CHLA’s Sports Medicine Program and PCA-LA have put into action a Healthy Athletes Platform that tells stories and provides education to schools and communities.

See these stories from a community symposium that drew 400 people and education for schools and health care professionals.

GRIT, RESILIENCE AND A GROWTH MINDSET

PCA-LA partnered with CHLA, Beach Cities Health District and South Bay Families Connected to bring Healthy Athletes education to Redondo Union High School and the surrounding communities. See what UCLA Gymnastics Legendary Coach Val Kondos Field, USA Olympic Water Polo Coach Adam Krikorian and Compete To Create co-founder Mike Gervais conveyed to 400 parents, coaches and athletes!

CHLA and PCA-LA also presented three breakout sessions with Redondo Union High School coaches, athletes and parents prior to the evening symposium. Topics included injury prevention, concussion awareness and proper nutrition. PCA presented Character Development content that aligns with each constituents role in keeping their kids safe.

ADDRESSING THE WHOLE ATHLETE

The LA84 Foundation was host to a Health Symposium where CHLA and PCA-LA partnered to provide Health Care Professionals educational tools to use in their  careers to better serve patients to prevent, identify and treat injuries. PCA performed parent and athlete Workshops to give the attendees a perspective on what they are going through when an injury takes their child off the field.

CHLA is the leader in youth sports medicine who provides valuable information to coaches, parents, athletes and Athletic Trainers. CHLA’s Sports Medicine Program operates five Sports Medicine Clinics throughout Los Angeles specializing in youth and high school athletes. “We’re excited to get these initiatives with CHLA into the community so we can provide education on Healthy Athletes to a wide audience. Keeping athletes on the field and happy is key to setting up for success in life.” –Alan Berkes, Executive Director, PCA-LA .

CHLA and PCA-LA have already successfully partnered in the LA Galaxy Community Clinic Series working with underserved kids and the Positive Sports Parent Series giving youth sports parents vital health and character advise on raising young athletes.

About Positive Coaching Alliance

Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is a national non-profit organization with the mission of creating a positive, character-building youth sports environment that results in BETTER ATHLETES, BETTER PEOPLE.

Youth sports currently involves 40M children, which presents a tremendous platform on which to develop youth character and life skills. Research has shown that in order for youth to accrue these benefits from sports, sports needs to be done in a way that creates a positive youth development culture. PCA ensures sports are ‘done right’ with programming that is research-based and designed to have an impact at three levels in a youth sports organization or school:

• Youth experience improved life skills and character development.  They also perform better!
• Coaches become more positive and increase their focus on using sports to teach life lessons.
• Youth Sports Organizations & Schools see their cultures become more positive and everyone involved has more fun.

Since its founding in 1998, PCA has established 18 chapters nationwide, partnered with roughly 3,500 schools and youth sports organizations to deliver more than 20,000 live group workshops, reaching 19.2 million youth. PCA offers interactive online courses and has thousands of multimedia tips and tools for coaches, parents, athletes, and leaders available free of charge on PCADevZone.org. PCA also runs two annual awards programs: a scholarship program for high school student-athletes and a coach award program to recognize youth and high school coaches who strive to win and teach life lessons.

The Los Angeles Chapter opened in 2015 and has reached over 300,000 kids by working with youth sports organizations and schools including underserved communities from San Diego to Santa Barbara.

PCA gains support from a National Advisory Board of elite coaches, professional and Olympic athletes, organization leaders, and academics who share PCA’s mission including Dusty Baker, Carol Dweck, Herm Edwards, Julie Foudy, Phil Jackson, and Steve Kerr. PCA is proud to partner with more than 50 national governing bodies, youth serving organizations and professional leagues and teams including Boys & Girls Club of America, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and US Lacrosse.

Twitter: @PositiveCoachLA
Facebook: /PositveCoachLA
Instagram: pca_losangeles

Contact: Alan Berkes
Tel: 310-773-0128
Cell: 424-247-3104
Email: alan_berkes@positivecoach.org
Website / Facebook / Twitter

More information can be found at: www.losangeles.positivecoach.org.

About Children’s Hospital -Los Angeles - Sports Medicine Program

The Sports Medicine program in the Children’s Orthopaedic Center at Children's Hospital Los Angeles is the only comprehensive program in greater Los Angeles that can care for pediatric, adolescent and young adult athletes. Young athletes play hard and don't like  being on the sidelines. Led by doctors who also serve as physicians for the L.A. Galaxy professional soccer team, our program cares for all the orthopedic conditions that can impair young athletes, such as broken bones, ligament tears, dislocations, stress fractures and growth plate injuries. They are leaders in the field, employing the latest non-surgical techniques to facilitate speedy recovery and the latest arthroscopic surgical innovations when necessary. Our experts will help keep young athletes healthy, optimize performance and get them back on the field sooner after injury.in a safe and impactful manner so their love of sport is not hindered.

Contact: sportsmedicine@chla.usc.edu