Boston’s After-School Apprenticeship Program (ASAP)

Boston After School & Beyond with the Boston Centers for Youth & Families

With support from the MetLife Foundation, Boston Beyond joins its partner organizations from Chicago, New York City, and Providence to pilot the After-School Apprenticeship Program (ASAP) for teenagers. This opportunity was made available through the Collaborative for Building After School Systems (CBASS).   

 The Boston Youth Sports Initiative (BYSI), an initiative of Boston After School & Beyond, and the Boston Centers for Youth & Families (BCYF) have teamed up to provide umpire training to 20 high school students.  This program will provide high school youth with an engaging employment opportunity that will offer them the skills and training necessary for future employment as baseball umpires.  In addition, the program will increase the pool of available umpires and the opportunities for younger children to play in a city baseball league.  

The Eastern Massachusetts Baseball Umpiring Association will certify all participants that successfully complete the training, allowing youth to earn extra income as baseball umpires well beyond the duration of this program.   With a new pool of trained high school age umpires, BCYF and many other T-ball and Little League programs will have greater flexibility to offer programs to Boston’s youth. 

The ASAP program will train both male and female students, 15-18 years old, from the city of Boston.  This 8-week training program will provide job-specific knowledge such as the rules of the game and the duties of an umpire, while also developing transferable leadership skills associated with managing a challenging environment, both on and off the field. This program will go beyond merely finding jobs to keep youth busy:  youth will be engaged in an activity that they love with the skills they need to obtain employment in the future. Program outcomes include:

  • An enhanced pool of qualified umpires of youth from the neighborhoods of Boston.  This will increase the capacity to offer youth baseball programs.
  • Increased knowledge about the youth baseball leagues across the city and develop stronger connections among programs.
  • Better systems of communication to maximize the sharing of information and resources.
  • A pilot apprenticeship program that may be replicated in other sports across the city in the future.