Help out with a first-time basketball team!

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SUN School (Schools Uniting Neighborhoods) at Jackson Middle School provides support to students in a variety of ways, the biggest being the after school program. JackSUN offers academic enrichment and recreational learning classes for students after school such as homework club, cooking, ceramics, basketball, etc. In addition, JackSUN provides school supplies and access to other social services for families in need as well as evening adult education classes and community events.

The volunteer will be helping coach basketball 2-3 times a week. Our after school basketball class is our most popular, with the large majority of participants coming from immigrant and low-income families. We have also started a rec league basketball team and many of the players have never been on a team before. Our head basketball coach needs some extra support supervising and running drills, as well as connecting with our young male students. The volunteer(s) will help run drills and scrimmages, serve as an older mentor for students, and inspire them to better themselves via sport.

SUN's mission is to serve the kids who tend to fall through the cracks: students of color, students from low-income families, and immigrant students. This basketball team is a small microcosm of all of those students at Jackson. They love to play, but they don't know the rules of the game perfectly. They want to win, but they don't have the skills yet. They want to support their teammates but they've never been on a team before. It is those skills that the volunteer will be helping us instill in students, providing them with a unique opportunity they would never get otherwise.

Volunteers will learn about African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American immigrant cultures (Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, Guatemala, Mexico etc.). They will also learn about the SUN Service model, how we support students of color, and how we work to level the playing field in schools so that all students have the opportunity to succeed equitably.