Tony Francavilla: Building a Generation of Poet-Athletes
Tony: Happy to be with you, Spiffy! We run free after school programs in DC that combine soccer, poetry, and service learning. Our poet-athletes play soccer year round as part of a school team, and in the fall they write and perform original poetry that answers introspective questions such as, “What do we like?” “What don't we like?” “What scares us?” “What inspires us?” Then in the spring on non-soccer days, they design and execute service projects based on that poetry, answering the question “What are we going to do about it?” It's a whole-child approach to development that improves participants' physical health, mental health, and even academic performance. We offer the program at Title 1 elementary and middle schools, where students often lack access to high-quality organized sports and arts education opportunities.