Town Offers Middle School Students “Building Bridges Through Basketball” Training Sessions

Amherst Recreation, the Department of Equity and Inclusion (DEI), the Community Responders for Equity, Safety, & Service (CRESS), and the Amherst Police Department (APD) are partnering with the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE-a national nonprofit that educates and empowers the sports community to eliminate racial discrimination, champion social justice and improve race relations) to offer a nine-week in-person leadership program, hosted on weekends, that is designed to:

• Create a safe space to break barriers, build trust, and create pathways for positive communication
• Provide a leadership and cultural competency curriculum designed by RISE covering topics such as community building, bias, identity, and building trust
• Share new perspectives, develop relationships, discuss the challenges participants face, and their collective responsibility to create change and build stronger communities
• Improve relations between youth and the APD

The RISE leadership curriculum covers topics such as: identity, bias, diversity concepts, and athlete activism.  These Saturday sessions aim to teach life-long skills such as: perspective taking, empathy, critical thinking, and leadership. The leadership sessions will be led by RISE facilitator and Morning Movement and Mentoring leader, Maria Vega. This program is funded through RISE and is free for Amherst Regional Middle School (ARMS) students to attend. Snacks will be provided.

Maria Vega, offers, “I have worked as a facilitator with Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) for over four years. Using sports as a vehicle for change is the mission of RISE and I wholeheartedly believe in it. We are all different, but sports are a shared language that can be used to understand each other. I am very excited and honored to lead this collaboration.”

Temporary Chief of Police, Gabriel Ting, notes, “I am so pleased to be a part of RISE in partnership with our Town’s Recreational and DEI departments.  This program will provide us with the ability to forge meaningful relationships with our youth, where we ordinarily wouldn’t have this opportunity!”    

Town of Amherst Recreation Director, Reynaud L. Harp states, “This is such an exciting opportunity for us to continue some of the community focused work we have already begun, and are committed to building upon in the future. Our team of partners can’t wait to mirror the tremendous energy these talented kids have been bringing for months (referring to the successful on-going Morning Movement Program).”

Becky Demling, the Outreach Director for Amherst Recreation, has been a vocal advocate for a program aimed at empowering youth in Amherst. She firmly believes that by fostering the development of strong personal identities and leadership skills among young people, while also providing structured opportunities for them to engage in meaningful and nuanced conversations with adults, the community as a whole will benefit. Demling sees this approach as a way to build shared understanding while strengthening the community.

RISE programming will take place at the Amherst Regional Middle School (ARMS) Gym on a weekend morning beginning March 23^rd and ending May 18^th.  Questions? Please contact Becky Demling at 413-259-3151 or demlingb@amherstma.gov. To register your 7^th or 8^th grade student, please visit amherstmarec.org For more information on RISE, please visit their website www.risetowin.org.