Mission
Guided by the three core values Discipline, Solidarity, and Excellence, BAL aims to challenge the youth to develop their talents and abilities to the maximum through two components: Basketball and Education. Through these two components, the organization aims to achieve the following:
- teach the fundamentals of basketball
- provide positive alternatives to risky behavior
- encourage teamwork
- teach responsibility
- promote social and cultural development
- build leadership skills
- promote healthy lifestyles
- teach respect for others
- raise self-esteem
- support personal development
- promote visionary goal-setting
- teach the ideals of teamwork and tolerance
- encourage attitudes of fairness
- stimulate cognitive development
- promote the value of service
ABOUT US
Basketball to Uplift the Youth, also known as Baskètbòl pou Ankadre Lajenès (BAL) in Haitian Creole, is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to use basketball as a tool to educate and mentor Haitian youth. In addition to basketball, the organization's beneficiaries partake in a variety of educational and cultural activities designed to provide them with the tools to develop their talents and abilities to the maximum. BAL operates program sites in two of Port-au-Prince’s most underserved and notorious urban neighborhoods: Cité Soleil and Martissant.
Basketball as a tool to mentor and educate Haitian youth
Basketball to Uplift the Youth
Context
Haiti's population has a median age of 22.6 years, 55% of the population is between the ages of 0-24 years, and the majority of criminal suspects arrested are between the ages of 18 and 25. Taking into account these statistics and the country's socio-economic condition, there is a great need for programs that will guide and mentor the youth, and provide them with activities that will help them maximize their potential while steering them away from a life of delinquency and crime.
As it has been demonstrated that sports are a tool which can be used to positively mold and modify behaviors, and given the scarcity of youth basketball programs in Haiti, Baskètbòl pou Ankadre Lajenès (BAL) was established in July 2013 in an attempt to meet this major need.