Growing Kings Received a $10,000 Grant from the National Basketball Players Association Foundation

Growing Kings, an organization that provides mentoring programs to underserved males in public schools throughout the Birmingham region, is pleased to announce it has received a $10,000 grant from the National Basketball Players Association Foundation (NBPA Foundation). This grant was awarded as part of the NBPA Foundation’s commitment to build and inspire communities in order to create meaningful change worldwide.

Growing Kings, founded in 2009, targets many of the issues plaguing today’s underserved male youth through its school-based enrichment and mentoring program series, Journey of a King.  The program has been able to engage over 1,500 boys and young men through its innovative, culturally relevant programming, and has also recorded long-term impact with 100% of the students who have been involved with the Journey of a King program for at least three years.

“The National Basketball Players Association Foundation’s contribution to Growing Kings is critical to ensuring that our students are provided with the tools and support needed to improve their academic and behavioral outcomes,” said Executive Director, Marcus D. Carson. “We are grateful for the continued investment of the NBPA Foundation; their support directly impacts some of our city’s most vulnerable youth by increasing the protective factors in their life.”

The Journey of a King mentoring program engages five hundred, 4th-12th grade boys and young men every week of the school year, who participate in 1,000 hours of comprehensive mentoring and enrichment sessions. This grant directly supports the 4th and 5th-grade students in the Prince Charming literacy and mathematics segment within the Journey of a King program series. The Prince Charming program curriculum provides students with annual subscriptions to National Geographic for Kids and Sports Illustrated for Kids magazines, and become members of their class’s NBA Math Hoops team.