Startup Portland Activities & Athletics League Poised To Make Its Mark – Sport Oregon Voices
Back Row: From Left to Right - Jay Williams, Jim Richardson, Gordon Hoffman
Middle Row: From Left to Right – Ed Jensen, Graham Bryce, Paul Weatheroy, Erik Selden
Front Row: Kathy Baarts, Roy Pittman, April Murchinson
Not Pictured: Cynthia Johnson
Sport Oregon Voices:
Local youth non-profit hosts its first event later this month, aims to make a difference by becoming a one-stop services center to address unmet needs in the community
A youth-focused nonprofit that began humbly last year with a few pen-and-paper meetings under a pavilion at Peninsula Park in North Portland is now ready to make an impact.
The Portland Activities & Athletics League (PAAL), which will hold its first event with a half-day camp for pre-kindergarten kids at Holy Redeemer Catholic School on June 25, aims to be a one-stop services center that strives to prevent juvenile crime and violence by providing athletic, recreational and educational opportunities to youth. PAAL looks to build partnerships among youth, the local law enforcement community, service professionals and the community at large while fostering an environment of safety, trust, belonging and empowerment.
While the organization is busy with final launch preparations, planning is well underway for a robust array of programming, events and activities to address a growing list of unmet needs in the community, especially in underserved areas.
“We look to serve a culturally diverse population to include Black, Indigenous and people of color in the greater Portland area, and we’re focusing on East County,” said Jay Williams, the president and executive director of PAAL. “With our different outreach and mentor programs that we work with we’re able to reach out into the community and we are able to focus on different areas that are hit hard by poverty, high-rate crime, and be able to help those kids with our resources.”
In its early stages PAAL included an initial board membership made up of prominent community and business leaders that helped get it off the ground, including board chair Gordon Hoffman, secretary (and Sport Oregon board member) Jim Richardson, vice president Paul Weatheroy, treasurer Graham Bryce, Roy Pittman, April Murchinson, Erik Selden, Kathy Baarts, Cynthia Johnson, Ed Jensen, and Williams.
“We talked about pieces that were missing in the community, and we decided Portland Activities & Athletics League, something that’s geared to getting people together and getting the youth to be able to build partnerships with others, we thought that that would be a great idea to start,” Williams said.
Among its initial activities, PAAL is partnering with the Sport Oregon Foundation to provide additional athletic opportunities to its youth membership through the Sport Oregon Youth Series (formerly known as TrackTown Youth League), a longstanding program that provides free youth track meets across the state. What started with an initial introduction to Sport Oregon CEO Jim Etzel quickly evolved into a committed joint effort to afford greater opportunities to more kids.
“I think it’s going to be a long-lasting annual partnership that we can have for many years to come, with Sport Oregon Youth Series,” Williams said. “We’re very excited about our partnership and the opportunity with Sport Oregon, just to be able to fulfill unmet needs of the community and address some of the things that are going on. This partnership gives these kids something to do that’s really positive.”
Williams is quick to point out the importance of such partnerships in achieving the goals of the organization, and the community at large.
“By partnering with other non-profits, we’re able to help more kids in the greater mission of everything,” he said. “They may have a focus, but we all want to help kids, so we partner up to reach one common goal, and that’s to help the kids.
“We’re just here to help and do our part. We know we can’t do everything – that’s why we partner with others that can provide other services. We know we can’t do track by ourselves, but if we partner with Sport Oregon Youth Series, we’ll be able to reach more youth.”
He knows first-hand the impact these types of youth programs can have. Born to a teenage mother in Pompano Beach, Fla., his father died when Williams was just three years old. While his mom juggled school and work as a young mother, programs like PAAL played an integral part of his after-school activities. He played in the South Florida Youth Football League that partnered with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and was a frequent visitor to the area’s youth center. He credits the many long-lasting relationships and positive experiences gained through these activities for providing a strong foundation that allowed him to flourish and develop as a young man.
Williams went on to become a football and track and field standout at Mesa Community College in Arizona and at Portland State University. His success on the football field led to a lengthy indoor professional career, playing for Green Bay Blizzard and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers in the Arena Football League, and the San Angelo Stampede, Wheeling Wildcats and Alaska Wild in the Indoor Football League. After, he stayed active in youth sports by serving as the head basketball coach at Rosemary Anderson High School, and as a wide receiver coach at David Douglas High School and Oregon City High School.
Coming full circle, though, he jumped at the chance to become the center director for the Police Activities League in Portland in 2012.
“When I arrived here in Portland in 2012 and they said that job was open, I felt like that was a dream job and it was calling me, because I had already been in the program,” Williams said. “So I felt like it would be great to lead it.”
PAAL is similar, in some respects, to the Police Activities League that operated a Portland chapter until 2013. One of the fundamental differences, though, is that while PAAL has a strong partnership with local law enforcement agencies, the organization is privately funded and operated, instead relying heavily on community input to inform its activities and programming to meet its needs. PAAL also plans to offer a much wider variety of services, expanding beyond athletics.
As a youth, Williams says he built many positive relationships with local law enforcement through his participation in similar programs. Fast forward to the state of the world in 2021, he sees great value in continuing to foster these relationships while overcoming the growing community mistrust of the police, with the organization serving as a liaison in a better, more direct communication process.
“Right now, the perception of the police is in bad shape, and we’re here to be able to smooth those things out by having town hall meetings, being able to discuss things, being able to have an open and candid conversation with the kids, and they can ask them anything,” Williams said. “These days, the only time kids see the police is when bad things are happening. That’s what we’re here for, just basically trying to change the perception and strengthen the ties. And if we start at a young age, when the kids are still learning about feelings and perceptions, then they get to make their own feelings and their own perceptions about what they see and what they believe, and their ideas aren’t tainted at that time.”
Like its growing list of activities and services, the organization’s board continues to expand, bringing even more ideas and possibilities to the table. In addition to athletics, PAAL aims to provide a wide array of activities and services, including arts programs, STEM activities, and tutoring and mentorship programs.
In August, PAAL is offering a STEM and Sport Camp, a one-week summer camp experience that will combine sports activities, STEM workshops, educational enrichment and nutritional information to youth aged 8-12. The primary goal of the camp is to provide a positive learning environment for youth in the critical pre-teen and early adolescent years when learning patterns are defined.
You can hear it in Williams’ voice as he enthusiastically speaks of the organization and its goals: PAAL, in its infancy, is just beginning to scratch the surface, with so much more ahead. Things are coming together and the many benefits associated with implementing its first wave of programs are just around the corner for the organization.
“We started from the ground up, a pen and a pad, and now we’re here. We’re just ready to get started!”
For more information on PAAL
To learn more about the Portland Activities & Athletics League and its programs, click here to visit the organization’s newly launched website.
For more information on Sport Oregon Youth Series
Click here for more information on the Sport Oregon Youth Series and its summer 2021 programming.