Sport in Society Makes the Connection
(9-28-09) Boston, Mass – Sport in Society is proudly teaming up with the Mass League of Community Health Centers to expand Sport in Society’s Health Connection program into five additional community health centers.
“We are overjoyed to be partnering with the Mass League of Community Health Centers and expanding our important work,” said Steve Tower, assistant manager of Sport in Society’s Fitz Urban Youth Sports program and Health Connection coordinator. “The partnership allows us to make an even greater positive impact on the health and well being of the children of Boston."
Volunteers arrived at Sport in Society today to begin their intensive week long training before being sent into the community.
Through a grant garnered by the Mass League of Community Health Centers, Sport in Society’s Health Connection program will benefit from an influx of Americorps volunteers. The volunteers are part of the Community Health Corps, which is the largest health focused national Americorps program that promotes healthcare for America’s underserved.
Americorps volunteers will serve as Sports Heath Coordinators through Sport in Society’s Health Connection program. They will be stationed at six community health centers across Boston. The newly trained volunteers enable the Health Connection program to expand from its two existing sites in the East Boston Neighborhood Community Health Center and the Massachusetts General Hospital Charlestown Health Center in Charlestown to the Brookside Community Health Center in Jamaica Plain, the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center, the South End Community Health Center, the Mattapan Community Health Center, and the Martha Eliot Health Center in Jamaica Plain.
Through the Health Connection, sport health coordinators work with physicians, nutritionists, neighborhood agencies, and schools to customize physical activity, nutrition, and life skills programming for local youth. By placing health coordinators in community health centers, we are able to assess and address a community's specific needs and help its youth make the connection between physical activity and leading a healthy life.