YBP students in baseball warmups

Youth Baseball

DEAEF YBP rgb 2000 sq
DEF 70

Inspire Youth with Healthy and Drug-Free Messages

By reaching out to America’s schools and under the well-established DEA Educational Foundation (DEAEF), the DEAEF Youth Baseball Program (YBP) will inspire youth with healthy and drug-free messages, and encourage them to exercise and to focus on positive training and discipline through the activity of baseball. Additionally, the YBP will provide opportunities for children and teens to serve as role models to their peers, and to participate with other youth as they explore with strong mentors areas of peer-pressure, self-esteem building, and decision-making.

Founded/Pilot Program

The Youth Baseball Program was established by the DEA Educational Foundation in 2019, and piloted in 5 cities. After a successful pilot program, the YBP expanded to include 9 cities in the 2020-2021 school year. Now, in 2024 the Baseball program is reaching nearly 1,000+ youth in 20 cities. In the DEA Educational Foundation’s many endeavors to reach the American public about the dangers of drugs, it will use baseball as a vehicle to reach out to youth across the nation with this message of the importance of focusing on healthy activities and remaining drug-free. The program will also bring a valuable and uniquely youth friendly side to DEA and open doors to grassroots community programs, centers and schools. In addition to local DEA agents and community baseball organizations working with the children as mentors,

DEA agents and the DEA Educational Foundation will come to local schools to speak to children about the dangers of drugs and the importance of healthy decisions. The program will serve all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as both boys and girls.

 

NYC students practice baseball skills. NYC students practice baseball skills. Coach Rick leads warmups in Bay Mills, MI Coach Pete leads warmups in Bay Mills, MI

Curriculum

The long-term goal of the YBP is to increase resistance against drugs and accompanying violence, while focusing on healthy behaviors in community schools throughout the nation. We use the tagline “Strike Out Drugs'' to get kids excited about our mission with a clear stance that we want to eradicate drug abuse. This is accomplished by offering students in grades 3-8 the opportunity to participate in an alternative activity: baseball. This is achieved through a number of steps:

  1. Drug Awareness assembly at a local school;
  2. Opportunity to play baseball with mentors (including all needed supplies) at a local field for ten or twenty week sessions or specialized workshops;
  3. Possible class trip to a baseball game; and
  4. Scholarships in local baseball programs (such as Little League).

In each city, the DEAEF will partner with a local, underserved school and provide an educational assembly, the opportunity for 15 kids to sign up for weekly baseball lessons and practices (including transportation to field), a special opportunity to see a game played in their community and a scholarship to one or more keenly interested students to play in a local league or a hybrid of virtual classroom and in-person classes.

Program Staff

The YBP and several other DEAEF Youth Programs operating under the same model as the YDP could not be operated and managed without our dedicated staff.

  • Youth Baseball National Director, Multi Region Coach

    Rick Zeitlin

    Youth Baseball National Director, Multi Region Coach
    Read Full Bio
  • Regional Manager and Multi Region Coach

    Pete Harbolick

    Regional Manager and Multi Region Coach
    Read Full Bio

2023-24 DEAEF YBP Cities

  • Athens, MI
  • Chicago, IL
  • Cleveland, OH
  • Dover, DE
  • Elgin, IL
  • El Paso, TX*
  • Kalamazoo, MI
  • Kent, WA*
  • Los Angeles, CA
  • New York, NY
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Richmond, VA
  • Riverside, CA
  • Seattle, WA
  • Spokane, WA
  • St. Louis, MO*
  • Toledo, OH*
  • Washington D.C.
  • Wellpinit, WA
  • Wilmington, DE

* 2024 Projected Cities

Your Support Is Needed

The DEAEF YBP is currently seeking funding for expansion to meet a waiting list of schools wanting to implement the Youth Baseball Program. If you would like to be a part of our efforts to offer a positive alternative to kids, please contact us.

Contact & Inquiries

Nationwide Impact

2023
  • 665 students

    in 16 cities

2024
  • 4 new cities

    additional programming projected in El Paso, TX, Kent, WA, Toledo, OH, St. Louis, MO