NRI Pulse

City News

Inspiring Together: Providing youth in foster care enrichment activities

BY JYOTHSNA HEGDE

Atlanta, GA, May 24, 2019: How do you encourage youth to give back to society? Inspiring Together, a non-profit organization found one way – to provide extra-curricular opportunities for young people placed in foster care or from low-income families. Inspiring Together leverages the youth in the community to provide foster youth living in Forsyth, North Fulton and surrounding counties opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities.

Inspiring Together was incepted in 2018 with the goal to provide disadvantaged youth important enrichment activities that, because of family or financial circumstances, they otherwise could not take part in. The organization believes participation in extracurricular activities helps fostered youth feel connected and aligned with their peers, improve academic achievement and will provide important role models for these kids – someone who they may not have – to be inspired and reach their potential success in life. As mentors, youth are more likely to make positive choices and have enhanced self-esteem and self-confidence, as well as improved behavior and interpersonal skills.

Volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for Forsyth County, Radhika Kurande recognized the differences between the less privileged and other kids. When a friend’s son approached her to gather community hours by offering free tennis lessons to underprivileged children, Kurande observed that this could work well for both parties involved.

Currently Inspiring Together Inc. has six high school coaches who are part of varsity teams for their schools: Ayush Karnik, Aakash Sharma, Shrey Bhatia, Tej Shidhaye, Veeraj Rangnekar, and Sachin Kapoor. Each sport camp is led by a coach who plays for that specific sports for his high school, while other coaches help with marketing, operational support, finance and strategy for the future sports camps as well as assisting the lead coach in running the camp. The camps are co-ed, with sport camps for a duration of 6 to 8 weeks and conclude with food, social, friendly matches and award ceremonies. The camps are free and provide sport equipment, T-shirts and snacks to all the participants. The team concluded a Basket Ball camp on April 20,, 2019 with match and then award ceremony with ice cream social.

“As the organization grows, we envision offering other sports camps as well as art and educational camps, such as robotics and ACT coaching classes, to boys and girls ages 12 to 18,” says Kurande. 

For more information you may visit inspiringtogether.org.

HAVE YOUR SUBSCRIBED TO OUR VIDEO NEWS CHANNEL YET?

Related posts

Bharat Gaurav Award for Atlanta’s Shiv Aggarwal

Veena

SEWA 5k Run Raises Awareness For Animal Rights

Veena

American India Foundation & World Affairs Council host Dr Rajeev Tayal in Atlanta

Veena

Leave a Comment