Powerful Partnership Cultivates Unifying Cultures
By Kenneth Miller, Publisher
“The only thing greater than sports is the spirit that rises from it”–RISE to Win
“The only thing greater than sports is the spirit that rises from it”–RISE to Win
The first week of August brought about the usual blistering temperatures outside El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills, but inside where a smattering of teachers began preparation for yet another year to learn in a classroom down the hall from the main office the seven year culmination of the remarkable Los Angeles Rams and RISE to Win partnership resonated.
In 2018 the Rams joined forces with a three year old national non-profit, RISE to Win to introduce a revolutionary curriculum designed to combat racism while unifying culture through sports.
Hailed as a “Community Building Initiative” the program identifies two schools each year, focusing on eliminating racial discrimination while developing champions of social justice and improving race and cultural relationships.
“Our partnership with the Rams we have worked together over the years to bring two high schools from different communities out here in the L.A. area together to learn about the importance of social justice and to use their voice to advocate for change in their communities,” explained Jerrell Price, RISE Vice President of Strategic Partnerships.
For year seven the two schools participating were El Camino Real Charter and Thomas Jefferson from the eastside of South Central Los Angeles, and a campus that had been challenged by tensions between Blacks and Latinos.
“Today’s program was really about community building. Now how do you work together to build a community, today’s activity was to build a trophy which is in reference to your community. It symbolizes your community,” Price told South bay Black Journal.
The students came together inside this classroom for one goal that is to change their community and build it, using construction paper to produce a trophy.
Formed into multiple groups from a couple dozen student-athletes which consist of boys from the varsity football teams and girls from the flag football teams mixed with students from El Camino Real Charter and Thomas Jefferson, forging new alliances and partnerships that are relied on, trusted upon to complete the essential project.
“Our curriculum in itself is built over time, so this is week five. We started our program on identity, talking about our own identities. What do those look like? Are we the same? Are we different? What does service identity look like versus deep identity and what do you want to be known about? Really that deep identity, so we bring folks together and say let’s talk about ourselves,” said Price elaborating further.
The formula expands to where the student-athletes learn about equity and equality and continue on the journey that lands on community building.
The enthusiasm was apparent as the eagerness to complete the project first spilled out into the atmosphere, only to be tamed by a break for the 50 pizzas and soft drinks that awaited them, but still a couple of teenagers kept at it until the very last minute.
“I also learn something from this. I learn something everytime we do this. We utilize this program all around the country, with various teams and colleges as well as this space that you see here in this room. These are things that they want to talk about, so the challenge is how do we create an avenue so that they can have these conversations,” Price said.
Noel Grigsby, Los Angeles Rams Associate Manager of Social Justice and Football Development expressed why the Rams are so vested in programs such as this that also involved a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified Schools District.
“As an organization we are committed to social justice on the playing field and creating an opportunity for all, but when you talk about the RISE program and what we have been able to do for the past seven years is bring together different sets of people from different backgrounds so we have El Camino Real Charter out here in Woodland Hills and we have Thomas Jefferson High School, bring two groups together have the critical conversation about how we can improve race relations and learn to work better together in our community. It’s more of a reward for us.”
The students first week unfolded at SoFi Stadium where they had a 150-minute session in the Rams’ locker room that included interactive discussion on understanding identities, followed by the screening of the Rams’ short film Kingfish: The Story of Kenny Washington, who was the first Black player to be signed by a National Football League (NFL) team in the modern era and ended a 12-year ban on Black players in the league.
Champions for Social Justice
For once teens were not preoccupied with their cell phones, but were communicating the old fashion way.
“It’s pretty fascinating but it just talks about the impact of the program, so these are teenage kids who oftentimes they are on Instagram and all of these social media avenues, but in order for them to put their phones down and listen there must be something that they are interested in and that has their attention. The RISE facilitators have been doing an amazing job throughout the course of the program by grabbing their attention and teaching them things that they need in order to be successful,” Grigsby said.
The kids were extremely locked in as were the two Thomas Jefferson students that shared the program’s impact.
“It has helped me network to get to know a lot of people and it has helped me step outside of my comfort zone, especially since I used to be a person who would not go out there and socialize,” explained Marina Navarijo.
Her fellow schoolmate Alonso Sanchez praised the program as well.
“I think it helps me realize there are a lot of problems in my community and in everyone’s community, but it’s not productive for us to sit there and pretend it’s not happening. Everyone has a voice, everyone has an opportunity to build on something to have a better community.”
Founded in 2015, RISE aims to harness the unifying power of sport to end racism and champion social justice.
With a coalition of major U.S. sports leagues and media outlets, athletes, educators and social justice experts, RISE engages the sports community to advance values of respect, understanding, tolerance and equality. RISE has since grown exponentially, with programming in more than 40 states, educating more than five million people and empowering nearly 500 partners across all sports. RISE’s vision is bold: To create a nation unified through sports committed to racial equity and social justice.
