Youth Development Institute Members
Alexandria Boxing Club is
a premier boxing club with a renowned reputation for building champions. Founded in 1980, the club serves as a community anchor, providing a safe place for youth to learn life skills through boxing.
Alexandria Soccer Association (ASA) is a non-profit sports organization whose mission is to connect and engage the community through high quality, accessible, sports programs that positively impact Alexandria. ASA believes all children should have the opportunity to play, regardless of financial status.
Beacon House provides children in the greater Edgewood neighborhood of Northeast Washington, D.C. with a safe, nurturing, life expanding community to increase their academic achievement, discover their talents, and grow into healthy adults who achieve their greatest potential.
City Kids Wilderness Project provides outdoor programming for 6th-12th grade students over a seven-year timeframe. City Kids uses city, natural, and wilderness settings in DC and Jackson Hole, Wyoming to achieve its mission to build resiliency, broaden horizons, and develop life skills in youth.
By advancing the sport of rowing and providing comprehensive academic support, Capital Juniors Rowing will empower DC-area youth’s especially those from wards 6, 7, and 8 to reach their full potential as athletes and students.
Cloverleaf Equine Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that helps each individual realize their highest potential by providing equine-assisted services to people with disabilities, youth-at-risk, recovering military personnel, and others in need in an inclusive, community setting. Services offered include therapeutic riding, physical therapy and psychotherapy incorporating horses and equine-assisted learning.
DC Panthers Water Polo focuses on increasing community engagement and diversity in aquatic sports by exposing youth to aquatic experiences that align with USA Water Polo’s guidelines from the Racial Equity & Reform Task Force.
For almost 30 years, DC SCORES had developed “poet-athletes” through a unique after school model that combines soccer, poetry, and service learning. Our whole-child approach improves participants’ health, social-emotional learning, and academic engagement.
Special Olympics D.C. (SODC) provides of sports, health and inclusion programs for more than 2,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities with ability levels from the lowest to highest. SODC is committed to helping its participants lead healthy lives, succeed in school, acquire employment skills, and become self-advocates. Programs include: 12 sports, Young Athletes for ages 2-7, Healthy Athletes and our Unified Champion Schools.
Dance Institute of Washington increases the inclusivity and diverse representation at every level of professional concert dance and other dance industries, and through that exemplary effort, impacts racial and economic equity in dance nationally and globally. DIW serves as an evolving, responsive pipeline for many hundreds more dancers of all backgrounds to advance successfully into dance industries.
DC Grays Baseball is an all-volunteer non-profit organization with a mission to bring baseball and softball to boys and girls in Washington, DC, and to promote positive and formative personal development for teenagers and children in some of the most systematically under-resourced areas of the city.
Prime Ability aims to use sport as a way to connect and build young people physically, mentally and emotionally. We use sport as the tool to teaching life’s most important skills.
All too often youth with disabilities are isolated and don’t have adequate opportunities to partake in physical activities that typically developing children are able to experience. So Kids S.O.A.R. differentiate ourselves by the quality and abundance of our free programs and volunteer support we offer.
First Tee – Greater Washington, DC is a youth development organization introducing the game of golf and its inherent values to young people throughout DC, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, MD, and Prince George’s County, MD.
Fort Dupont Ice Arena increases opportunity, education, and inspiration to the young people of Washington, DC and the surrounding area through ice skating and educational activities.
GOTR-DC’s mission is to improve the lives and future potential of girls by cultivating critical cognitive and emotional attributes and skills; promote girls’ health and well-being by integrating running into their daily lives; and narrow the disparities in both social-emotional and physical well-being among economically disadvantaged girls.
The Grassroot Health recruits and trains NCAA athletes from four DC universities to provide innovative, sport-based health promotion programs in more than 10 DC middle schools. The project facilitates its programs during middle school P.E. classes, and its three curricula cover mental health, nutritional health, and sexual health.
Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) is a nonprofit organization committed to transforming lives through tennis by making the sport accessible for people of all ages and abilities throughout Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
KEEN Greater DC-Baltimore provides sports programs for your people with disabilities that build physical abilities and social skills, all in a supportive and welcoming environment. Programs are offered free of charge and at each session participants are paired one to one with volunteer coaches for individualized attention and assistance.
Open Goal Project creates opportunities for young players from low-income families and underserved communities to access high-level soccer and grow with the game, on and off the field. They use soccer as a vehicle for cultural enrichment, higher educational opportunities, and greater life experiences.
The Volo Kids Foundation uses the power of play to build communities of active, resilient, and confident kids. Volo Kids accomplishes this by creating safe, youth-centered programming that provides a platform for youth mentorship, familial health and wellness, and communal well-being. Our program removes barriers to athletic participation, such as limited financial resources and transportation, and is open to children of all races, genders, and experience levels.
Outward Bound serves people of all ages and backgrounds through challenging learning expeditions that focus on character development, leadership and service. Outward Bound helps individuals and teams discover strength of character and an aptitude for leadership.
Prince George’s Tennis & Education Foundation is an organization that provides safe, structured programs in tennis, academics and enrichment for youth ages 6-18 in an effort to develop well rounded youth that are prepared for college and/or vocational endeavors.
SOUL’s (Student-Athletes Organized to Understand Leadership) primary objective is to provide youth, their parental guardians, educators, and coaches with access to educational enrichment, character development, and social emotional learning tools and processes.
Flagstar Football is – most broadly – an eco-system where kids can get better and have fun. The organization believes in the power of play and that everyone should have the opportunity of low-pressure environments where kids can just play!
Variety – National Capital Region provides adaptive bikes for children with mobility disabilities in DC, MD and VA. The opportunity to ride a bicycle should be available to all children and is a proven benefit for physical and mental health, and important for social inclusion.
Soul Trak Outdoors, a D.C.-based nonprofit, connects communities of color to outdoor spaces and cultivates diverse leaders through hands-on programs. They aim to unite, engage, and educate communities to foster a more inclusive and informed outdoor culture.
The STAND Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports marginalized youth in the DMV area. Our programs are strategically designed to provide the mental, emotional, social, physical, and developmental needs of the children we serve. 
Team IMPACT matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams, creating a long-term, life-changing experience for everyone involved.
LifeSports at the University of Maryland prepares youth for life and leadership through sport by fostering teamwork, resilience, and character development. We promote physical health, social responsibility, and personal growth, empowering young individuals to succeed both on and off the field.