About PowerPlay

Who We Are? | Programs | Board of Directors | Advisory Board | Supporters and Partners

Who We Are?
 We think girls rock!
PowerPlay NYC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and empowering girls through sports, teaching life skills and building self-confidence and self-esteem for life!

Our resources and programs provide girls with opportunities to feel connected, competent and confident. PowerPlay partners with schools and community-based organizations citywide to connect girls with female coaches and role models, creating opportunities for girls to "discover their power through play."

We believe that girls who participate in sports are more likely to feel better about their bodies, have higher levels of self-esteem than girls who do not play sports and be better equipped to create their own life success.

For girls, the playing field is still unequal. Schools are cutting back on phys ed; sports resources are more accessible to boys; male sports instructors significantly outnumber women instructors.

PowerPlay has stepped in to equalize the playing field. How do we do it?

  • By providing trained female coaches for sports skills and life skills training and creating girl-centered environments to give girls a "safe" space to learn sports skills.
  • By providing female mentors who can serve as role models for girls and encourage them to broaden their horizons.
  • By reinforcing the life skills for success that are equally applicable to the playing field, the classroom or the workplace.

    "My experience at PowerPlay has been fantastic. Every day we learn something new….My life has been completely changed by this experience, from the way I eat to the way I speak. My life will never be the same again."     Christie R., talking about her 2006 PowerPlay Summer Leadership Academy experience.
    • UPCOMING EVENTS

    2006 STARS SUMMER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY - JULY 6 - AUGUST 10
    Calling all high school girls…Want to play sports, learn how to make a TV commercial, meet successful women in sports, participate in an internship with a NYC business or sports organization? Apply now to the STARS Summer Leadership Academy. Click here for the application or call 212-545-0021 for more information. Click here to download the 2006 STARS Summer Leadership Academy Application.

    Programs and Resources At a Glance
    STARS Series
    STARS Series is an after-school program promoting physical activity and healthy living for young girls. The program objectives are to provide girls with:

    • Opportunities to learn sports skills and be physically active,
    • Encouragement and support from female coaches,
    • Multiple opportunities to learn teamwork, and
    • A safe space for discussion and expression.

    During each 12-week session, the STARS Series Coaches provide sports skills training (in either one selected sport or a variety of sports) and lead the girls in the "GoGirlGo" Healthy Living Curriculum created by the Women's Sports Foundation. STARS Series 2005-06

    STARS (Sports Training and Role Models for Success)
    STARS (Sports Training and Role models for Success) - is an after-school career education program created by PowerPlay NYC, Inc. and the YMCA of Greater New York. The goal of the program is to provide an opportunity for New York City high school girls to:

    • Explore a variety of sports careers,
    • Receive training in important career and life skills
    • Participate in a variety of sports and fitness activities
    • Benefit from supportive relationships with positive female role models.
      STARS 2005-06

    STARS Leadership Summer Academy:
    An intensive six week sports skills, life skills and career training experience for high school girls. As part of the Academy, girls participate in STARWorks, an eight day internship at PowerPlay partners such as Sports Illustrated, HBO Sports, New York Sports Clubs, Lady Foot Locker, the NHL, NYC2012, Columbia University, WFAN Radio, and the Brooklyn Cyclones.

    Girls Sports Directory
    Find your favorite sport or try a new one! PowerPlay's Girls Sports Directory has information on 20 different sports all over the city. The Directory is a great resource guide for girls (and their parents!) to find sports activities by sport or by borough, as well as to read articles on health, fitness, women's sports history, Title IX and other topics.

    RePlay
    Give the gift of play! Through RePlay, we are collecting and distributing used sports equipment to girls and community programs throughout New York City. Click here to learn more about how you can donate your old rackets or gloves.

    PowerPlay Days, one-day events with clinics and workshops, can be organized for interested partners or other groups. Events may include skill-building clinics in a particular sport or sports, and/or educational workshops on such topics as Title IX and gender equity, health and nutrition, sports careers, sports psychology or college athletic scholarships. See pictures here

    PowerPlay NYC is leading a new wave of change, by opening doors for girls to discover their power through play!


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    Highlights from Summer 2005
    Summer STARS
    PowerPlay coaches worked with more than 2,000 girls and boys at more than 20 public school summer camps at various sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan with the Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation. Campers ranged in age from 5-14 and practiced sports such as lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and football, and read and discussed stories about influential female athletes. Both the girls and boys gained from the experience of working with talented female coaches and hearing about famous female athletes, like Wilma Rudolph, Gail Devers, Billie Jean King and Babe Didrikson, who they may not have already known about.

    STARS     Summer Leadership Academy
    "The road to success is always under construction…PowerPlay STARS have the skills to build." That was the slogan adopted by the participants at the 2005 Summer Leadership Academy. Indeed, the girls did acquire the skills to build. They played basketball, volleyball, field hockey, lacrosse….Got a taste of martial arts, yoga and cardio training…Learned crew with Row NY and personal safety/communications skills with Prepare/Impact….Took trips to the West Side Tennis Club, Brooklyn Cyclones Baseball and the Columbia University College Fair…Mt the women executives at Madison Square Garden….Filmed the The PowerPlay TV Talk show with Olympian Gail Marquis, Hunter Sports Information Director Camille Currie and PowerPlay founder Ellen Markowitz…Interned at Lady Footlocker, Positive Coaching Alliance, New York Sports Clubs, Ice Theatre of New York, the Brooklyn Cyclones….

    "PowerPlay, PowerPlay
    How fun it is
    We play different kinds of sports
    And some of us have become a computer wiz.

    The people aren't so bad
    And you learn new things every day
    The counselors are here to help
    And your peers will cheer you on
    To help see that you succeed.

    We stay inside to play basketball
    And go outside to play softball
    Volleyball's another sport
    But dodge ball is the competitive sport
    Everybody wins.

    The trips are cool
    You learn to defend yourself
    While others take abs classes
    Yoga is fun
    But swimming is better
    Sometime they treat this like school
    But we still be chilling." By Renice W."

    Board of Directors

    President Ellen Markowitz, EM.Power Now, Inc.
    Vice President Celayne Hill, JD, Local Initiatives Support Corp.
    Treasurer Connie Harper Castle
      Lynn Chiavaro, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
      Camille Currie, Sports Information Director, Hunter College
      Maureen Duffy, Positive Coaching Alliance/NYC Teaching Fellow
      Anna Isaacson, Community Relations, Brooklyn Cyclones
      Dana Lennon, JD
      Faith Menken, MD, Surgeon /Spence Tennis Coach
    Executive Director Beth Rasin, JD

    Advisory Board

    Member Karin J. Buchholz, New York Knicks
    Member Dr. JoAnn Deak, Consultant, The Deak Group
    Member David N. Dinkins, Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs
    Member Wendy Hilliard, Aviator Sports & Recreation/Wendy Hilliard Foundation
    Member Dr. Jane Katz, Professor, John Jay College
    Member Donna Lopiano, Women's Sports Foundation
    Member Gail Marquis, Olympian, JP Morgan Chase
    Member Anne Keating, Korn/Ferry International
    Member Elisabeth Miranda, YMCA of Greater New York

    Supporters and Partners
    PowerPlay would like to acknowledge our supporters and program partners.Thank You!

    Supporters
    Merrill Lynch NIKEGo Foundation
    New York City Sports Commission Women's Sports Foundation
    The Patrina Foundation Washington Square Fund
    Pinkerton Foundation conEdison
    Frances Lear Foundation New York Women's Agenda
    Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation Commerce Bank
    Eileen Fisher Foundation New York City Sports Commission
    Columbia University (Health Sciences Division)
     
    Partners
    YMCA of Greater New York Young Women's Leadership Schools
    Liberty Partnerships Programs at Bank Street College of Education The After School Corporation,
    McBurney YMCA University Settlement of New York
    Sports & Arts in Schools Foundation The New York City Housing Authority
     
    STARWorks Partners
    Brooklyn Cyclones New York Sports Clubs
    Columbia University New York City Sports Commission
    HBO Positive Coaching Alliance
    ICe Theatre of New York Sports & Arts in Schools Foundation
    LAdy Footocker Sports Illustrated
    NHL YMCA
       
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    © 2006. All rights reserved.