DORCHESTER, Mass. – The Curry College men's and women's tennis teams were the recipients of a "Volunteer Award" at Sportsmen's Tennis Club's ACE of an Evening Celebration on April 5 in honor of the Volley Against Violence (VAV) program's 10th anniversary.
Volleys Against Violence is a partnership program with the Boston Police Department and the Boston Police Community Tennis Association that works to engage inner-city youth in tennis, by breaking down barriers and bringing a diverse group of youth from different Boston neighborhoods together. The primary focus of VAV is to provide intentional mentoring, life skills training and educational experiences for youth.
Each week, more than 100 youth ages five through 18 come together with Boston Police and MBTA police officers and Sportsmen's coaches to learn and play tennis on Friday evenings and weekends, which can be high-risk times for youth violence.
VAV operates year-round providing 4 to 6 hours of weekly physical activities centered on tennis instruction at Sportsmen's. However, VAV is not just about the physical skills alone, but about the life lessons gained along the way. Using a life skills curriculum that empowers youth by giving them a voice and focusing on their emotional, cognitive and physical development.
VAV helps participants to build the tools needed to resolve conflict and challenges in alternative ways. Our curriculum has five core tenets: respect, effort, self-direction, helping, and transference.
Sportsmen's serves as the lead agency providing tennis courts, coaches, all tennis equipment and food for each VAV session. They conduct special tennis coaching trainings for 20-40 new and returning Boston Police and MBTA Police Officers and hire, train and supervise youth coaches from each neighborhood, particularly over the summer.
Additionally, they also collect and share demographic data from participants including age, ethnicity, precinct and zip code.
The Boston Police Community Tennis Association recruits and trains officers for VAV, as well as identifying youth participants.
The Boston Police Department provides community police vans to help shuttle youth from various communities to Sportsmen's for the weekly programs and helps VAV connect with community agencies that refer youth who might benefit from the VAV program.
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