East Palo Alto Tennis & Tutoring, housed at the Taube Family Tennis Center at Stanford, has been awarded a $10,000 grant from USTA Serves, the National Charitable Foundation of the United States Tennis Association.
The East Palo Alto Tennis Program began in 1990 and five years later the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) honored EPATT as one of the nation’s top 10 inner-city tennis programs. In 1997 the program moved to its current location on the Stanford campus, and today approximately 100 children participate in both the tennis instruction and academic tutorial.
“For nearly 25 years, through partnerships with families, schools, Stanford University, and the East Palo Alto community, EPATT has promoted leadership, discipline, hard work, and the pursuit of excellence to its K-12 students,” said Dave Higaki, executive director for EPATT. “Using the unique mix of one-on-one tutoring, tennis and life skills lessons, college counseling, and parent education, EPATT strives to reach more kids and build stronger ties with the EPA community.”
The grant from USTA Serves will underwrite an EPATT pilot after-school program, which will introduce more than 100 elementary-aged children to tennis, while helping EPATT better assess the academic needs of its participants. The goal of the pilot is to eventually expand the program to include tutoring and parent education at some future date.
“USTA Serves is proud to continue to provide financial resources to organizations impacting the future of thousands of children throughout the nation, helping them to develop life skills through tennis and education,” said Deborah Slaner Larkin, Executive Director, USTA Serves. “It is our hope and belief that these young men and women will continue to positively impact their communities and beyond.”
During its 2012 spring funding cycle, USTA Serves awarded 44 community tennis and education organizations more than $400,000 in grants.
The bi-annual grant process, a national initiative of USTA Serves, was developed to provide disadvantaged, at-risk children the opportunity to learn to play tennis and improve their academic skills in a structured format, and to help combat childhood obesity by promoting healthy lifestyles.
Chosen by a Grant Proposal Review Committee comprised of Foundation board members and USTA national staff, with important input from USTA sections, the grants are awarded to programs that successfully combine tennis and education and help children pursue their goals and highest dreams by leading healthier lives, succeeding in school and becoming healthier citizens. To date, USTA Serves has disbursed $11 million to a variety of programs that support its mission.
By Palo Alto Online Sports/USTA
By Palo Alto Online Sports/USTA
By Palo Alto Online Sports/USTA
Just to clarify, the USTA Serves grant helped underwrite a successful after-school program in East Palo Alto, introducing more than 100 elementary-aged children to tennis. Thanks to USTA Serves and generous supporters in the community, EPATT hopes to expand this EPA-based program to include tutoring and parent education — similar to the EPATT program held on the Stanford campus — in the coming academic year. Additionally, EPATT just built four permanent tennis courts at EPA’s Green Oaks/Cesar Chavez Academy.