$15,800

SwingPals Mission:

SwingPals is a registered 501 (c) 3 organization and is the first urban golf program that offers year-round support over a 7-year period to incoming middle school students in Durham, NC. Our mission is to build a foundation of health and strong character in children facing adversity, empowering them to pursue their passion and fulfill their potential to create positive change in their community.                        
 
Durham is the first city served by SwingPals. The program starts with us selecting the four Durham public middle schools where students enrolled are dealing with the greatest social and economic adversity. These schools are Brogden, Lowe’s Grove, Neal and Shepard middle schools.

Goals:

The SwingPals program has three major goals:
1.      To impact the life-long health and wellness of our students
2.      To develop in each student a deep sense of integrity and personal character
3.      To ensure all our students are successful through high school and have an opportunity to enroll in college
 
Philosophy and Methodology:

By experiencing first class golf coaching, the opportunity to develop leadership skills, and establishing a deep sense of connection to the community through service projects, students are encouraged to step outside of their comfort zone and challenge their status quo.
SwingPals is built on the foundational principal that by developing their own sense of safety and confidence in their abilities, students will be able to live healthier and happier lives. This theme is present in every interaction we have with our students. Due to the success of our work, SwingPals is now experienced by every student who enters one of our four schools, provided during the child’s PE elective.
In order to help students develop this sense of safety and confidence, our programming provides opportunities for our students to improve their ability to emotionally self-regulate and build self-awareness while having lots of fun playing golf. To achieve our goals we provide a curriculum that incudes utilizing proprietary bio-feedback technology* that allows students to evaluate their progress. This technology is evidence-based and has been developed over the past 20 years. Only recently has it become mainstream.
 
Students enrolled in our program become SwingPals Student Leaders (middle school) and SwingPals Student Ambassadors, (high school) thereby promoting and facilitating positive change throughout the school system and within their community. The process and our methodology, through which we promote health and well-being for all students, is anchored in our guiding principles:

SwingPals Guiding Principles:

• To serve children who face economic and social adversity
• To promote and support mental, physical, and emotional health
• Vulnerability is at the core of learning and growth
• We celebrate mistakes, not fix them
• Character and integrity endures
• Success derives from hard work, not talent
• To guide students on their journey, not ours
• Balance acceptance and change