Courageous Sailing Center for Youth, Inc.

Steps To Lead, Courageous’s summer sailing school, teaches sailing and more to over 400 children each year. Steps To Lead is free of charge to those in need; admission is need-blind, and fees are set on a sliding scale based on income. Steps To Lead is built on a five-"Step” curriculum that takes young sailors (aged 8-15) of all backgrounds from novice to expert over the course of seven or more summers. Each Step includes sailing instruction, environmental/science education, and a focus on social-emotional growth. As sailors progress through the Steps, they gain independence as they master skills, eventually having the opportunity to become Instructors-in-Training as teens. At Courageous, learning and mastering sailing encourages leadership and teamwork, nurtures stewardship of the marine environment, and builds positive life skills.

Courageous Sailing's Reach Initiative engages marginalized Boston youth through free, high-quality, multi-year learning experiences. The Initiative strives to eliminate barriers that have historically limited the participation of economically disadvantaged young people in sailing programs, and to support youth in building the academic and social-emotional skills they need for success in the classroom and beyond. It features Swim Sail Science (SSS), an intensive summer program described separately. The Initiative also encompasses tuition-free participation in Steps To Lead for SSS graduates; currently, approximately 70 graduates are participating at all levels of Steps To Lead, comprising between one-third and one-half of beginner and intermediate classes. Reach Initiative programs provide bus transportation and free meals; they are coordinated by the Director of Youth Programs and Outreach, whose background in social work allows Courageous to serve as a resource for students requiring more intensive support. Initiative programs include STEMSail—a fall after school program offered in partnership with BoSTEM, a collaborative striving to increase middle school students’ STEM understanding and enthusiasm—and a variety of school-year swimming, sailing, and science lessons for SSS participants, alumni, and other youth from underserved communities.

Swim Sail Science, the cornerstone of the Reach Initiative to serve the needs of Boston’s marginalized young people, is an intensive 5-week summer program for underserved rising 4th and 5th graders. The 2-year program combines sailing and swimming lessons with language arts, math, and science instruction by Boston Public School teachers. SSS is an exemplary site of Boston’s Summer Learning Academies, a collaborative of area summer programs working to ensure equitable access to summer learning opportunities. SSS utilizes a dynamic, multidisciplinary curriculum focused on environmental science. Each year, SSS serves approximately 60 Boston Public School students who are most vulnerable to the damaging, cumulative effects of summer learning loss, including those whose learning needs are not best served in a traditional classroom setting. Typically, well over half of SSS students live in households that earn less than $25,000, and approximately 85% earn below $50,000). Generally, over 85% of SSS students identify as members of ethnic minority groups. Most students hail from Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester, East Boston, and Chinatown. Extensive evaluation confirms that SSS is a high-quality program in which youth improve academically, become more confident and engaged with learning, and build critical life skills.

The Instructor-in-Training (IIT) program is a 7-week, 2-summer paid job training program. Here, a diverse group of 20-24 teens aged 15-18 make the transition from student to instructor, developing their abilities to communicate, teach, lead, and inspire the next generation of Courageous kids--while building transferable job skills. After a competitive application and interview process and 40 hours of staff training, IITs spend the summer perfecting their sailing skills, learning and practicing the basics of teaching and youth development, shadowing veteran instructors, leading on-land activities, and eventually taking charge of instructing a boat of 3 children. They also build professional skills through workshops on interviewing, public speaking, marine industry and education jobs, financial literacy, and more. Like the rest of our staff, IITs set and work on professional goals with formal opportunities to give and get feedback from a supervisor; they are coached, mentored, and supported as they develop as young professionals.