Volunteers Administrators and Coaches (VAC) Training Program
The VAC project, a community service component in our Sports Administration program, has establish a successful partnership with the Greater Detroit Agency for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Detroit Day School for the Deaf. The three entities shared similar philosophies with respect to giving all children the opportunity for empowerment.
The VAC administration with the help of Detroit Day School for the Deaf modified activities to provide adaptive sport skills development for the children. With funding provided by the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan and the Detroit Youth Foundation, VAC has administered activities in Judo, Double Dutch jump rope, basketball, and golf for the last three years. The program coaches were students from Detroit Western High School, Eastern Michigan University and our own Wayne State University Sports Administration program. These coaches were trained by VAC staff to serve as coaches and officials for the various sports. They were also trained for adaptive sports since the participating children were deaf, hearing impaired, blind or sight impaired. This year, we secured additional funding from the Carls Foundation which allowed an offering of summer Sport and Technology Camps as well.
The VAC program has been operating for more than 9 years and has served over 1,300 youth. Additional funding from the Detroit Housing Commission increased the number of Self-Esteem Camps and the Self-Esteem Football Camps. We were able to doubled the number of our youth coaches. The Housing Commission funding brought the Village of Parkside, Woodbridge, Smith Homes, and the Brewster Homes as supporting collaborators. The summer program has been a success over the years. We continued our summer Sport and Technology program at Macomb Community College. Mr. Ed Stanton and Mr. Henry Washington, former graduates of our Sports Administration program, have been critical to our success.
Initially, DTE Energy was our sponsor. We have since secured funding from the Youth Development Commission and the Detroit Recreation Youth Division. We also signifi-cantly bolstered the support from the Detroit Housing Commission. Youthville and the Detroit Library are also instrumental as this programming runs throughout the year. Sport is used as the incentive to get the children excited and technology sessions are then interjected as also an area of interest. The technology instruction includes how to access the internet, get an e-mail address, send and receive e-mail and explore various occupations via the internet. The children also use Lego kits to design and make various projects that are then aligned with learning from the computer, such as CAD, computer assisted Design.
We have worked tirelessly to seek additional funding and sponsors although the support from WSU’s College of Education and the Division of KHS has championed our success
For more information contact:
Ron Simpkins
260 Matthaei
Phone: 313-577-5945
E-Mail: ae1590@wayne.edu
Volunteers-Administrators-Coaches: Training Programs
Enhancing the Quality of Youth Sports Activities
