L.E.A.P.S. Core Purpose and Goals
John Christmas, an African American professional lacrosse player, aims to encourage and inspire underserved youth. Christmas overcame adversity, found great success with the sport of lacrosse, and attended the number one public university in America. He founded L.E.A.P.S. to inspire and create opportunities for area youth.
Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in America. The popularity of the game has grown on the internet and television, yet the sport still maintains an elitist reputation and prohibitive costs. L.E.A.P.S. aims to bring lacrosse to young athletes in underserved areas without displacing them from their environments. By bridging this gap through our programs, we hope to create a sense of empowerment in the children we work with.
L.E.A.P.S. aims to do the following:
· Expose student-athletes to lacrosse early in their formative years
· Facilitate health education and academic programming to augment lessons learned via the team sport experience
· Introduce participants to scholarship opportunities via lacrosse
· Implement programming within participants’ neighborhoods, to improve communities and avoid displacing potential leaders
· Provide basic instruction and mentoring opportunities for coaches
· Incrementally develop the Philadelphia United Lacrosse League as a community-based lacrosse league.