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Community Investors (CI) is a nonprofit with a mission to create “Positive Impactful Experiences (PIEs) that plant the seeds for mental and physical wellness and strengthen the emotional and social fabric of adolescents at a vital time in their lives,” as stated by co-founders, Joseph P. Roberts Jr. and Chris Cavallerano.
As part of their mission, CI hosted Dodgefest II, a free dodgeball event at Wellesley High School, on March 18. “The main focus of Dodgefest,” said Roberts and Cavallerano, was family fun and recreation.”
According to Roberts and Cavallerano, “recent trends in early adolescent behavior have lead to increased stress and less physical activity for middle and high schoolers. In, Wellesley, the most recent MetroWest Health survey showed a growing trend in self-reported stress at the middle school level over the last four years. Active autonomous play right after school has been shown to relieve stress and allow kids to be kids, thus setting them up to make more positive choices and be mentally and physically healthier.”
Wellesley Public Schools recently partnered with Denise Pope and the Success Challenge initiative, funded by Wellesley Education Foundation. Pope is the author of “Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students” (Yale University Press, 2001). Pope specifically mentioned CI in her presentation at WHS and emphasized how programs such as those offered by CI work directly with Success Challenge’s directives to provide time and value towards “playtime, downtime and family time.”
According to the CI founding duo, “Community Investors supports youth sports and recreation in a variety of ways in our community and beyond. We encourage positive recreation among middle school youth with the Straight Outta School Sports Club and the Teen Center. We support recreation and sports among kids of all ages by supporting local youth sports groups through the Community Sports Collaborative. We are an active sponsor and driver of recreational facility creation and improvement in Wellesley by being part of the Wellesley Field Fund initiative and going forward with upcoming projects such as improvements to the girl’s softball field and 900 Worcester St. In April 2017, we will be taking our dodgeball program on the road into Excel Charter school in East Boston to provide PIEs to their students, like the ones we provide here in Wellesley. To date, we have provided over 1,500 PIEs to Wellesley Youth. Also in April, we will be having State of Play II with Sam Kennedy and others to further our efforts to educate parents on the ever complex issues in youth sports.”
Furthermore, according to Roberts and Cavallerano, “we raise funds to support our mission in a number of ways. Dodgefest is our main Family Fun Fundraiser … And this year, we have a Marathon charity runner, Puneet Bhatia, a Wellesley dad who believes in our mission to help local youth with programs designed to help them lead healthier, happier lives.”
“2017 is Community Investors’ first year to have been selected as a Boston Marathon Charity and I am excited to running on their behalf!” said Bhatia. “As a parent of a young child, I am troubled by the mental health crisis faced by kids today. Community Investors is working on a local level to help kids de-stress by promoting physical, social and emotional wellness through the ‘Power of Play.’ CI’s first priority has been to create much needed after-school programs at our middle school that support opportunities for students to be active, socialize, and develop community and leadership values. Their programs are ‘play for all’; there are no fees, and it relies solely on the generosity of donations and sponsors.”
“As CI strives to build an organization to consistently serve our community and ultimately others,” said Roberts, “they need support to accomplish these important initiatives. Contributions fund the expenses required to create Positive Impactful Experiences in their programs; team shirts, equipment, field and facility fees, student and teacher coaching stipends and administrative support.”
Further information on upcoming events and CI initiatives - including videos and articles to demonstrate and support CI’s mission - can be found at www.communityinvestors.net.
