lost boyz inc. annual report 2015

LOST

BOYZ INC. 20

15 ANNUAL R

EPORT

RECRE

ATE. E

DUCATE.

CULTIVAT

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2Lost Boyz Inc 2015 Annual Report

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Hello Family and Friends,

I am very pleased that you chose to continue to support our efforts of demon-

strating that positive youth development does reduce violence. More than

achieving our mission and furthering our vision, I am deeply humbled by the

way we impact the lives of youth and adult. 2015 overall was our best year yet;

we did more with less, we furthered our reach to children in the community,

and we strengthened our organization. Although our operating budget was

$45,000, we were organizationally and programmatically able to accomplish

everything we set out to do with about $35,000 in revenue and not a single

paid staff member. Imagine what we could really do with the right financial

investments in Lost Boyz.

Last year we set out to host five teams, including expanding our program to

girls with fast pitch softball, and sponsor ten youth leaders for a total of 85

kids; we ended up serving 66 youth. This year we added a second girls’ team

and served over 90 youth from South Shore, mostly from generational families

in the community. From a pedagogical perspective, that is huge. Our reach

was even greater because of the multiplier effect – the children were inspired

and in turn, our children had a positive impact on family members, friends,

and people in and out of South Shore.

I am proud of the hard work of all of our volunteers, youth, and parents.

In the neighborhood, on the field, and everywhere else our members exhibit-

ed tremendous respect for others, appreciation for knowledge, and a stalwart

demonstration of service to others. Next year, 2016, has me overly excited with

expectations reaching the heavens. This year we want to serve even more kids,

perform better on the field, provide greater augmentation of scholastic enrich-

ment, and make “Lost Boyz” synonymous with the word SUCCESS.

We have appreciated your commitment, dedication, and loyalty, and we look

forward to having it again in this next year.

Warm Regards,

LaVonté Stewart Sr.


ABOUT LOST BOYZ INC.

Founded in September of 2008

by LaVonté Stewart Sr., Lost Boyz

Inc. is a non-for-profit, grass-roots

organization engaged in commu-

nity development within Chicago’s

South Shore neighborhood. Our

organization services youth ages

4 to 17 through our various pro-

grams from February until August

of every year. Our target popula-

tion is focused primarily on ultra

high-risk youth, incarcerated youth,

alienated youth, low income youth,

and abused youth. As a result of

our efforts since 2008, over 220

children from the South Shore

community and 32 children de-

tained in the Illinois Youth Center

(IYC) have stayed trouble free for a

range of four to nine months while

occupied with our athletic and

youth leadership activities.

Our organization originated in

the South Shore neighborhood

as a direct response to the need

for the revitalization of organized

youth baseball in the community.

However, an organizational vision

and mission greater than providing

baseball developed as a result of

the spike in adolescent violence,

CPS student murders, increased

criminal activity, police harassment,

and other astonishing deteriorat-

ing social conditions of the youth

in the community.

Lost Boyz Inc. mission is to de-

crease violence, improve the social

and emotional conditions, and pro-

vide financial opportunities among

the youth in Chicago’s South Shore

community. With baseball train-

ing and competitive participation

as our core driver, our mission is

achieved through high-intensity

mentoring and support, interven-

tion, and social entrepreneurship

business activities. We also in-

corporate diversity and cultural

cultivation, service learning, civic

engagement, athletic and youth

employment. We use this combi-

nation of programming and direct

interaction to positively and per-

manently influence and impact the

lives of school age youth, resulting

in life-altering character develop-

ment, positive behavior change,

and improved decision making.

Lost Boyz Inc.’s vision for the future

is a renewed and continuous provi-

sion of opportunities to participate

in organized little league for the

South Shore neighborhood’s at

risk youth and a fully developed

youth-driven economic redevelop-

ment program. As the result of an

“earn as you learn” approach, at

risk youth would display improved

social relations, scholastic aptitude,

and trade skills development. This

approach would promote econom-

ic reconstitution among younger

generations of poor communities

by establishing several communi-

ty-vested, youth driven venues to

attract new external revenue and

revive non-residential consumer

activity through the provision of

quality service and product.

OUR MISSION OUR VISION


LOST BOYZ TEAM + HIGHLIGHTS

BOARD OFDIRECTORS

THIS YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS

YOUTH ATHLETICCOACHES

President & Chairman

LaVonté Stewart

Treasurer

Jataun Martin

Secretary

Jocelyn Vana

Board Director

Jordan Hadelman

Board Director

Robert Williams

Lady Bolts & Lady Thunder

Brenda Scott, Caitlin Robinson,

Lee Smith

Patriots

LaVonté Stewart

Reds

Russ Pfeifle

Royals

Daniel Kirk

White Sox

Cooper Thompson,

Glen Ducharme

We were awarded the Springboard grant!

As part of Chicago Community Trust, a Springboard grant is often awarded

as part of a multi-year, long-term relationship intended to help the grantee

enhance its organizational stability and expand its reach. We are so excited

to start this partnership and cannot wait to expand our impact even further.

Cook-Illinois Corporation donated a school bus!

When Chicago Sun-Times reported Mary Mitchell wrote about our orga-

nization in the paper, we had no idea what joys the article would bring. In

the article, LaVonté discussed the organization’s struggles to transport our

youth to/from games when parental involvement began to decline; this

particularly affects the older youth. Cook-Illinois read the article and

decided to help out by donating a 70+ passenger size bus.

We held our First Annual General Meeting!

To end the year and let our supporters know just how well it went, we

decided to host our first ever annual general meeting. During the meeting,

we were honored to award Secretary of State Jesse White with our Human-

itarian of the Year Award for his community involvement with youth

and baseball.


WINTER CLINIC

The biggest highlight was the

service learning / civic project in

which we collaborated with the

Chicago Police Department 4th

District to address police brutality.

In light of the heightened dis-

course concerning black males and

law enforcement and rising Black

Lives Matter movement across the

country, we set out to improve the

relationships between our youth

and their community police offi-

cers. More than 5 officers from the

4th district participated by showing

up to have active and open dis-

cussions with our participants

about what was happening around

the nation. The children were

able to comfortably express their

deepest concerns and impressions,

while yet entertaining different

approaches to responding to

police through role playing and

advising sessions with the police.

All service learning projects must

end with an action, and in this case

the youth created a multimedia

presentation to capture what they

had learned and to express how

they felt about it.

As an example of the impact of

this project, we became privy to an

incident that one of our teenage

participants had with local officers.

One young man was approached

on a weekday evening by local

officers, and out of fear he took off

running. When the officers caught

him they asked him why he ran,

and his response was that “he was

afraid because of the Mike Brown

situation that happened in Fergu-

son”. The young man then began

to explain that he was a ball player

with Lost Boyz and spoke about

the project with the police; he

further mentioned that one of their

officer colleagues was one of his

baseball coaches. When the offi-

cers were able to confirm his story

they immediately service learning

created a major impact – we suc-

cessfully improved the relationship

between our participants and the

local officers.

WINTER CLINIC was

very successful. With an

average attendance of

25 CHILDREN

on any given day, youth

improved drastically across

various indicators including

SPEED, STRENGTH, BASEBALL KNOWLEDGE, DISCIPLINE, WORK ETHIC, AND SKILL. Participants spent over

10 HOURS

a week receiving tutoring

and baseball training,

and working on their

service learning project.


MVP SPRING TRAINING & SUMMER PROGRAM

The second phase of the program

is MVP Spring Training & Summer

Program, which moves from in-

doors to outdoors for 12 -14 weeks

of training and competitive play.

Here, all players are assessed by

a series of measures; new players

are drafted by an interested team

or lottery, and returning players are

either traded or returned to their

previous team.

From April until August, each team

plays approximately 30 games in

competitive play and faces teams

from the Chicagoland area. Addi-

tionally, players will again partici-

pate in Service Learning activities,

but will also participate in fun

outings, such as a trip to a White

Sox game.


ROYALS (AGES 4-7) END OF SEASON STATISTICS

# of Youth Served 7 kids served

Royals Win/Loss/Tie Record Everyone Wins!!

# of Hours Spent Practicing per Youth 12 Hours

Game Participation per Royal 8 Games/8 Hours

REDS (AGES 8-10) END OF SEASON STATISTICS


Reds Win/Loss/Tie Record 20/8/1, Rosemoor 12U League Champions! (3-1 playoffs)


Game Participation per Red 29 Games/58 Hours

TEAM STATISTICS


WHITE SOX (AGES 13-17) END OF SEASON STATISTICS

# of Youth Served 10 youth served

Yankees Win/Loss/Tie Record 1/10/0, (0-2 playoffs)


Game Participation per Yankee 11 Games/22 Hours

PATRIOTS (AGES 8-12) END OF SEASON STATISTICS


Patriots Win/Loss/Tie Record 3/17/1, (0-2 playoffs)


Game Participation per Patriot 21 Games/42 Hours

“THIS WAS AN INCREDIBLY EYE OPENING AND REWARDING EXPERIENCE WHERE I LEARNED AS MUCH ABOUT MYSELF AS I DID ABOUT THE KIDS AND THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD.” -COACH GLEN


LADY THUNDER (AGES 11-14) END OF SEASON STATISTICS

# of Youth Served 10 Youth served

Lady Thunder Win/Loss/Tie Record 0/10/0, No Playoffs


Game Participation per Thunder 10 Games/20 Hours

LADY BOLTS (AGES 8-10) END OF SEASON STATISTICS

# of Youth Served 10 Youth served

Lady Bolts Win/Loss/Tie Record 6/10/0, (0-2 playoffs)


Game Participation per Bolt 16 Games/32 Hours


FY 2015 EXPENSESOCTOBER 1ST, 2014 - SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2015

FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR FY 2015

Program Income 4%

Board Dues 7%

Fundraising 8%

Grants & Corporate Sponsorship 32%

Individual Contributions 18%

In-Kind gifts 31%

REVENUE…….……..……..……..……..……..……..…..……..……..……..………....……....…....…....…...$39,457

OPERATING EXPENSES……..……..……..….…..……..……..…...…..……..…..…..…..…...……..….........$26,438

YEAR-END SURPLUS……..……..……..…….…..…......…..……..……..……..……..……….…..……..…....$13,019

Operating Expenses 3%

Professional Services 2%

Transporation 8%

Administrative 1%

Fundraising 6%

In-Kind Gifts 46%

Miscellaneous 1%

MVP Spring and Summer Program 33%

FY 2015 REVENUEOCTOBER 1ST, 2014 - SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2015


OUR PROGRAM SPONSORS AND PARTNERS

lost boyz inc. annual report 2015

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