The Attorney General's Office partners with the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation to provide "Badges for Baseball" throughout Virginia.
Along with the Virginia Alliance
of Boys & Girls Clubs, the U.S. Department of Justice and local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, this year-long program pairs law enforcement professionals as mentors and coaches with youth from local Boys & Girls Clubs in many areas of the Commonwealth.
Badges for Baseball is a crime prevention initiative that encourages healthy out-of-school activities, while improving relationships between law enforcement personnel and at-risk youth. Law enforcement volunteers and Boys & Girls Clubs staff use baseball, "Quickball" and softball to deliver vital life lessons to these student participants in a fun, engaging way.
Cal Ripken, Jr. has been meeting with other state Attorneys General to promote the program’s success in Virginia, thanks largely to the Virginia Attorney General. Click here to read more.
“The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation is excited to be teaming up with the Virginia Attorney General and local law enforcement agencies to provide coaches, role models and mentors to help kids make the right choices in life and give them every advantage to grow into caring, healthy and successful adults."
In the first year of the program, 2007, Badges for Baseball was implemented in communities across Virginia, including: the Richmond metro area, Norfolk, Newport News, Hampton, Gloucester, Mathews, Danville, Lynchburg, Warrenton, Winchester, Harrisonburg, Bristol, Emporia, Fort Monroe, Quantico and Langley AFB. In the second year of the program, 2008, Badges for Baseball is expanding its reach across Virginia and will be implemented in several communities, including: metro Richmond, Petersburg, the Northern Neck, Stafford County, Norfolk, Spotsylvania County, the Virginia Peninsula, Bristol, Fauquier, Lynchburg and Danville.
As young people get excited about baseball, and learn crucial life lessons, they also see their local law enforcement officials in a new and different light – as coaches, mentors and positive role models in their lives. Additionally, law enforcement personnel get to see a new side to these young adults. They become friends and the bond between them enables the law enforcement mentors to better understand the challenges that these young people face each day.
By surrounding these children with strong role models and encouraging healthy choices and positive out-of-school activities, we compete with gangs and other negative forces that might surround them.
The program is designed to instill positive values in young people and give them the opportunity to succeed.
The “Healthy Choices, Healthy Children” character development curriculum, along with mentoring (both on and off the field), helps young Virginians understand the importance of choosing a healthy lifestyle, making smart and productive decisions, and giving back to their communities.
About 1,500 Virginia youth participated in “Healthy Choices, Healthy Children” in 2007. Seventy-five Virginia youth who participated in Badges for Baseball were rewarded with an all-expenses paid trip the Summer of 2007 to the Ripken Academy in Aberdeen, Maryland.
Click here for more about Former Attorney General McDonnell sending kids to the Ripken Academy.
