January 29, 2021 Newsletter
Saint Paul Urban Tennis Celebrates 30 Years of Serving Youth
2021 marks the 30th year of SPUT serving Saint Paul families and youth! Join us in celebrating this milestone by attending events, inviting new families to our programming and community, and donating to help us continue our mission of empowering and educating youth to realize their full potential. Stay tuned for the many ways to celebrate with us this year!
Summer Registration is Open!
We invite kids and teens for a summer of SPUT tennis, leadership development, and fun! Saint Paul Urban Tennis offers daytime lessons, half-day camps, and youth competition programming. Again this year we will employ strict COVID-19 safety protocols. Kids will learn tennis or improve their tennis game while developing leadership skills through our SPUT S.P.I.R.I.T. (service, perseverance, integrity, responsibility, imagination, teamwork) curriculum.
SPUT Programming Updates
Employment PLUS
Our 16 Employment PLUS (EP) students are starting the New Year strong! SPUT’s EP program provides jobs and career-readiness training for high school students (career exploration, college and workplace visits, career mentoring, resume-building, and soft skills development). The students have continued to grow their career knowledge this month via Zoom. So far they have attended virtual career visits with a therapist, a college professor and a social worker. More sessions are being scheduled– let SPUT know if you can host a virtual workplace visit! The students also participated in a workshop with Hiway Credit Union’s Tina Jones to learn about budgeting, saving, and banking.
Warrior Leadership Academy
Our Warrior Leadership Academy high school students began their first session of SPUT’s new Discover U mentoring program! The curriculum combines guided activity sessions that youth complete on their own after valuable mentor conversations. The goal of Discover U is to support SPUT youth in creating a resilient life plan, developing a strong sense of vocational direction, and forming meaningful relationships with SPUT peers and community supporters.
Other News
Youth Council
Our 2021 Saint Paul Urban Tennis Youth Council has been selected! SPUT’s Youth Council is made up of one representative from each Saint Paul Public School (SPPS) and two representatives from a non SPPS school. The purpose of this group is to directly engage the youth of our community in program planning to help SPUT better serve kids. We are excited to see what these young leaders will accomplish!
Eastview Rec Center
SPUT is able to provide free or low-cost community space for east St. Paul programming at the Eastview Rec Center. With COVID-19 safety precautions in place, Eastview is currently hosting Sanneh Foundation/CCA youth traveling basketball team practices and Kalpulli Huitzillin dance practices.