We have designed our martial arts and tutoring programs on the basis that “it takes a village to raise a child” ond “it takes a child to inspire a village.  ” Our vision is to build a community that supports its youth and, in turn, a reason and vehicle for our youth to respect their community.   Youth are drawn by our martial arts program.   Through it their attention and energies are engaged in positive activities (martial arts and athletic competition).   Their time for idleness and their chances of getting into trouble decrease proportionately.   YNMA utilizes martial arts to teach children discipline, coordination, fitness, body strength, self-defense, respect, leadership, selfconfidence, self-control, selfesteem, and overall positive character.   Our goal is to build upon these virtues and benefits and create bridges to enable them to flow into other aspects of the youths’ lives.

Tutorial Program

Our after-school tutorial program is another integral facet in engaging and developing the youth we serve.  We incentivize our student participation in martial arts competitions by requiring them to maintain certain grades.  Because we want them all to expand their horizons by participating, we support them through a program that offers homework assistance and skill building. They have daily tutoring sessions prior to martial arts sessions working with volunteer tutors from nearby colleges who also serve as wonderful role models.

Mentoring and Networking

The youth get to know successful individuals from different occupations and fields of interest. These encounters invariably instill in our youth a sense of hope and vision for their futures. They begin to build networks to support their future academic or career endeavors and, most importantly, they refine their own personal value and they learn how to give back.

Take a brief look at the Baldwin Hills Village demographic profile:

Poverty

The percent of families with children under IS living below poverty level is 30.3%. In our community, over 60% of the households make less than the United States median household income of $43,162 and over 6S%make less than California’s median household income of $53,025 per year.

Education

In Baldwin Village, just under 30% of the members of the community from 18 to 24 years of age are not high school graduates. That is one in three youth who have not graduated from high school! Over 64% (or two out of three youth) do not go on to attend college.

Health

The youth in our community suffer from disparate rates of chronic disease and other factors that impact their health status. In 2005 and 2007, obesity rates for children in grades 5, 7, and 9 were 29% and 28.9% respectively. Youth between the ages of 0-17 in our community rank 4th highest in LA County in percent of youth with current asthma (7.S%). Children age 0-17 constituted 14% of all clients referred for alcohol-related services.

The majority of mental health recipients in SPA 6 (the area where Baldwin Hills Village is located) were diagnosed with disorders, usually diagnosed in infancy, childhood and/or adolescence (34%). Teen birth rates in 2005 show that a total of 3,354 or 15% of live births were among adolescents IS-IS years of age, more than doubled since 1999 (7%).

Safety

Parents in our SPA indicate that it is the lowest in LA County in ase of access to a safe place to play, in suability for a child to be physically active and in the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Youth ‘N Motion Academy has created and is working to sustain a safety net of hope for our youth,

We just competed in few tournaments recently in San Diego and Ontario.  Our kids did real well and we are excited with their development not just in technique but also their character.

See our videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/YouthnMotionLA