Sportsmen’s Tennis & Enrichment Center has been awarded a $225,000 grant amount by the Boston Foundation. The grant will be used for Match Point, Sportsmen’s signature community outreach program.
Through Match Point, Sportsmen’s has partnered with nearly 2 dozen nearby schools and community organizations to provide school-based and out-of-school time tennis instruction since 2008. The Boston Foundation has funded the program since its inception. The grant from the Boston Foundation will give us additional resources to expand the Match Point program, including our work with high-risk youth, including autistic students, those with behavioral challenges or who learn differently than other students.
Sportsmen’s Tennis & Enrichment Center was founded in 1961 and serves over 5,500 youth and young adults primarily from Boston’s inner-city area. Our mission is to build leaders on the court, in the classroom and in the greater community by providing academic, wellness and social development programs alongside recreational and competitive tennis instruction for youth and adults. Sportsmen’s is committed to improving life opportunities for youth in Boston’s Blue Hill Corridor while welcoming a diverse community from the Greater Boston area.
The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of some $1 billion. In 2015, the Foundation and its donors made more than $135 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of nearly $123 million. In celebration of its Centennial in 2015, the Boston Foundation has launched the Campaign for Boston to strengthen the Permanent Fund for Boston, the only endowment fund focused on the most pressing needs of Greater Boston. The Foundation is proud to be a partner in philanthropy, with more than 1,000 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes.
The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, think tank and advocacy organization, commissioning research into the most critical issues of our time and helping to shape public policy designed to advance opportunity for everyone in Greater Boston. The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), an operating unit of the Foundation, designs and implements customized philanthropic strategies for families, foundations and corporations around the globe.
For more information about the Boston Foundation and TPI, or The Boston Foundation’s grant making, visit tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.
For information on how to bring Match Point to your school, health center or other neighborhood program for the 2016-2017 school year, contact Jelani Haynes, Director of Community Outreach, at JHaynes@sportsmenstennis.org.