MLSE this week unveiled its LaunchPad, a sports facility for Toronto's "at-risk youth with free programs that also prepare them for school and work," according to Rachel Brady of the GLOBE & MAIL. The facility has "brand new multisport courts, classrooms, a rock wall and a teaching kitchen." The space will act as a "living lab to explore how sport can improve the lives of underserved youth." LaunchPad’s playing courts -- branded with the Raptors, Maple Leafs and Toronto FC logos -- will "start bustling with youth in mid-February." The programs, which are "aimed at youth ages six to 29 living in community housing or facing other social barriers, will also integrate life skills, such as meals and nutrition, preparing for job interviews or training in technology." Since '09, the MLSE Foundation has invested more than $24M into "refurbishing some 47 local sports facilities across Toronto." MLSE’s dream was a "facility it could control -- one where it could drive programming, bring its athletes to engage with kids, create social change and gather its own metrics on success." The non-profit venture "will need" an estimated $2.5M a year to operate. One of the foundation’s "most reliable fundraisers is the 50-50 draw at its teams’ games." The MLSE Foundation is "building its own data-gathering technology to analyze information from the youth who use LaunchPad, hoping to measure the programs’ impact on things such as graduation and employment rates, and continued sports participation." They then "hope to share that technology with others in the sector in the hopes of creating a huge database shared by all." MLSE LaunchPad "hopes to involve some 25,000 youth in its first year" (GLOBE & MAIL, 1/27).
