At Row4All, we know that every community is different, and faces its own unique set of challenges. While there are common threads, the mix of circumstances will differ. What's the biggest issue that the teens in your community face? Is it poverty, drugs, a high drop-out rate? Does early pregnancy or joining a gang look like a good option to too many young people? Getting kids immersed in a rigorous athletic program can have profound benefits.

Row4All's founder, Margot Zalkind and its Advisory Board, have seen the transformational power of coaching and mentoring in the lives of troubled youth.
Below are some examples of programs tailored for the particular needs of the at-risk youth in the communities in they serve.

Chicago Training Center
At the Chicago Training Center, disadvantaged youth from Chicago's south side get support in the academic and personal lives while learning to row. CTC provides a non-confrontational setting in which personal growth through teamwork, discipline, physical fitness, and educational excellence are emphasized. Founder, Director, and Coach Montana Butsch believes that the sport of competitive rowing has many intrinsic qualities that set it apart from other sports. Competitive rowing involves a team of individuals who must work in precise unison at full capacity to succeed. Teamwork, cohesion, and support are keys to rowing success in an environment that is unforgiving of anything less than 100% effort.

CTC holds its participants, high-school age boys and girls from diverse backgrounds, to high standards. They come to the Center five days a week, spending two afternoons focusing on academics and working out in the gym or on the water three days a week. A team from the University of Illinois at Chicago has monitored their progress, and it is impressive: the kids have gained teamwork, time management, and academic skills, lost weight, and grown as individuals.

See CTC featured on WTTW-TV!

"We would love to have our kids wind up in world championships and Olympics, but it's not strictly about the rowing. If we only get camaraderie and team spirit and the intrinsic values sports brings, it will be a huge success."
--Montana Butsch, founder and Executive Director of CTC

"Rowing sparks young women to be more focused and energetic about their studies and lives. By connecting the young women to the water, each other, and their bodies, this unusual program enlivens its participants. It's an opportunity for these teenagers, who face many challenges, to experience joy and playfulness as well."  --Anne Teschner, founder of Rowing Strong, Rowing Together

Rowing Strong, Rowing Together

In Holyoke, Massachusetts, the Community Adolescent Resource and Education Center (The Care Center) has worked with thousands of teen mothers and their families to help them continue their education and move toward greater self-awareness and self-sufficiency. Care Center Executive Director (and rower) Anne Teschner worked closely with Mount Holyoke College to develop Rowing Strong /Rowing Together.

The young women in this program are pregnant or new mothers, many of them teens, most of them bilingual Hispanics from the depressed post-industrial communities of Holyoke and surrounding towns. They spend their mornings at The Care Center preparing for their General Education Development (GED) examination. In the afternoon, they hit the water: the beautiful Connecticut River, experienced from an 8-oared hull. When not on the water, they work out in Mount Holyoke's gym and use its rowing machines to refine their strokes. Each August, the program culminates with the Young Parents' Regatta.

The intense experience of physical exertion and teamwork, coupled with exposure to the prestigious women's college of Mount Holyoke, has a powerful effect in these young women's lives. The Care Center reports that rowers' self-esteem rises and their interest in academics increases.

Rowers Call the Harlem River Home

The murky brown-green of the Harlem River may seem, like an unlikely place to compete in gleaming, $30,000, racing shells, but the Young Scholars Crew are proud to belong to the new heterogeneous, Inwood-based club, that rows off the shore of Swindlers Cove Park. “You feel like you’re representing the entire city when you row up here” said senior rower Simon Warren. Warren is one of 150 participating athletes from across the five boroughs, which belong to the New York Rowing Association (NYRA); a club started in 1866 and revived a few years ago. More >>