Rising up in Harlem, Antoine Noble says basketball was the whole lot to him. He performed via highschool on the Frederick Douglass Academy and went on to obtain a scholarship to play at Keuka School, which is about an hour southeast of Rochester, however a knee harm pressured him to enter the enterprise facet of sports activities. As a basketball aficionado with a love of his neighborhood, he had an curiosity in youth improvement and giving again to children.
After graduating from SUNY Delhi in 2012, he and his associates started organizing free tournaments for the children in Harlem at Riverbank State Park. Offering a chance for youths to have a free and protected house to assist them to keep away from bother has been central to Noble’s work in his skilled profession and got here out of a necessity he seen in the neighborhood, in comparison with his upbringing.
“I wished it to be accessible to learners and individuals who have been taking part in, as a result of more often than not, learners shrink back if the talent degree was too excessive,” stated Noble, 36.
In 2020, he and his three fellow board members developed We Obtained Subsequent (WGX), a nonprofit offering youth in underserved areas of NYC a free and protected house to play sports activities and develop each life expertise and lecturers. Noble serves as CEO. Though it was open to all children ages 6–18, he stated his workforce wished to give attention to the children who by no means would have the alternatives to play in any other case.
“I wished to essentially give attention to these children that by no means made groups and by no means had the chance to play organized sports activities, as a result of there are such a lot of children that may make a basketball workforce,” Noble stated. “I wished to ensure that they nonetheless had someplace to go as effectively, in order that they didn’t simply find yourself being within the streets or turned away.”
This system operates out of a number of colleges and neighborhood facilities, primarily serving college students within the South Bronx and Harlem. Noble’s group additionally made certain this system can be utterly free as a result of basketball tournaments and different after-school applications typically require mother and father to pay.
“For these 5 years that we’ve been in enterprise, no child has needed to pay for something, and that’s actually extraordinary in terms of sports activities in New York lately, however we’ve saved the whole lot free,” Noble stated. Youngsters additionally obtain lunch throughout the Saturday classes hosted by the nonprofit.
This system focuses on three “M’s”: mindfulness, through which they take children via meditation earlier than a basketball session; motion via the sports activities serving to them construct teamwork and camaraderie; and matriculation, through which they give attention to encouraging educational efficiency. College students can take part in clinics and in addition check out to hitch the official WGX Boys and Ladies groups.
In 2022, the She Obtained Subsequent initiative got here out of WGX. It allowed extra younger ladies to turn into concerned in this system. Starting that 12 months, ladies’ groups shaped for the primary time.
“Our woman clinics for She Obtained Subsequent have been averaging about 20 to 30 ladies on a nightly [basis] and we had ladies coming all the best way to the Bronx from Brooklyn to take part on this, as a result of there weren’t too many alternatives on the market for them to do these sorts of issues,” Noble stated.
“For us, simply seeing a few of these ladies nonetheless are available this system and so they’re in highschool now, it’s a testomony to them wanting a protected place to be and to proceed taking part in, and even a few of them that didn’t need to proceed to play, they arrive and so they assist out,” he continued.
In 2021, WGX started increasing to different sports activities and actions, together with flag soccer, kickball, soccer, and dance and step lessons. Past sports activities, different applications give attention to educational enrichment, through which audio system and volunteers train programs on STEM and different fields. Additionally they have a barber and cosmetology mentoring program. In the summertime, college students in WGX can take part in this system with the chance to journey and participate in tournaments. The boys’ workforce reached the USA Basketball Open in Indiana in 2022, putting fourth.
At the moment, WGX serves as much as 120 children and companions with colleges within the Bronx and Harlem similar to New Design Center Faculty and Accion Academy, and neighborhood facilities just like the Sonia Sotomayor Middle, to ship the programming after faculty and on Saturdays. They function contractors for the areas, however wish to increase within the New York Division of Youth and Improvement and turn into their very own after-school program.
Noble now works with WGX full-time and is actively working to construct extra partnerships with Division of Training colleges, constitution colleges, and sponsors, and lift funds via donations and grants. Up to now, they’ve acquired awards from firms similar to Dick’s Sporting Items and Entire Meals. They wish to elevate $100,000 to put money into the group, together with paying for applications, meals, and tools for college students, in addition to paying coaches and employees.
Noble stated they wish to “keep the course” to proceed to construct out WGX.
To search out extra details about WGX or to provide help, go to their web site.
