BROXBOROUGH, ENGLAND — Colorado’s SOS Outreach provides access to sports for more than 3,000 at-risk kids in the state, but in turn it gives SOS access to their minds and hearts.
“It’s not the sport. The sport is the carrot,” said SOS founder Arn Menconi of Avon. “It’s a value-based leadership development program. It’s looking at kids who people think are at risk and giving them an opportunity. We’re giving them all the tools to be leaders.”
Menconi founded SOS in 1993 as the Snowboard Outreach Society, but changed the name to SOS Outreach after branching out into other sports. Now it has offices in Denver, Summit County and Avon with operations in Steamboat Springs and Durango. It also has offices in Seattle and South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
It is funded largely by Colorado charitable foundations, and Vail Resorts kicks in $1 million annually.
“At-risk in America is tested out to be those who would drop out of high school,” Menconi said. “If you drop out of high school, you have the highest chance of at-risk behavior – doing drugs, getting into trouble, not being successful. We take kids in elementary school and middle school with the intention of holding onto them long-term.”
Menconi has watched 18 SOS kids explore London and attend Olympic events this week. He thought he’d gone to “sports heaven” when they got to see tennis on center court at Wimbledon, but there’s a lot more going on here.
“The real thing for me is watching kids who really are aspiring,” Menconi said. “Watching a kid who’s not even in high school yet, negotiating the London Tube system within three days, this critical thinking they’re using, watching the ones who are really quiet and thoughtful get up and start articulating real profound, thoughtful ideas – those are the things that inspire me the most.”
He has also used what they’re doing here to teach more lessons.
“I said: ‘You have to think about going for the gold this week. What do we need to do differently to do something extraordinary?’ “
Menconi doesn’t like the term “at-risk” to describe kids, but he thinks it fits for some adults.
“Our definition of ‘at-risk’ is adults who are not serving others,” Menconi said. “The youth are fine, but if you’re not giving of yourself to others, then you’re at risk.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jmeyer26
