NUSEA shares best practices, recruits great people, and provides resources for urban squash youth programs
Mission
The NUSEA mission is to promote squash and education among urban youth.
Overview
The National Urban Squash and Education Association (NUSEA) is an outgrowth of fifteen years of success of community-based urban squash and education programs. The organization was founded in June 2005 by Greg Zaff, George Polsky, Steve Gregg and Tim Wyant, the Executive Directors of SquashBusters, StreetSquash, SquashSmarts and CitySquash, respectively. With more than 25 years of direct program work among them, Greg, George, Steve and Tim were unified in their belief that it was time for urban squash to ‘go national’. Urban squash was excelling. New cities were clamoring to launch programs. Existing programs were missing out on the opportunity to formally share knowledge and learn from one another. Best practices, while implicitly understood, had not been explicitly defined and evaluated. There existed no organized blueprint or structure for doing any of this important work.
NUSEA serves all of these functions, acting as the catalyst, organizer, and overseer of urban squash’s improvement and growth. Four ways that NUSEA adds value are to author a Best Practices guidebook, provide challenge and membership grants, develop national measurement criteria, and host learning retreats for program staff and board members. Additionally, NUSEA sponsors and coordinates its two national squash tournaments: the Urban Team and Urban Individual Championships.
NUSEA’s ultimate aim is to oversee the creation and longevity of many urban squash programs so that thousands of young people across America benefit every day from our athletic, educational and community enrichment activities.
Any American city is invited to join NUSEA by developing an urban squash and education program that meets NUSEA’s membership criteria. There are two types of membership: Provisional and Full. Provisional membership is granted to a program for its first full year of operation under NUSEA guidelines. Full membership is granted to a program for its second and subsequent years of operation under NUSEA guidelines. Programs granted provisional membership are given a one-year grant of $10,000. After twelve months elapse from the time a program becomes a Provisional member, it may apply in writing to become a Full member of NUSEA. A site visit is conducted and, if full membership is granted, the program receives a final grant of $5,000.
Programs must be either a Provisional or Full member to participate in the Urban Team and Urban Individual Squash Championships. All member programs are visited at least once per year by NUSEA and formally reviewed each year.
