Open Thread: The Spurs Team Up Challenge is in full effect

Silver and Black Give Back is a huge part of SS&E.

This week, Silver & Black Give Back have been awarding the groups who will be participating in this year’s Team Up Challenge. Twenty teams receive a $2,500 grant to start a community service project.

The Team Up Challenge provides funding for youth-led service projects in San Antonio that better the community by encouraging K-12 students to develop civic responsibility in partnership with schools and nonprofits. Silver & Black Give Back annually grants up to $250,000 through the Team Up Challenge program.

Throughout the year, there are different facets of the program for the participants to show their progress. At the end of the term, Team Up awards 5 teams $20,000 to help sustain their projects.

The Team Up Challenge helps people all across the city in whatever way the kids decide! Past projects have included donation drives for the homeless, community gardens, sports inclusion camps, armed services support, and much more! These service projects are designed to benefit not only the community, but the kids in the program too, by providing opportunities for them to learn the importance of giving back.

I have personally been involved with Team Up Challenge. For two consecutive years, I wrote grants on behalf of an alternative campus in SAISD that was awarded the initial seed money to grow a community-based project.

Watching these students take pride and responsibility for the ongoing service commitment was enlightening. Spurs Sports & Entertainment gives these young people an opportunity to participate in events that many never would otherwise.

Each team has an chance to promote their specific project at a Spurs or Rampage home game. Many of the students who attended my school had never been to a live game and were mesmerized by the experience. In one event, Aron Baynes cooked healthy with our team at the San Antonio Food Bank.

I cannot fully express the gratitude that came from watching these students grow. The support of the entire Spurs program was essential to the success these young people experience.

Congratulations to this year’s participants.

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Source: Pounding The Rock