Highlighting our youth poets: Beers Elementary School

NOTE: Each week, we are featuring a school's performance from the 14th Annual Poetry Slam!. During the two-night culminating event of the fall season, each of the 27 schools DC SCORES serves had the opportunity to perform original poems and songs in front of their peers, families and community members.

On the second night of the Slam!, the poets of Beers Elementary School put on an impassioned performance with lines such as "We'll eliminate all distractions and change our ashes"; "Go to school, you can still be cool"; and "We can all make change for the better."

To view any performance from the Poetry Slam!, visit the DC SCORES YouTube page.

Highlighting our youth poets: Perry Street Prep

NOTE: Each week, we are featuring a school's performance from the 14th Annual Poetry Slam!. During the two-night culminating event of the fall season, each of the 27 schools DC SCORES serves had the opportunity to perform original poems and songs in front of their peers, families and community members.

On the first night of the Slam!, led by Shine Award winner DeAndre W. (see him perform his poem live on NBC!)., Perry Street Prep won the coveted Golden Mic award for the best elementary school performance with an ode to moms everywhere and a heartfelt poem about raging pain.

To view any performance from the Poetry Slam!, visit the DC SCORES YouTube page.

DC SCORES coach Adwoa Blankson-Wood wins distinguished community award

For the second consecutive year — or NBA season — a DC SCORES coach stood at center court of a Washington Wizards game to be honored.

During a recent Wizards game at Verizon Center, Howard Road Academy soccer coach Adwoa Blankson-Wood was presented with the Wizards Care Community Assist Award for her dedication to her community.

A year ago, Burrville soccer coach Chiara Lee received the same honor.

After receiving the award, Blankson-Wood expressed her excitement.

“From start to finish, it was a wonderful dream,” she said. “My experience (at the game) was truly awesome and one that I will look back on fondly for the rest of my life.”

Blankson-Wood was selected to be recognized by the Positive Coaching Alliance for the impact she has made the past three years for DC SCORES. In addition to coaching soccer, she is a second-grade teacher at HRA.

Blankson Wood is a graduate of Grambling State University, where she played varsity soccer. Now, she takes pride in teaching the game to DC SCORES students to help them become well-rounded student-athletes just like she was. 

"Receiving this award was a great honor for me," Blankson-Wood said. "I am grateful to DC SCORES for nominating me and to the Positive Coaching Alliance and the Wizards organization for hosting.

"I love the work that I do with DC SCORES and it has inspired me to do more and give more every year."

Winter program focused on nutrition and healthy living begins at four schools

Written by Zach Elkin

AmeriCorps Program Manager

It was a seemingly normal Tuesday afternoon at Noyes Education Campus in Northeast DC. At dismissal, many students journeyed home or to a friend’s house; others stayed behind to complete homework or head to the gym for basketball.

But returning and new DC SCORES poet-athletes soon began to gather in the hallway, anticipating the start of winter programming for the first time ever at their school. The DC SCORES program had been on break since the Poetry Slam! in December, and students were eager to get back into action.

However, this winter students would enjoy a new component in addition to soccer play: nutrition.

Coach Shakeria and Coach Terrell began the afternoon leading an activity called “Mirror Image.” This fun game challenged pairs of students to practice shadowing each other’s movements and was accompanied by a discussion on how it feels to be a leader and follower, what happens when someone makes decisions for you, and how one’s personal values shape his/her goals.

Students later played a twist on the popular charades game, where students took turns acting out a personal value for the group to guess. Later this week, Noyes students will make peanut butter and “fruit-wiches” as they discuss why the snack is a healthy choice, what can be added or subtracted to make it healthier, and how the snack can be altered at home.

For the first time in three years, four teams are participating in the Power of Choice (USDA created) program that teaches youth how to make healthy eating and fitness decisions. The interactive, six-week program, which commenced this week at Bancroft ES, Noyes EC, and MacFarland MS (and next week at Brightwood EC), teaches students how to read food labels and safely prepare food, examines the benefits of eating healthy food, and gives students weekly hands-on practice preparing nutritious snacks.

DC SCORES is fortunate to have this winter’s program run almost exclusively by our AmeriCorps coaches, who volunteer their time and effort to making sure students are learning and having fun after school. AmeriCorps coaches are teaming up in pairs to instruct students using the Power of Choice curriculum and incorporate their educational and professional expertise into the workshops.

It is critical for students to receive these lessons and experience first-hand the processes involved in making smart food choices. With the obesity rate among children on the rise and an unforgivable lack of healthy food options in underserved communities, showing students how they can be in control of their eating habits may be the best way to get the message across and see real change.

Aside from the knowledge and skills students gain during Power of Choice, they continue to form positive relationships with their peers and coaches, and stay active during the time of year when many youth resort to eating larger portions of unhealthier foods and spend their after school time at home on the couch.

In general, when parents, principals, community members, and countless supporters talk about “DC SCORES,” the conversation highlights an exciting youth soccer game, memorable Poetry Slam! performance, or school event that celebrated a team’s service to their neighborhood.

This winter, stop by a participating school and check out students learning to make smoothies, cereal sundaes and pocket pita sandwiches. Sooner than later, when DC SCORES is mentioned, admirers will be hard-pressed not to include a memory from the winter season.

Winter programming is taking place from January 17 through March 2, so feel free to contact us if you would like to visit a school!

Highlighting our youth poets: Cesar Chavez Parkside

NOTE: Each week, we are featuring a school's performance from the 14th Annual Poetry Slam!. During the two-night culminating event of the fall season, each of the 27 schools DC SCORES serves had the opportunity to perform original poems and songs in front of their peers, families and community members.

On the second night of the Slam!, led by Shine Award winner Jeffry F., Cesar Chavez Parkside put on an inspiring performance highlighted by the hit line, "Smart is the new swag." Check out the poet-athletes educating the audience at H.D. Woodson High School.

To view any performance from the Poetry Slam!, visit the DC SCORES YouTube page.

DC SCORES staff members visit youth-serving organizations in Ecuador

This past December, a pair of DC SCORES staff members got the opportunity to spend a week in Ecuador learning about youth-serving organizations in the country and sharing DC SCORES’ best practices with community leaders.

It was an action-packed seven days for Senior Program Director Katrina Hochstetler and Volunteer and Soccer Manager Sean Hinkle, who observed 11 different programs, many of which were funded by umbrella organization Fudela; played soccer with youth soccer teams; and met world kickboxing champion Edison Omar Jiménez, who created two youth-serving organizations, including the Fundación Sin Fronteras Ecuador.

The trip was part of the Youth Sports Management Exchange, put together by the Partners of the Americas -- a program that involved youth-serving organizations from Ecuador and Colombia visiting the United States to gain best practices to implement in their home countries. The final stage of the program had leaders such as Hochstetler and Hinkle traveling to Ecuador -- and others to Colombia -- to take in the programs.

It wasn’t just a working trip, either. Hochstetler and Hinkle also got a large taste of Ecuadorian culture, doing everything from visiting the Equator, to taking a hike in the jungle, to sampling all kinds of Ecuadorian cuisine.

The locals were extremely accommodating and welcoming, especially their host family the Andrades.

The pair of DC SCORES ambassadors sat down recently to discuss their trip

KH: Earlier in the year, people who had programs in Ecuador and Colombia came to DC and Kentucky to learn about other programs and then they went back and implemented new ideas in their own programs. So we were going back to kind of learn about how they had implemented what they learned in the States.

SH: They came to the States in two groups. The first group came in June. So I went to speak on a panel (then). The focus of the day was coaching and teaching techniques for improving connections with at-risk youth. And then (Executive Director) Amy (Nakamoto) spoke on a panel where the topic was fundraising.

What were the main goals of the trip for you?

KH: Our main goals were to learn about their programs, learn about what they implemented, and then learn about their culture.

What did you notice about what they had implemented and what kind of success it had had?

SH: We were impressed with the programs that we visited. We were most surprised by the amount of community involvement in every program, from community members and family members cleaning up fields and public spaces that the kids were using, to the relationships that the coaches had with the parents. The community involvement was really impressive.

Besides just observing, how did you participate in the community?

SH: We played soccer at a few of the programs  we visited, mostly with the older kids, but we even jumped in with some of the younger kids. There was obviously a language barrier since neither of us speak Spanish very well, which restricted a little bit of what we could do, but the program leaders were very patient with us and did their best to describe their programs and answer our questions.

Are there any programs at all similar to DC SCORES over there?

SH: There are only a few after-school programs. Most of the programs that we visited were  not affiliated with schools. But the positive relationships between kids and coaches/adults was very evident there and something we feel makes DC SCORES very strong as well.

What did you take away from the experience that you can or might apply?

SH: I think it reinforced a lot of the things that we know make programs successful, which is keeping the older kids involved with the program and in some type of leadership capacity and really getting a buy-in from community members and parents and families.

KH: We saw two programs that were really strong. They were community-based and neighborhood-based. And (our host) Magali Andrade’s program especially, they used older kids to lead sessions for younger kids. It was really nice. It looked a lot like our program.

They also emphasized character and value training, which was a little bit like the components that we add in to ours. They wanted to hear a lot about poetry, service-learning, because they weren’t sure how that all fit together.

SH: Yeah, it was tough for them to understand the concept of combining an academic component with sports. Most of their programs focused on character development and values.

About how many programs did you visit?

KH: We visited a daycare, public elementary school, a high school for girls, and four community-based programs with kids from 4 years old to the older kids that were high school age who came back to help them.

SH: It was a variety of programs. We saw everything from just strictly soccer, we got to experience their classroom settings, we got to see their recreational soccer, we got to see some of their more competitive club soccer, we even got to visit a school for children with special needs.

KH: And a unique woodwork program for people with special needs.

SH: And the last we visited was a program called A Ganar that teaches job training and character development.

What besides the community involvement within these programs kind of stood out to you about the culture?

KH: The language barrier was really challenging. We were able to see a variety of programs with different age groups. … We had a great opportunity to meet lots of different people and to do things to learn about Ecuador. We went to visit El Panecillo. We went to the old city (in downtown Quito) -- it’s very beautiful, all Spanish architecture. So learning a little bit more about their history, that old city part of Quito was really beautiful.

We went to the Equator. We received a guided tour of a museum there. We saw people living in the jungle. All kinds of different aspects of Ecuador’s history and groups of people that are part of Ecuador's diverse culture.

SH: And the thing that was really nice is that everything we did was first-hand with the locals from that community, so not only were they showing us their favorite parts of town, but they were also giving us a lot of their history, historical facts, cultural facts, taking us to experience the food in each part of town, driving from Quito to the jungle.

They were really considerate about showing us their country.

SH: Overall, I think the most refreshing thing was to see the people who really care about their work.

Highlighting our youth poets: Raymond Education Campus

NOTE: Each week, we are featuring a school's performance from the 14th Annual Poetry Slam!. During the two-night culminating event of the fall season, each of the 27 schools DC SCORES serves had the opportunity to perform original poems and songs in front of their peers, families and community members.

The defending champion Raymond poet-athletes echoed a theme of the Slam!, performing a poem about civil rights. "When people march, they do it to be free," the poet-athletes said in unison on stage. That was just a highlight of their performance that capped off the first night of the event.

To view any performance from the Poetry Slam!, visit the DC SCORES YouTube page.