Alliance Leadership Initiative

The ALLIANCE: Los Angeles has partnered with schools in South LA to pilot The Alliance Leadership Initiative.

The Alliance Student Empowerment Program uses sports as an entryway to leadership and advocacy for student athletes. The semester-long program develops changemakers who will build community power and affect systems for which the collective of 12 professional sports teams in greater Los Angeles is focused.

As a key part of the partnership, The Alliance supported the expansion of sports and youth engagement opportunities for its partnering schools. The sports programs provide real-time benefit in terms of health outcomes and social emotional learning. Both schools serve the target communities of The Alliance and have existing sports programs that benefit from this support.

Each school site represents a different type of pilot program, which is planned to scale in the coming years. The Alliance support will augment ICEF View Park High School’s existing sports-based youth development, which is integrated into its curriculum. For LA Promise, the support will enrich their use of sport as a tool for engagement and positive youth development.

LA Promise High School has recently been reintroduced as The Russell Westbrook Why Not? Academy, with the goal to develop academic achievers, athletes and activists committed to social change.

Access to organized sports during school and after school is essential to child development and building a path for their lifelong well-being. In youth, sports can bolster positive identity, resilience, boost confidence and success.

The Brotherhood Crusade and Community Coalition co-created – specifically for this initiative – the sport-based, academic advocacy-centered curriculum and will co-facilitate the leadership training for year one of the multi-year series of programs.

Curriculum objectives include training participants in organizing and identifying social issues to address, facilitating students’ understanding of community conditions and the systems that perpetuate inequality, fostering an advocate mindset and the knowledge and confidence to engage with policymakers, and gaining inspiration from fellow student athletes and professional athletes.

Student athletes from both high schools learn about advocacy, leadership, and systemic inequalities that affect their communities. Students will also meet and hear from professional athletes from The Alliance organizations.

Students also have the opportunity to discover the many career opportunities available in the sports industry outside of the playing field.
The ALLIANCE: Los Angeles Activation Series engages student athletes across the Greater LA region, to inspire them to be leaders on their teams, learn more about social justice, community leadership and explore the prospect of careers in the sports industry.

Working towards social justice with young people includes investment, education and sustained action. The ALLIANCE: Los Angeles is dedicated to working toward a more just future, and helping youth understand how communities value their leadership and contributions.

The Alliance programs are designed to inspire equality and well-being for systems change where the teams live, work and hold competitive events. The 12 professional sports teams of greater Los Angeles are acting on issues of structural racism, have united as allies for communities of color and are building new opportunities to address disparities.