CHICAGO BASEBALL AND EDUCATIONAL ACADEMY

ALL OF THE ACTIVITIES THAT THE CBEA PROVIDES THE YOUTH OF CHICAGO ARE AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE, 12 MONTHS A YEAR, INDOOR AND OUTDOOR!!!

To emphasize the community need the CBEA is serving, read the following quote from CBEA community program partner, The Show, from the Woodlawn neighborhood. Whether we hear from Woodlawn, Garfield Park, Pilsen, Englewood, Austin, South Shore, Little Village, North Lawndale, Belmont Cragin or anywhere in between, every
program will say the same thing.

"Access to high quality facilities allows us to regulate the cost of participation in our programs. More importantly it instills a sense of pride and accomplishment that we would otherwise struggle to achieve. The benefits of generating a sense of belonging for inner city youth on a university campus is invaluable and is the first step towards our players seeing themselves in college and as scholar-athletes. Our partnership with CBEA has afforded The Show Baseball the opportunity to grow and expand our programs. Since our first interaction with CBEA to now, The Show Baseball has grown to 7 age levels, graduated 100% of our student athletes from High School, and placed over 30 athletes in collegiate programs across the country. This was made possible through our work with
CBEA." - The Show Baseball, Woodlawn

The CBEA provides an opportunity for the youth of their neighborhood to get out of the 10 block radius of their home and on to a college campus, all for free. By not incurring any expense to the CBEA, but receiving increased access to facilities and instruction, these community program partners can save those dollars to keep their doors open and provide scholarships for kids to play in their local league.

Native Chicagoan, UIC Graduate, 16-year Major League Baseball veteran and All Star, Curtis Granderson founded the Chicago Baseball and Educational Academy (CBEA) 9 years ago. In 2016, when the CBEA was born, it provided a platform and place for his dream of connecting with community-based baseball and softball programs to enhance and enrich the lives of youth throughout the neighborhoods of Chicago.

Since its inception, the CBEA has collaborated with more than 60 Chicago neighborhood youth baseball and softball organizations, giving access to over 6,000+ (annually) Chicago kids to play, learn and grow at our facilities on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

The CBEA collaborates with neighborhood baseball and softball programs by augmenting, on NCAA D1 varsity fields and indoor practice facilities, programming that the local neighborhood teams will never have access to without our organization.

The neighborhood sport organizations are needing and asking for extra programming to keep these kids focused and they love the partnerhsip with CBEA as we not only aid with more things to do, but we help keep neighborhood kids off the street. To that end, because the CBEA serves so many neighborhoods throughout the city of Chicago, the clinics and games that we manage are extremely integrated with kids of different color, culture and ethnicities.

We intentionally use baseball and softball to develop positive youth outcomes because that is all we do. The CBEA develops positive youth outcomes because everything we do is at a high level, safe, and in a non-threatening atmosphere. Our programming achieves this goal through the following:

1) CBEA provides 500+, 2-hour sessions (22,000 player opportunities) per year. A session is considered games, clinics, and practice space provided to our community partners.

2) Our facilities are on a campus of higher learning at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

3) We host and manage 200 games a year. These games are not for the elite, high-cost, travel teams. These games, available at no charge, are for Chicago Public School varsity teams and local house league teams and part time travel teams. This dynamic provides a sense of appreciation that exudes positive energy that is second to none.

4) Our baseball and softball player clinics are instructed by NCAA D1 players and coaches, who clearly understand the techniques to develop the skills physically. As well as fully versed in the behavioral health that is needed to play at a high level.

5) CBEA works with the UIC players and coaches to develop lesson plans for the upcoming year. In those meetings, skills are discussed and so is a code of conduct, in line with CBEA's values, that is expected of them and the youth whom they instruct.

6) Our college info. sessions and campus tours are managed and run by UIC staff and trained volunteers.

7) CBEA's Behavioral Health / Social-Emotional learning sessions are run by Dr. Meredith Wekesser. Dr. Wekesser has her PhD in Sports Psychology writing her dissertation in Youth Sports. With over 60 skills clinics, throughout a calendar year, each has an SEL session included for kids, parents and coaches to help prepare a child for the mental side of sports which transcends in to life.

8) UmpsCare umpire and leadership clinics are taught by Illinois High School Sports Association (IHSA), NCAA as well as professional minor league umpires.

Because of their involvement in sports, like the CBEA, minority children have been more likely than White children to see increases in time spent with parents, siblings, teachers, and coaches over the past year.

Parents of minority children were more likely to say their children’s mental health, physical fitness, emotional control, and social well-being have improved over the last year than parents of White children.

Parents said that coaches, in urban settings, played the most important role in their child’s life when it came to ->
Helping their child develop life skills, create a safe environment, develop a sense of belonging, help to develop and pursue goals, create an inclusive environment, help to provide their child with off the field stressors, learn from mistakes, and to have FUN!!!

Neighborhood programs are extremely important to our youth. Nothing builds a community better than the community itself. However, these communities need outside influences, like CBEA, to show our youth that there is a bigger world out there, that is just a mile away. We are not just doing so with one neighborhood but with dozens
throughout the city of Chicago.