Micro-grant program supports projects for a safer Durham Region

For the Eastern Basketball Association, it was their dream to expand their club to include more kids and give back to their community. The financial requirement for the team made it too hard to reach.

With the help of the Community Safety Well-Being (CSWB) Micro-Grant Program, Kerry Banes, one half of the Eastern Basketball Association, discovered a way to make that dream a reality in the form of a 3v3 basketball tournament and charity event.

The CSWB Micro-Grant Program gives out up to $4,000 to community-led projects that provide a wide range of evidence-based social development activities, including youth leadership, peer mentorship, therapeutic art activities, and like Banes’ basketball club, sports and recreational activities.

The goal of the micro-grant program is to fund projects that support positive youth development and reduce violence in their respective communities. In 12 weeks, these community-led projects reached over 300 Durham residents, primarily children and youth.

Banes noticed her program was giving kids who can’t always afford to play for rep teams “something to look forward to” and keeps them off the street, focusing on playing basketball with kids their age and doing something good for their community.

“It was a good fit for us, because we had been trying to do a charity event,” Banes said.

The Eastern Basketball Association is run by 12 people, mainly volunteers, and teaches hundreds of kids aged six to 14 through skills classes and sessions.

The initial spark to get the club started came when Kerry Banes’ husband found that house league coaching was spread too thin to teach kids the fundamental skills to play. He took matters into his own hands.

He rented out a gym to teach his daughter and her friend in 2016, and a session once a week soon generated enough buzz to create their own basketball club in the form of the Eastern Basketball Association.

For their tournaments, the Eastern Basketball Association partners with a local food bank to donate non-perishable items at the end of the eight-week tournaments. This year, at the food bank’s request, Banes, chose to have each team donate one box of diapers instead and one non-perishable food item per parent or spectator that attended the tournament.

She said it made her happy to see so many people involved in the tournament, with over 30 boxes of diapers and many food items being donated by the end of the tournament.

“I thought we would have maybe eight teams, because I was thinking some people would think they were not good enough, or maybe they’re too good,” she said. “But within the first two weeks we had 24 teams register, so we ended up having to make the tournament a little bigger.”

Not only did the tournament exceed her expectations, with 96 players participating and over 200 spectators – but Banes also shared that for many of the kids playing, it was all about having fun and creating memories to look back on.

“I think that really resonated a lot with the kids we talked to, they were happy to be able to play basketball and for a good cause,” she said.

The grant money went towards the gym rental, equipment costs, and promoting the event.

To learn more about the CSWB Micro-Grants program, or to apply, visit Information Hub - Region of Durham