Impact Report
2023
Table of Contents 01
02
03
04
05
06
Letter from Directors
Our 2023 Programs
Our Story
Financials
Our 2023 Goals
Acknowledgements
Dear Friends,
2023 was our fourth full year as an official 501(c)3 organization, and what an year of growth it was! This year alone, over 1,000 youth experienced the joy of learning a new sport, we saw 100% of our senior class graduate high school, and we won our first competitive travel tournament. We have a lot to celebrate! All of these accomplishments have been made possible because of our community's support and belief in the value of lacrosse as an avenue to success. As an organization, 2023 was all about creating pathways: pathways to success, pathways to new types of play, pathways to creating new friendships, pathways to academic success. This was our second year operating all of our programs at full capacity, and we are looking forward to including new offerings in the years to come. Our mission to unify Detroit's youth through the values of the sport of lacrosse drives us to work harder, improve our programming, and continue to expand our relationships within our community. As we look back on 2023, we are proud of the growth we've been able to achieve because to the amazing support of our community funders and volunteers. Thank you for all your love and support. We are looking forward to many more years of playing, learning, and growing the game together. With Gratitude,
Christianne Malone Christianne Malone President 2023 Annual Report
SummerAldred Summer Aldred Executive Director 03
Our Story Our Mission Use the sport of lacrosse to unify the youth of Detroit’s neighborhoods by promoting academic & character education, personal development and pathways to prosperity, instilling the values of the sport: respect, honor, courage, and integrity.
Overview The Detroit United Lacrosse Association was co-founded in April of 2019 out of need for high school training programs and the grand vision of making lacrosse accessible to every child in the city of Detroit and surrounding neighborhoods. Since then, we have provided lacrosse instruction for over 2,000 youth and adults through our programs. Our program range from our recreational lacrosse program, Detroit City Recreational Lacrosse, to our academic support programming, to our Adult Lacrosse Leagues, to the Detroit United Panthers middle school and high school travel lacrosse program exposing our youth to collegiate recruiting opportunities. 2023 was filled with exciting growth and events, including an event with the GET TO Foundation and AU Pro Lizzie Colson and a Premier Lacrosse League clinic event with professional players Jarrod Neumann and Romar Dennis. We can't wait to see what 2024 holds!
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In 2023 alone, over 1,000 youth and adults have experienced the joy of lacrosse through our programs.
Our 2023 Goals We envision Detroit becoming the model city for the growth of lacrosse through its community of support, and its development of student leaders who uphold the virtues of the game, on the field and in life. Our goals for 2023 were centered around this vision, by pushing our existing programs forward and developing new ones to fill any gaps in our existing framework.
Display excellence in our high school program
Operate robust academic support programming
Expand to 6 recreation centers for our rec program
Our longest standing program, to increase in our level of play in 2023 displaying the skill and commitment of our players. We are happy to say that our Varsity Panthers team won their first two tournaments in organization history at Summer Showdown in St. Joseph, Michigan and Boo Bash in Oxford, Michigan. This was an incredible milestones. 2023 also saw us have the most collegiate commitments at 6. 100% of our senior class graduated high school and matriculated into a college/university.
Through our partnership with Wayne State University, 97 youth between kindergarten and senior year received academic support through the Warriors United Tutoring Program, seeing a 54% increase in participation from it’s inaugural year in 2022. We also were able to give MSTEP Prep to our upperelementary and middle school students in alignment with our goal to increase our student’s academic performance. In 2024, we look to continue and expand our academic offerings.
We successfully able to operate six locations in the summer of 2023. We reached our goal participation numbers at 4 out of the 6 sites (50 athletes per site), which is a 26% increase from 2022. We reached 218 youth across the sites. In our post program survey, we found that: 100% of respondents found the program to be a positive experience 100% felt the staff created a safe environment 97% plan to continue playing lacrosse
2023 Annual Report
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Our 2023 Programs Due to an increase in financial and volunteer capacity, we were able to expand our offerings to include lacrosse programming for ages 3 to adults. Here is an overview of the programs offered in 2023.
Program
Details
Outcome
Results
Detroit City Recreational Lacrosse
Recreation centerbased program for youth between ages 3-15
218 youth participated between 6 rec centers
3,600 minutes of exercise per child.
Detroit United Panthers
Competitive lacrosse program for middle & high school aged athletes
103 middle & high school youth competed across the state
Every senior received at least one athletic scholarship offer.
Summer Camps
Partnered with 5 organizations across the city to provide lacrosse to their summer camps
562 summer camper learned to play lacrosse for the first time
100% return rate to camps from 2022 to 2023.
Academic Support
Free tutoring 2 times a week in partnership with Wayne State University
97 students took advantage of free academic services
100% of students felt more prepared for their classes.
Adult Leagues
Weekly games for lacrosse players ages 16+
36 players from across southeastern MI hit the field again
Over 30% of participants become volunteers for our youth programming.
Financials Our increase in grant funding allowed us to operate each of our programs smoothly, while making larger equipment purchases that will last our organization for year to come. We were able to employ 34 high-school & college students to coach our summer camps, clinics, and recreational lacrosse program. Earned Revenue 12.5%
Staff Payment 17% Operations 30%
Individual donations 36.7%
Programming 53%
Grants 50.8%
Revenue
Expenses $147,019.34
$155,273.18 We are grateful for our funders this year that made our programming possible: Project Play: Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan Dicks Sporting Good Foundation Get To Foundation Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency ReLax Collections PLL Assists And all of our individual donors that made our programming possible
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Thank you to our donors! We are grateful for our funders this year that made our programming possible: Project Play: Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan NeighborHUB Dicks Sporting Good Foundation Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency ReLax Collections PLL Assists And all of our individual donors that made our programming possible Alexandra Davenport Alicia Bradford Allison Allouche Andrew Bowen Angela Simms Annie Anderson Anonymous Arther & Gayle Birtcher Balintfy Family Barbara & Marc Arens Betsy Maclean Bob & Kathleen Little Brendan Shinavier Candy Brant Chris Czuprnski Christian Vanover Dana Williams Danielle Astondebonde Danielle Vermeer David Swartz Denise Humphrey Elena Waugh Ethan Frank Garrett Riley Jason Jarjosa
Jennifer Smith Josh Ehart Josh Howell Julie Rogers Kaia Slater Kate Baker Kelly DeSantos Lauren Karmo Marvel Sims Matthew Churchwell Matthew Kostus Megan Minturn Melissa Samuels Paquenia Beard Peter Schreck Rebecca Woloszyn Renee Fluker Robert & Wendy Anderson Shawn Solon Stella Nolan Steven Willman Susan Letzmann Timothy Prichard William Simms William Zimmer 07
Acknowledgements We would like to take the time to thank our tireless team of volunteers and staff that make our programming possible. Christina Arens, DeShaun Ormond, Tyra Saverson, Adrienne Anderson, Lauren Karmo, Jeff Sebestian, Emily Chisholm, Lily Baumann, and many others. And thank you to the Detroit community for taking a risk in 2023 by trying something new.
Thank you to our individuals donors, Dicks Sporting Goods Foundation, Project Play, Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan, NeighborHUB, & Wayne County Metro for your financial support in 2023. Report prepared by Summer Aldred, Executive Director.
Contact Us www.detroitunitedlacrosse.org
248-915-5691
chris@detroitunitedlacrosse.org OR
2470 Collingwood St, Suite 329
summer@detroitunitedlacrosse.org
Detroit, MI 48206
@detroitunitedlacrosse