USTA Southern California was pleased to award Community Tennis grants to deserving organizations who continue to provide tennis programs and opportunities throughout the region. At a gathering held last month at the LA84 Foundation offices in Los Angeles, distributed among more than 20 local providers ranging from youth tennis to adult wheelchair and adaptive programs.

“This is a perfect opportunity not just to provide support and funding,” said Melanie Bischoff, Director of Community Tennis at USTA SoCal, “but also to allow facilitators of local programming to collaborate on thoughts and ideas, as well as joint efforts that reflect the collective missions of their organizations.”

Awardees were selected by the SCTA Community Tennis Grant Committee.

“We went around the room and everybody spoke about how they would use their grant money and ideas that they have been implementing to generate funds within their Community Tennis Associations,” said Aisling Bowyer, a Tennis Service Representative with USTA Southern California. “Beth Kuney from Bakersfield spoke about having a sponsor provide brand-new tennis racquets for underprivileged high school teams. Tennis Serves Others spoke about creating utility bags for the homeless and fundraisers they do, so people are playing tennis with a purpose.”

Recipients in 2018 include:

Youth Tennis San Diego, whose purpose is to promote the educational, physical, and social development of all youth through organized tennis and educational activities.

Pasadena Tennis Association, offering affordable quality tennis instruction for families year-round, and an after school service provider for PUSD and various local community organizations.

Neighborhood Junior Tennis Program, a community tennis program for kids, based at El Cariso Park in Sylmar and Pioneer Park in San Fernando.
Morongo Basin Tennis Association, with the mission to build a tennis tradition for the youth and adults of the Morongo Basin where none existed before.

Orange County Top Tennis, which promotes and develops the growth of tennis and helps children and adults to learn new skills each day, keeping them physically and emotionally fit for life.

Orange County Community Tennis Association, aimed at growing participation from the grassroots level through racquet donations, leagues, tournaments and in-school programs.

Kern Community Tennis Association, a non-profit volunteer based organization established in 1965 to develop and grow the game of tennis at all levels for both juniors and adults, with particular interest in partnering with community organizations to attract low income and minority youth to the sport of tennis.

Joy of Athletics Foundation, which introduces inner city youth to tennis through music, dance, and visualization, developing motor and conceptual skills.

Pete Brown Junior Tennis Program, a sports based youth development organization that changes life trajectories of L.A area children through tennis & education.

Serve it Up Tennis, which offers affordable year round tennis programming for all ages and levels in the San Fernando Valley.

Westcoast Wheelchair Tennis Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the disabled community learn and play wheelchair tennis.

Love & Love Tennis Foundation, with the goal to establish free tennis clinics throughout the Coachella Valley, grow youth tennis, and give girls and boys a chance to learn and play tennis.

California Tennis Assoc. for Underprivileged Youth, which conducts after school lessons for children under 10 years old.

Seal Beach Tennis Center, including the SBTC Junior Academy and various Junior camps.

First Break Academy, dedicated to positively impacting children’s lives by insuring their access to safe, affordable, quality tennis instruction, multi-sport play, and academic enrichment.

Semurana Tennis Association, providing a clean and safe environment via tennis for youth, adults, seniors and adaptive tennis in the community, and developing affordable tennis programs and scholarships for underprivileged children and aspiring athletes.

Tennis Serves Others, uniting tennis ladies to organize and promote charitable activities benefiting needy individuals, groups or other non-profits in our local communities and throughout the world.

Grassroots Junior Tennis, teaching tennis as a lifetime recreation and educational sport, with classes held ten months of the year available to young adults and children – particularly low income, Title 1 students.

ACEing Autism, Inc., which provide the most effective sports related intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders.

Greater San Diego Tennis Council, identifying and providing funds to repair damaged and deteriorated public tennis courts.

West Coast Beach Tennis, Inc. a grassroots tennis program devoted to growing the sports of beach tennis. 

Wounded Warrior Tennis Camp San Diego, a tennis-based rehabilitation program serving wounded, ill, and injured service members and veterans of all ages from across the country.