Culture Ability Relationship Enjoyment™
About 2-4-1 CARE
What began 15 years ago as a local program to get children to stop specializing in one sport at too young of an age (2-4-1 comes from our original tagline of Life's 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport™), 2-4-1 CARE is now a national nonprofit organization with tremendous goals. We have a vision of a world at play with individuals who are physically and emotionally well! 2-4-1 has grown into an international movement to get children active and to bring fun back to play. Building on the incredible reputation of 2-4-1 Sports’ approach to sport-sampling in local schools and rec programs, 2-4-1 CARE also delivers inclusive, comprehensive physical literacy development programs to entire communities with a focus on the underserved and disenfranchised.
In addition to 2-4-1 camps and clinics, 2-4-1 CARE also supports municipalities, school districts, healthcare agencies, youth-serving clubs, mission aligned community agencies and various other organizations. Our programs, curriculum and training almost always include some level of play-based activities coupled with nutrition education and skill development in social emotional learning.
2-4-1 CARE has its core values built in with a focus on Culture, Ability, Relationship and Enjoyment. These values drive us to create and deliver quality programs which produce positive outcomes for the families and communities we serve. Thank you for supporting our mission.
Mission
The mission of 2-4-1 CARE is to provide all children the opportunity to grow physically and emotionally through the play-filled power of sport.
Vision
The vision of 2-4-1 CARE is a world at play with individuals who are physically and emotionally well.
Please support our mission to bring quality physical literacy development programs to communities around the country
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Our Values
As we deliver our mission, we operate by a set of core values that guides our work. We live by our CARE values recognizing our impact as we look to create our vision of a world at play with individuals who are physically and emotionally well.
While we break out CARE to highlight each value, there is a clear interconnectedness between each of them.
C ulture
Our value of culture is two-fold. First, we start with the understanding that we must respect all cultures and value each individual’s background and beliefs. But, in doing so - we must secondarily work to create an equitable, inclusive culture within the groups and communities we are serving. A positive culture is key for success and we are very intentional about this fact when delivering our programs.
A bility
Whether an early achiever or a late bloomer, we value the different abilities that each individual brings to our programs and are cognizant about differentiating our approach based on those abilities. We want to develop confidence and motivation to be active for life -- in order to do that, we need to develop competence at a pace that works for everyone.
R elationship
At the core of social emotional learning is relationship. We value positive relationships with one another as well as with ourselves. Using the CASEL framework as a guide, our TOP Self approach to SEL pays particular attention to social awareness and relationship skills. We have discovered that sports and interactive play-based environments are ideal for teaching and learning these skills.
E nJOYment
We value that sports should be fun and play should be JOY-full! It’s been researched and reported that 70% of children leave sports by age 13 because they are no fun. We recognize that in order for this to change, we must make sure that the children in our programs are indeed enjoying them, but perhaps more importantly, we are impacting systemic change so that they remain enjoyable as they move into their high school and young adult years.
Our Story
2-4-1 started from a moment of outrage.
Kerry and Steve Boyle's then 9 year old daughter had just tried out for the local travel soccer team when Steve got “the call”. The coach began by stating that “Alannah is our number one prospect” (yes as a 9 year old on a local travel soccer team), but the positive tone turned quite negative when Steve shared that Alannah was showing some interest in “trying” lacrosse in the spring and wondered about any potential conflicts. The conversation quickly changed when the coach decided within seconds that “We’re no longer interested in your daughter” simply because she showed some interest in a sport other than soccer. That night, Steve and Kerry came up with the tagline “Life’s 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport” and, little did they know that by doing so, the seeds of a global movement had been planted.
What started as a one week sport-sampling camp for girls quickly grew to multiple locations. Within 5 years of their start, the Sport and Society Program at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC had reached out and recognized 2-4-1 as one of 8 model programs in the United States in their seminal Project Play report. That propelled 2-4-1 to national prominence and recognized thought leaders in the sport sampling and physical literacy development space. In 2021, 2-4-1 reached over 5000 children through their curriculum and programs throughout North America. Considering they started with just 62 girls during one week in 2008, this was quite an accomplishment.
But, despite steady growth in local markets across North America, Steve and Kerry have always felt drawn back to their roots. They met in the early 90s when they were both teaching in the inner-city (Kerry in East Baltimore and Steve on the lower east side of Manhattan) and Steve proposed to Kerry in front of the entire camp he directed - and where Kerry was a volunteer - for children with cancer.
2-4-1 CARE builds upon the positive reputation and momentum built by 2-4-1 Sports by moving beyond their sport-sampling camp model by developing and delivering comprehensive physical literacy development programs in both typical and underserved communities and more intentionally infuses nutrition awareness and the practical skills of social emotional learning into comprehensive physical literacy development programs.
2-4-1 has come a long way in over a decade. We look forward to what the next 10 years will bring!
Board of Directors
2-4-1 CARE's Board of Directors are a diverse group of visionary leaders committed to our mission. They guide and provide our team with the resources we need to ensure that the communities we serve are on a path towards quality physical literacy development.
Michael Greco - Board Chair
Head of Legal at RallyBio
Head of Legal at RallyBio
Susan Thomson - Board Member
Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Embold Health
Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Embold Health
Dennis Bisgaard - Board Member
Interim Head of School, Friends School of Baltimore
Interim Head of School, Friends School of Baltimore
Kerry Boyle - Chief Program Officer
Steve Boyle - Executive Director
Signature Programs
2-4-1 Sports
2-4-1 Sports is rooted in play! 2-4-1 follows the principles of the American Development Model (ADM) and Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD).
2-4-1 is the premier Sport Sampling program in North America focused on fostering Physical Literacy and social emotional development in young athletes -- living their original tagline of "Life's 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport"™
2-4-1 TOP Self Sports
Our 2-4-1 TOP Self Sports programs is our comprehensive school-based physical literacy development program. Typically delivered on site before or after school, we use fields, gyms and blacktops as our classroom, and sports as our core curriculum. But, we intentionally weave in nutrition education and the skills of social emotional learning using our TOP Self™. TOP stands for Thinking on Purpose and has proven to be a "sticky" way for young people to recognize that they can not only identify how they are feeling, but more importantly, take themselves from how they are feeling to how they WANT to feel. It is self regulation taught practically and authentically.
2-4-1 Play
2-4-1 PLAY is designed for our earliest learners (18 months to 5 years old). We provide an authentic environment where our goal is for children to EXPLORE movement, DISCOVER challenges and GROW to their highest potential. When kids learn how to move their bodies while developing fundamental movement skills, their minds grow and they find the confidence to move actively through life.
Powered by 2-4-1
Many existing programs ask to be "Powered by 2-4-1" for a number of reasons. We take a very collaborative approach that is tailored to the need of your program or organization. We can do consulting to your organization to be sure you're infusing the principles of physical literacy and long term athlete development, or we can design and deliver your entire program. Examples of projects that have been "Powered by 2-4-1" are major city edcuation deparments asking for summer-school curriculum and programming support and local track clubs wanting help with delivering large scale meets.
