America SCORES New York strives to empower students in urban communities using soccer, writing, creative expression, and service-learning. With teamwork as the unifying value, America SCORES New York inspires youth to lead healthy lifestyles, be engaged students, and become agents of change in their communities.

America SCORES New York partners with urban public schools, hiring and training their teachers to coach their students in soccer, poetry and service learning five days-per-week after-school. Over the course of the school-year, our poet-athletes:

• Get 10x the amount of exercise of kids in their age group
• Engage in more than 60 hours of poetry workshops, improving their creative and expository writing skills, and demonstrating a positive attitude towards school and the school community
• Engage in more than 60 hours of physical activity through soccer and health games, increasing their level of cardiovascular strength and lowering their BMI if their pre-program BMI indicates overweight or obese levels.

WHY THESE ELEMENTS?

Unlike other team sports, which often place a single player in the spotlight, soccer tends to distribute reward and responsibility evenly among team members. Soccer’s constant ball-passing and rapid changes of possession promote teamwork over stardom and creativity over rigid adherence to positions. For these reasons, team soccer practices are an ideal partner to our team poetry and service learning workshops, which emphasize self-awareness and collaboration through writing and discussion.