The KEEN's Sports program takes place in a gym, with a variety of sports equipment available. Children and teens with disabilities, "KEEN athletes" are paired-one-to-one with trained volunteers, "coaches", who are 15 years old or older for noncompetitive, recreational sports play geared toward the abilities and interests of each individual athlete, allowing young people facing even the most significant challenges to meet their individual goals. Athletes and coaches may throw a basketball or kick a soccer ball, or they may take a walk around the gym. Many athletes love to bounce on our large therapy balls, and others enjoy speeding across the floor on our 4-wheeled scooter boards. Athletes are celebrated for their activity and effort throughout the session, which shows them that they are fully accepted as they are and for who they are.

Kids with disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy or Down syndrome are at greater risk of leading isolated and sedentary lives. Infrequent opportunities for recreation or socialization leads to less active, less social and less healthy lives for these kids and their families. Community sports teams or adaptive athletic leagues are not always suitable because they are: (1) Difficult for kids who find it hard to compete or understand the “rules” of a team environment; (2) designed for a specific disability, and (3) are too expensive.

The need for exercise and recreation programs designed for young people with more severe and profound disabilities in our area and specifically in the underserved community of Southeast, Washington, DC is enormous. With 1:110 children born affected by autism, and a lack of programs specifically for people with significant disabilities, KEEN fulfills a great need in the community and our programs break down the physical, financial and attitudinal barriers that keep young people with disabilities from participating fully in their communities.

KEEN can make a huge difference for a child with challenging health and/or behavioral issues and their family or caregivers, not only by giving the child a rewarding day of fun and exercise, but by introducing the child to a program that can provide years of healthy and fun activities not available elsewhere in the community.

In addition to the one-to-one volunteer coaches supporting each athlete, all KEEN programs are run and managed by committed volunteers, thereby eliminating costly overhead and empowering a corps of extraordinary volunteers. Our volunteers are mostly young professionals and students from local high schools and universities who are committed to KEEN and its athletes and spend thousands of hours each year planning, developing and running different programs. Our volunteers’ motivation comes from the athletes themselves, who make KEEN volunteers feel needed and irreplaceable. Thanks to the special relationship between volunteers and athletes, KEEN volunteers are able to look at life from a different perspective and discover a new meaning for the word “success,” challenge themselves to be more patient, open-minded, sensitive to the needs of others and welcoming of diversity.
There will also be one staff member assigned to oversee the volunteer work and leadership.