With an organizational mission of creating healthier lives for those facing racial, gender, and economic inequalities, Shooting Touch, like many health institutions, has been faced with an unfathomable amount of responsibility amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased demand has resulted in immense adversity, yet has brought our staff and beneficiaries closer together than ever before. During the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Shooting Touch stayed mission-focused and pivoted to the best of our abilities, adapting to bring about compassionate and impactful work while keeping our athletes and their families safe and healthy. With so many unknowns over the past several year, one thing is for certain: the Shooting Touch Family always pushes on to support the needs of our participants.

Rwanda Program

1. Providing Tangible Health When It's Needed Most: Health threats persist and widespread financial insecurity has left many of our Rwandan beneficiaries in a threatening situation. Shooting Touch has adapted regular programming to meet the immediate needs of our players, provided 7,500 individuals in 2020 with health insurance annually, organized 5 days of NCD health screenings (1,000+ screened), supplied food items and PPE where needed, and financially supported our co-ops to assist community interventions. Today, those impact number have continued to rise - check out 2021-2022 Annual Report to learn more.

2. Partnering At The Community Level: Shooting Touch understands that we cannot tackle this pandemic alone. Collaborating at the community level, Shooting Touch donated $1,000 to support our friends on the front lines at Partners and Health, spread our messages concerning the importance of at-home exercise and mental health coping mechanisms via Radio Ibiza (reaching 15,000+ listeners), invited young girls from Africa Yoga Project to join our annual Female Empowerment Course, and organized 5, community-wide, NCD health screening days (1,000+ screened).

3. Keeping our Kids Active and Informed: Opening, closing, and re-opening phases in Rwanda have been difficult on our kids' mental balance. Yearning for consistency and safe, social interactions, Shooting Touch is turning to our boys and girls to facilitate our Youth-Ambassador System. Whether we are cleared to meet in socially distanced, non-contact exercise groups or not, our kids are operating within COVID protocols to relay sport and health information between their teams, keeping their friends in sufficient mental and physical shape.

4. Educating Via The Buddy System: With the courts closed, Shooting Touch turned to our trusty women basketball players, hiring 60 women team captains to relay information regarding health, fitness, and mindfulness, via phone calls, to all of our families in rural parts of Rwanda. Over 8,000 calls were conducted throughout 2020 and 2021, reaching 1,000+ individuals on a weekly basis. From COVID-19 information, to breaking stigmas surrounding HIV or mental health, to gender-based violence education and resources, Shooting Touch's beneficiary-led model has kept those we love, and care deeply about, informed and supported during the most difficult year in recent history.

Boston Program

1. Shooting Touch University (STU) - STU, our developmental basketball program for girls in grades 3-8, provided virtual fitness and basketball skills twice per week, as well as weekly virtual enrichment sessions. In addition to virtual programming, STU's hybrid model provided participants with 1-2 in-person weekly skill development trainings.

2. AAU the Right Way - With competitive tournaments coming to a halt in 2020 due to COVID, our teams continued to work hard, attended in-person skill development sessions with our Director of Basketball Operations, as well as weekly virtual fitness sessions with our Strength and Conditioning Coach.

3. Health Lessons - During the hybrid program period, Shooting Touch participants received virtual weekly health lessons. In collaboration with Brigham and Women's and UMASS Amherst, Shooting Touch participants received nutrition lessons from a licensed dietician and were provided 20+ hour long sessions on healthy coping strategies for stress and anxiety from a PhD student and mental health professional.

4. Team Building - Shooting Touch participants stayed engaged with their teams through weekly team building and trivia nights. These nights, open to both AAU and STU participants, offered a sense of comfort and camaraderie during this isolating time.

5. Speaker Series - Shooting Touch launched a monthly Virtual Speaker Series, in which Shooting Touch participants and families interacted with powerful women leaders on topics ranging from female empowerment and breaking barriers to mental health and nutrition. Speakers have included Allison Feaster from the Boston Celtics, UCONN player and founder of WAKE, Batouly Camara and WNBA player, Shey Peddy.

6. College/Career Readiness/Interns - All Shooting Touch participants have access to college and career readiness nights throughout the year, in which admissions counselors, coaches and advisors gathered on a virtual platform to provide information and education regarding pathways to post-secondary success. To build upon this education, Shooting Touch is continuing to provide two paid summer internships, exclusively reserved for Shooting Touch high school participants and/or alumni to gain professional experience with the Shooting Touch Boston program.

7. Mentorship - All Shooting Touch participants have the opportunity to join our asSISt mentorship program, where younger players are matched with older players for peer-to-peer mentoring. This program, held virtually during the pandemic, takes participants through our mentorship curriculum, where participants learn about themselves while gaining self-esteem and confidence through a safe and supportive environment.