CYTF Program Grant Applications Submitted

Denver Tennis Park

NW and SW Denver under served areas for two summer camps, including at Northfield and in the SW Denver area at Lincoln High School.

We will promote both areas to our current SERVES participants and school youth that we have visited. We will have to limit the camp to 30 each.

Funds will be used to pay for instructors, on site coordinator, court fees, and daily snacks and drinks for campers.

Success will be measured by registration, attendance, parent feedback and impact on communities

We are awaiting further funding decisions from other Colorado foundations and organizations.

Fraser Valley Metropolitan Recreation District

Grand County is somewhat unique in the fact that school is in session Monday-Thursday. Summer Recreation Department programming follows that same schedule, so there are not many full-day programs for kids on Fridays. Working parents struggle to find child care and/or activities for their children on a weekday that they are at work.

Fraser Rec has an NJTL Chapter and in the past, we offered a 90 minute class that met twice a week. However in recent years, enrollment has declined. I attribute much of that to the fact that there are more working parents and they have no way to transport their kids to and from a tennis class. So, this summer we will offer a full-day NJTL tennis program in addition to offering tennis to the day camp kids on Mondays (CYTF generously funded this program last summer). We will have a rotation of helpers who will either help me with tennis drills, do educational activities and also offer arts & crafts that are tennis related. The courts are within walking distance to the library, so I plan to have the kids research tennis players and events and enter the Arthur Ashe essay contest.

This program is already listed on the Fraser Valley Metropolitan Recreation District website (www.fraservalleyrec.org) and will be included in email blasts and newsletters in the coming weeks.

Grant dollars will be used to offset staff costs and to purchase balls and learning tools. Our ball hoppers are over 20 years old, so it would be nice to replace those as well.

This program will be offered on a drop-in basis (students do not need to sign up for a full session) to accommodate second home owners and seasonal residents. Hopefully we will see the numbers remain constant or increase over the summer. I’m hoping that the program will be sustainable and continue into the school year until the courts are covered in snow (usually late October)

Most local parents work seasonal, hourly jobs and money is very tight with the increasing cost of living in mountain communities. Therefore, the Rec District tries to keep program fees as low as possible. Long term funding could come from higher program fees, but that would be a last resort.

Eastern Colorado Tennis Association

Through our National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) program, the ECTA seeks to initiate a new Middle School Tennis program in Morgan County and forge a pathway to inspire middle school age kids to continue to play tennis into their high school years and beyond.

NJTL Middle School Junior Team Challenges occur
– 1 1/2 hours twice weekly (first 1/2 hour dedicated to life skill education)
– for 24 weeks (May – October)
– with a goal to create four teams (26-28) NEW middle school players by 2026

To accomplish this mission, ECTA developed 3 Strategic Goals and Key Initiatives:

1. Since 2001, ECTA has worked to secure endorsements among Morgan County recreation directors, school principals, athletic directors and PE teachers (at 11 schools)
for targeting Morgan County Middle School Team Challenges by fall 2025

2. In 2024, ECTA formed a new affiliation (and perfect fit) with Morgan County’s “Kids At Their Best” (KATB) to provide NJTL tennis programming as an addition to their current STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curriculum at 3 elementary and 1 middle school in Morgan County come this fall, 2025.

Together, ECTA and KATB will serve over 70 % of our 128 NJTL students
who currently qualify for “Colorado Healthy School Meals For All”
with the objective to combat obesity through increasing active play by 10%.

3. To impact middle school age kids about the life value
– of playing tennis through high school and beyond
– of learning honesty, integrity, teamwork and sportsmanship

To sustain the growth and success of Morgan County School Tennis,
ECTA has garnered full support over the past 4 years from:

– Morgan County School District
(who distribute NJTL program fliers to every student at a discounted rate)

– Dept. of Parks & Recreation in City of Brush, Fort Morgan and Wiggins
(who promote ECTA events at discounted indoor & outdoor court rental rates)

– Five middle schools host and promote ECTA “Tennis in P.E. Play Days”
1. Fort Morgan Middle School
2. Brush Middle School
3. Weldon Valley Middle School
4. New Ramer Middle School
5. Wiggins Middle School

Promote ECTA’s vision of “Building Champions On And Off The Court”!

– ECTA website: http://www.ECTAfun.com
Face Book: Fort Morgan Tennis 4 Ever!
Newspaper: “Fort Morgan Times”

Promote “What makes a middle school age kid want to play tennis”?

ECTA’s NJTL School Tennis budget is currently in a vulnerable state of affairs.

CYTF financial assistance will contribute to making a crucial impact in filling the void to create a new Morgan County NJTL middle school tennis program.

CYTF grant dollars will help offset ECTA’s
– program costs at eleven (11) elementary + three (3) middle schools
– equipment costs
– staff support
– administrative costs
– court rental
– ROGY Team Tennis travel expenses

In return for CYTF support in 2025/2026, the ECTA will:
– Continue to solicit “In Kind” donations
– Charge low cost program registration fees
– Seek grant funding solicitation with local businesses in Morgan County.
– Organize Board responsibilities for ECTA’s 2nd annual “Family Red Ball”
Fundraiser in fall, 2025
– Determine target audience for ECTA’s program grant submissions
– Establish ECTA’s “Financial Wellness” to become a self-sustaining organization
beyond 2026.

1. “Hello Insight” is ECTA’s tool used to measure success for creating a new Morgan County Middle School Tennis program by 2026

2. Program impact will be measured via CYTF supported programming by
– number of overall youth served
– number of new youth reached
– percentage of all youth who are retained in programming
– number of new players who played tennis for the first time
– average number of hours of physical activity youth received per week

ECTA’s financial wellness will be measured ECTA’s ability to become a more self sustaining organization through 2026 and beyond.

Building ECTA’s “Brand”: reputation as a trusted community partner will
– Fill the gap to complete the NJTL pathway
– Strengthen, sustain and grow the ROGY tennis pathway
– Impact the success of receiving future program grants
– Result in a higher outcome for students (10 – 14 years) continuing to play the game.
– Improve School District results for Morgan County High School Tennis teams
– Sustain excitement among ECTA Board Members

NJTL Fort Collins

NJTL FC has been conducting innovative and engaging programming at over 12 sites throughout Larimer County, including in Wellington, Fort Collins, Loveland and Estes Park, reaching over 500 primarily low-income youth each year. The partnerships selected for this grant submittal include summer programs at: Boys and Girls Clubs (4 locations), Middle School Summer Camps (3 locations),
Teaching Tree Early Childhood Center and a fully bilingual program for La Familia Family Center and Hickory Mobile Home Park. All the programs are over the summer and are 1 hour sessions for 10 weeks or 10 sessions in length (1/wk for 10 wks or 2/wk x 5 wks).

BGC – NJTL FC has conducted weekly year-round programming at the BGC in Fort Collins, Loveland, Wellington, and Estes Park. Year-round programming (Fall – Winter – Spring) costs ~ $20,000 per location. We continued programming in the summer at several additional sites, primarily for younger members 6-10 in age. These programs are offered once per week. We have opportunities for summer programming at BGC sites (Elementary School locations) in Wellington, Fort Collins, Loveland, and Estes Park. We conduct character and leadership education with them as well as weekly tennis. Summer programming at each BGC location will reach ~30 – 40 youth. We propose to be in four (4) BGC clubs under this grant, totaling ~120 –160 youth. The demographics of our “core” program at a BGC site in Loveland: Ages: 6 – 12
33% are from single-parent homes and 58% have family income of <$40,000/year.

MS Camps – NJTL FC proposes to conduct a 10-session (1/wk or 2/5weeks) — NJTL has been running the Middle School Tennis no-cut tennis program for decades until ~ 2 years ago when the Poudre School District took the program over. NJTL FC has continued to support the Middle School (MS) Tennis program by offering a JV tournament, now that it is a cut-sport by PSD, and also by running MS Summer Camps to help build the program and engage more youth. This proposal is to run 3 MS camps for 10 sessions. We anticipate ~ 60 youth to participate.
La Familia and Hickory Mobile Home Park – Several years ago NJTLFC conducted a summer program in Spanish for the families and children that are served by the La Familia Family Center and that live in Hickory Mobile Home Park across from La Familia and next to at City of FC Park (Soft Gold Park). This was a highly successful summer program with all youth receiving a free tennis racket at the end of the
sessions. The mothers even joined in on the fun. John White, ED NJTLFC is fully bilingual and will be the lead instructor. We anticipate having ~20 youth participants.

Teaching Tree – NJTL FC would like to continue our programming with Teaching Tree Fort Collins, a sliding scale fee structure daycare center (formerly the United Way Day Care Center), using the Aztlan Recreation Center, which is located right next to Teaching Tree. We expanded in the Fall to Teaching Tree Loveland with a year-round program using the BGCLC Pulliam Club gym. What a BLAST we are having with the younger kiddos (4 – 5 year-olds).

However, this expansion has left the Teaching Tree Fort Collins in the cold without funding or programming. We propose running a 10-week summer program for the kids at TTFC. Teaching Tree is a sliding scale fee day care center with many low-income and single-parent kids in attendance. We anticipate serving 20 – 30 children.

NJTLFC will promote these programs with flyers placed at specific target locations (BGC, TT, LF, MS). In addition, NJTL FC has a E-Newsletter through Constant Contact with a current distribution to 3,395 individuals. A minimum of 3 E-Newsletter will market and promote the programs and will also have a Serving Up Success on the final outcomes of each program. The CYTF support will be prominently displayed in all three E-Newsletters along with our 2025 Annual Serving Up Success report
to the community.

Grants dollars will be primarily used for staffing, equipment (balls, rackets, nets, etc), supplies (life skills and leadership materials, etc), and in one case (Teaching Tree) facility costs. We are matching the amount requested ($7,500) by $4,515.

Success is measured in a number of ways depending on the program. We measure the number of participants and look at new or returning, and their individual demographics. We are looking for program growth and new entry. We also conduct quantitative evaluations on court and often use the Net Gen Red Ball Skills Assessment (pre and post) to evaluate tennis skills development which can also
be done with the MS program and orange/green ball evaluations. We seek out qualitative data from the participant organizations’ staff and parents.

Over the past 2 years, NJTL FC has been attempting to transition from the founder, Dave Boon, to a new Executive Director (ED). Two were hired but did not workout and there was a lapse in fundraising and grant writing. Our new ED, John White, has been on board since November and is well on his way to securing adequate funding for all program support in the future into 2025 and beyond. This is more of a stop-gap funding request to continue the outstanding programs NJTL F has been
running in Northern CO, reaching 500 – 1,200 youth each year.