The historic Rose Bowl along Route 66 has a new tenant. It's now the home of One Hope Training Center. This organization reaches out to disadvantaged and at-risk students through sports and tutoring. Rex Blankenship, the One Hope Training Center President, says his family grew up knowing how important sports, education, and faith are in life. He also says research shows, students involved in these type of varsity sports are 75 percent more likely to graduate
"We introduce them to new sports besides basketball or soccer and to help them to see that they could maybe excel in one of those areas," says Rex Blankenship.
The program already reaches two hundred kids each week but with the new basketball court and the place to grow they are expecting more.
"We are hoping to just automatically move to perhaps five hundred a week. We are certainly staffed so that we can try and do that," says Blankenship.
Blankenship says they want all parents to trust them and allow them to build relationships with their children because they aren't here to judge anyone. Everything in the program is free, they just want to help build up the area.
"We want to do our part bigger and better then the way we have been doing it. We want to take our love to a higher level but it will make a difference in the city. The kids need help. They need hope. This area of the city needs economic development," says Blankenship.
If you would like to help One Hope Training Center, you can click on the link to their website and pick where your donations will go.
