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July 8, 2022
Major League Baseball (MLB), in partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF), will address equity gaps in sports-based youth development, education, homelessness and military veterans’ issues as part of its 2022 All-Star Legacy initiative. MLB All-Star Week events commence July 15 in Los Angeles and legacy programs will be commemorated through July 18.
The 2022 All-Star Game on July 19 will mark the fourth time that the Dodgers will hold the Midsummer Classic. In combination with the 2020 All-Star Legacy commitment, the trio will have contributed more than $6 million to benefit non-profit organizations in LA following the game.
This year’s initiative – which also includes support of MLB national partners Jackie Robinson Foundation, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Stand Up to Cancer – will complement a full scope of community, youth and diversity and inclusion-focused programs. Efforts will also support military families, celebrate children with special needs and contribute to environmental sustainability practices. Local beneficiaries include Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro LA, Volunteers of America Los Angeles, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Baby2Baby and sports-based youth development organizations
The 2022 All-Star Legacy programs include:
- The All-Star Legacy scholarship fund will provide $10,000 scholarships to 10 recipients in its inaugural year and an additional 75 scholarships in the future. The scholarships will benefit graduating seniors from the Boys and Girls Clubs Metro LA in the College Bound and Future Pathways programs. In addition, the scholarship will support academic expenses at two- or four-year universities in Southern California and will be administered by the California Community Foundation.
- MLB, LADF and the Dodgers will provide four million meals and 127,000 basic essential items for youth and families in order to address the 1 in 4 children in LA who live in poverty and the 1 in 5 Angelenos who don’t know where their next meal will come from. These essentials will be available weekly at 15 LA school locations and will support 3000 students and their families. The program utilizes the LA Regional Food Bank’s Backpack program, which alleviates hunger for children who rely on school meals. Each student will also receive a Baby2Baby basic essentials kit, which includes resources such as hygiene items, soap and PPE supplies.
- Studies show that 67% of youth have suffered at least one traumatic event by age 16, a number that increases for youth in low-income communities. The immediate need for quality, trauma-informed coaches is underscored by MLB, the Dodgers and LADF who have made a multi-year investment to enhance and expand the quality of sports-based development programming in LA communities by supporting coaching mentorship, training and recruitment efforts. This program will also include efforts from Up2Us Sports, Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport, Positive Coaching Alliance and Dodgers Training Academy, with support from Nike. Through this program, the goal is to expand paid coach mentor positions from 30 to 75 by 2025, recruit 1500 coaches by 2024, train 1500 coaches in trauma-sensitive sport development practices by 2024 and develop a first-of-its-kind coach playbook.
- With the LA home to the largest concentration of homeless veterans in the country, the entities will also support a $500,000 renovation of the Transition House (T-House). The 20,000-square-foot facility provides services to homeless veterans – including meals, emergency shelter beds, life skills classes and group therapy – to ensure a successful transition to longer-term permanent supportive housing.
Since 1997, MLB and host clubs have donated approximately $100 million through the All-Star Legacy initiative.
LADF was one of the winners of Beyond Sport’s 2020 Sport for Reduced Racial Inequalities Collective Impact Award supported by the DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation and is a consistent Beyond Sport Expert Advisor.
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