Research indicates that the hours directly following school dismissal are the most dangerous hours of the day for our youth. They are at a higher risk for being involved in or being the victim of a crime. Our after-school program offers students a safe place with adult supervision in the hours of the day when students are most vulnerable.
Achieve Indy is located in a zip code where over 50% of the population lives below the poverty level. It is considered to be one of the fastest increases in concentrated poverty of any major U.S. metro area. Those numbers are what makes food a crucial component for our after-school program. Our partnership with Second Helpings allows us to provide a hot meal each program day for our kids and their families.
Our sports programs teach students life skills that transfer from the gym to the classroom and to the job site. Learning life skills through sports is not just an imaginary concept but many scholarly articles and books have been written that give credibility to these claims; and the real proof is in the changed lives of our students. Our USA Boxing program has been very successful and continues to grow. We have trained over 350 state champions to date; including Indiana Silver Gloves, Indiana Junior Olympics and Indiana Golden Gloves. All participants of Team Achieve are working on academic, personal and athletic goals. Students who are a part of Team Achieve, are required to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.5 and also maintain good academic attendance and cannot partake in violence of any form. As we teach our athletes boxing and judo we are teaching them the value of perseverance, hard work that develops intrinsic motivation. Parents and teachers of Team Achieve students report significant improvement in attendance, grades, attitude and discipline.