William Trippley Youth Development Foundation

Our mission is to enrich all children’s lives by giving them opportunities to develop their cognitive intelligence, open their hearts, learn new skills, and rediscover hope.

The Trippley Foundation carves out space for children to freely express themselves, be challenged, and acquire the necessary tools to thrive and create a promising future. We reach out to children who are impacted by loss and violence, to give them an outlet to share experiences with children of similar backgrounds.

Children who can engage with challenges can achieve much more than those who cannot. Research shows that by providing children with the right tools, a growth mindset can be taught, forging resilience. Our in-person and virtual soccer and grief counseling programs foster the development of a growth mindset.

Teach A Growth Mindset

Our programs incorporate the Theory of Growth Mindset, providing children with tools to be resilient in the face of challenges.

Based on Stanford professor Carol Dweck's research, Growth Mindset theory encourages rewarding process and effort rather than only the result. Kids use the FESPI approach to evaluate their Focus, Effort, Strategies, Perseverance, and Improvement. This framework helps them to meet challenges and learn from them, rather than giving up.

Program Development and Delivery

- We will use qualified local, national, and international partners to facilitate program development and delivery.
- We will achieve positive outcomes through youth sports programs and a grief camp
- We will continue to integrate technology platforms to deliver quality programs beyond our region.
- We will continue to outperform our small size by actively seeking and effectively managing volunteer resources.

We have the capability to:

- Develop, fund, and maintain effective, research-directed youth programs
- Deliver the same programs in-person and online
- Establish and maintain regional partnerships
- Combine research-based techniques for youth learning with soccer coaching and grief counseling
- Hold down costs and create value by managing multiple targeted volunteer projects
- Reach far beyond our local area with online programs

The Trippley Foundation has created two unique and successful programs to support children who have been impacted by loss and/or violence.

Soccer Program

Our Chester City United program combines high-level soccer coaching with Growth Mindset tools to help kids learn soccer and develop resilient skills to help them in school and in life.

The program has served thousands of children in the Philadelphia area since 2006.

COVID-19 caused us to move the program online in 2020, so we provided an innovative soccer program utilizing the Zoom videoconferencing tool with the popular FIFA soccer game on the Xbox and PlayStation platforms. This new program successfully served our local region and attracted a new international audience, kids from places like Hong Kong.

Coming out of the Pandemic we have turned our focus back to serving those directly within our community. Our in-person soccer program relaunched in the Fall of 2022 and saw amazing growth among participants. Players ranging from the ages 8-12 participated in practices twice a week, with an intrasquad scrimmage on the weekends.

Camp Encouragement

Following a dark time and seeking to provide a counseling opportunity for other families dealing with loss, Will Trippley’s mother and our chairperson, Pat, went back to school to get her master’s degree and developed the Camp Encouragement model.

Camp Encouragement has evolved significantly since its founding in 2016, from three half-day sessions to five full days, then into the first-ever virtual camp. Over 150 campers have participated in many enriching creative experiences, including yoga, chess, journaling, and horseback riding.

What’s Next?

Taking the lessons that we've learned through our relaunch into a post-pandemic world, the Trippley Foundation is excited to begin branching into new territories to continue increasing our local impact.

We are expanding our Camp Encouragement model to offer monthly programs to both children and parents who are dealing with the loss of a loved one. Additionally, we are actively discussing partnerships with local schools to be able to offer grief counseling services directly to students during school hours.

Chester City United has officially moved on from only being offered in the fall, with weekly indoor training now occurring weekly. We also will begin offering a spring season as new players continue to join the program.