we look to create opportunities for growth. Focusing on being a teammate and leader better prepares young people for life off the field and outside the classroom.

    Using our SCORES 3.0 approach, we’re shifting our Poet-Athletes’ awareness to “Fair Play” points reflecting core values of teamwork, leadership, and commitment and how other demonstrate them, rather than focusing solely on the score of the game.

  • Now more than ever, our young people are experiencing high levels of stress and confusion due to school, societal pressures, systemic inequality, and the everyday stressors that come with being a young person. Through poetry, our Poet-Athletes are able to express those feelings while building trust and empathy with their teammates and coaches.

  • New York SCORES thrives in community partnerships and engagement through large community events, relationships with local schools, and New York City agencies such as Parks and Recreation and Youth and Community Development.

    Our service-learning projects give our Poet-Athletes the opportunity to identify the changes they want to see in their community and explore together how to devise and complete those projects.

  • Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

  • Sports Based Youth Development is a subfield of youth development that focuses specifically on the positive development outcomes that can accompany an intentional, well-organized sports program. Many scholars have explored the links that exist between positive youth development (PYD) and sports.

    Further, SBYD has been examined as a useful tool for helping youth heal from complex trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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