OAK PARK, Calif. — ‘March Madness’ hit the Sacramento community of Oak Park on Saturday, as dozens of teens took to the court for a youth basketball tournament.
The Black Child Legacy Campaign along with Ball Out Academy hosted the all-day tournament for middle schoolers and high school students.
Teens from neighborhoods all over Sacramento gathered in the gym at St. Paul Baptist Missionary Church.
McClatchy High School junior Irving Cook said events like these are important to show the youth “somebody that's out there that cares for them, that wants them to be on the right path."
Irving Cook, a junior at Rex & Margaret Fortune Early College High School agreed, and said it’s “good to bring them in this facility, you know, have fun and no violence.”
After two long years of social distancing plus an uptick in youth violence, teens and youth mentors alike said events like these are more important than ever.
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Jedida Gomes, Program Lead with Oak Park Black Child Legacy Campaign, said it’s “an outlet where they can be supervised, they can be fed and just enjoy themselves, really."
"We have kids from all areas of Sacramento, and with the gang violence spiking, we just know that these relationships later will be so important,” said Ball Out Academy founder and CEO Kenneth Duncan. “We’re building brotherhoods between neighborhoods and really just taking down those barriers and making sure we’re trying to lower the crime rate here in Sacramento.”
Soon after forming Ball Out Academy in 2019, Duncan had to pivot to serve youth in a virtual setting. In partnership with the Black Child Legacy Campaign, he formed Black Boys Build, which meets monthly via zoom, “whether it’s talking about the struggles we go through as Black men in America, whether it’s working on financial literacy, and then just a space to build confidence.”
Now that he is able to serve youth in person again, Duncan said Ball Out Academy works with more than 100 young people per month. Soon he’ll begin weekly, free basketball camps at Health Professions High School in the Seavey Circle and New Helvetia public housing neighborhood. That will run from 5:30-7:30 p.m., and dates will be posted on Ball Out Academy’s Instagram account, Duncan said.
The Black Child Legacy Campaign serves seven different neighborhoods across the Sacramento area. Gomes said at the Oak Park site alone, they serve at least 250 kids per month, not to mention the families of these young people, too.
She and Duncan said continued funding and support from community leaders is key to continuing their important work of inspiring, uplifting and supporting young people.
“Invest in us. Allow us the opportunity to be able to serve more youth with more people. But more people always requires – again – more money,” Gomes said. “We’re doubling down on the mentoring. We’re doubling down on the tutoring. We’re doubling down on supporting mom and dad, right? Because that trickles down, and sometimes they can’t be present — but if we have mentors, we can make that available.”
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