San Francisco Giants
It uses Baseball
Shortlisted for the Sport Team of the Year
More about San Francisco Giants
In 1994, the Giants Community Fund decided that in order to make a significant and lasting impact in the lives of children, we needed to focus the majority of our resources on an effective and wide-reaching youth program. We sought to create a program that would give at-risk kids a meaningful partnership with community-based organizations. In doing so, we could play a part in helping to end the cycle of violence. Therefore, Junior Giants was established as our flagship program.
The prevailing sentiment among youth development advocates is that sport itself is neither good nor bad as a developmental setting: the key factor is the quality of programming being offered and the management and leadership at the ground level. Junior Giants meets that standard of a high-quality, high-impact youth development program, as research shows that most children who participate in Junior Giants learn the Four Bases of Character Development as well as the importance of Education, Health and Bullying Prevention. These life lessons, learned in the context of baseball, are then transferred to school, home, and among friends and family and, ultimately, set participants up for future success.