About Hi 5 Youth Foundation
Founded in 2015, Hi 5 Youth Foundation is a professionally managed non-profit organisation based out of Mumbai. The foundation aims to revolutionize the state of basketball in India from the grassroot level. We’ve built a multi-level, four-year program that gives underprivileged children across Mumbai access to basketball coaching.
Our motto is, thus, to spread ‘hopes through hoops’ that makes a difference in the lives of underprivileged children by providing necessary infrastructure to teach them how to play and excel at basketball. At Hi 5, we believe that sports is not the medium but the platform for these children to develop improved life-skills, to better their performance, and build strong aspirations to do well in their future.
Giving a ‘high-five’ is an action in the game that illustrates scoring or winning. That’s how we envision our children—to be championing through life!
How does it work?
Hi 5 currently supports over 1200 students across 13 BMC schools, 1 YMCA center, and 1 residential school (Learn more about the centres here). We identify young and promising talent across these schools and centers and nurture them to enhance their performance. Our flagship program is ‘Hope Thru Hoops’ that runs for four-years and across four levels of Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Elite (Learn more about other programs here). Each center is assigned a dedicated full-time coach, who trains the students right from the Beginner level. These coaches follow an in-house curriculum that is co-developed by them and the leadership of Hi 5 Youth Foundation.
The Foundation conducts regular and periodic tests and tournaments to measure how the student, coaches and the overall center is performing so that the program can sustain, scale and become successful. Our objective is to make sure we run a program that is effective in learning how to play basketball without forgetting to have fun while doing so!
Philosophy
There are three important aspects to Hi 5 Youth Foundation’s philosophy. Through our programs, we hope that we can change lives of underprivileged children for the better by,
a) Helping them learning important life-skills through the game : From learning how to become a team player in the game of life, becoming disciplined about their habits, developing a positive outlook in life to being kind and respectful to others.
b) Developing the earnestness to excel at the game : Unless you strive to excel at the game, developing improved life-skills is going to be difficult. Both go hand in hand. The earnestness to be great at something is a positive drive that can turn their lives around for the better.
c) Respecting each other’s game, irrespective of their gender : At Hi 5, we give both boys and girls equal opportunity to grow and learn. We train them to respect each other’s game and be appreciative of each other’s efforts. We stay gender neutral as an organisation and encourage parents NOT to discriminate between both the genders as well.
We also consider the observations of sports-based programs for children that reflect our philosophy as an organisation:
- Decreased antisocial behavior
- Goal-oriented lifestyle
- Improved gender sensitivity
- Develop motor skills and better mental growth
- Increased enrollment and participation rates in schools as well as performance in the classroom
- Adoption of a healthier lifestyle
- Better decision-making leading to informed choices about their future
As for basketball, specifically, we believe that it is the perfect sport for India—it’s low cost, takes less space and is high in energy, where ten people can play with one ball and basket. Basketball as a game contributes to physical wellness, mental health and social collaboration, such as play, recreation, organized or competitive sport, indigenous sports or games. It’s a team sport that encourages the idea of working together towards a common goal that raises everybody’s morale.
Founded in July 2015 Hi 5 Youth Foundation [Hi 5] is a unique sports NGO providing FREE basketball coaching to underprivileged boys and girls across Mumbai and other major cities in India. We aim to provide children coming from limited or no opportunities in life an alternate path to success.
Our programs have changed the lives of several underprivileged families across Mumbai and vicinity. The program is underway in 15 centers with 1500 kids participating year-round. Within a span of 2 years, record number of them have found a place in district level teams. With very limited infrastructure in most schools, children have developed into amazing players and have tasted success or the “winning moments” through the game. Basketball has brought in significant transformation among children in terms of behavior, self-confidence, self-esteem, and aspirations in life.
Besides the municipal schools, Hi 5 India has completely changed lives of tribal children and orphaned children as well through basketball. They aspire for higher education and looking to grow in their life instead of doing manual labor and girls who are forced into marriage by their parents. Basketball has changed the lives of girls totally given the cultural biases in India among the poor.
In the US, the Hi 5 Youth Foundation aims to create awareness, build compassion, provide opportunities for leadership and raise funds to adopt Hi 5 schools in India. Children are the key drivers of Hi 5 USA. “Children helping Children” through sports is our motto.
Some of the initiatives that are purely driven by children are:
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be a driving force to organize tournaments in your school or community, raise awareness and bring your team to Mumbai, India
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Start Hi 5 clubs in high schools to promote leadership, build organization skills, earn community hours, adopt Hi 5 schools in India, play and connect with underprivileged children through basketball
Hi 5 USA is managed by team of passionate volunteers who have seen children in action in India and who meet regularly to plan, execute various events around bay area and help raise funds for the programs in India. Team USA initiatives helps to sustain and scale the programs in India
For more details on various other initiatives driven by Hi 5 USA, visit our volunteer page and connect with us.
Hi5 USA has been granted a Public Charity status by the IRS in the U.S, and listed under Section 501(c)(3). Being “501(c)(3)” means that we have been approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt, charitable organization and we now accept donations and funds in the U.S. 100% of your donations go toward the empowerment of young underprivileged children in India through our grass-roots level basketball program. EIN #82-2176193
Hi 5 Youth Foundation, USA – was established in July 2017, in California by Mr Ravi Padmanabhan and Ms Radhika Padmanabhan to support the work of Hi 5 Youth Foundation, India. Both Ravi and Radhika have been following Hi 5 India’s activities since late 2015. A visit to Hi 5 centers in Mumbai, enabled them to see first-hand the scale, potential and impact of the ‘free basketball program’ on the lives of the underprivileged children! The visit inspired them to set up Hi 5, USA to help scale and expand activities in India.
Hi 5 USA is a 100% volunteer run organization made up of people from all backgrounds and age categories – consisting of high school children and their parents, youth, basketball players and fans, young families and successful professionals – who love basketball, and truly believe in the helping underprivileged children.
What this entails is that local children with the support, guidance and mentorship of parents, teachers and senior professionals; take the lead and drive the events and activities of the organization. Through basketball and children – we aim to build a strong caring local community that has the ability to connect to children across the world.
Hi 5 Youth Foundation [Hi 5] is a unique sports NGO providing FREE basketball coaching and life-skills training to underprivileged boys and girls across India.
Excellence in basketball is the core of what we stand for – and our programs are designed to coach underprivileged children who have never seen a basketball and develop them into skilled players and winning teams over 4 years of rigorous high quality training. Basketball provides these children – a passport and an alternate pathway to success in life.
With 3000 children at 29 centers (15 Municipal Schools, 7 Tribal Residential Schools, and 7 Residential Schools) – the program is among the world’s largest grassroots basketball program.
