Our monthly Member Spotlight highlights a member working diligently to foster equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplaces in our region. This month, we are highlighting Portland Tennis & Education (PT&E).
Portland Tennis & Education (PT&E) is a social impact racquet center in the St. Johns neighborhood with a mission to enable underserved youth to thrive and strengthen their community through academics, athletics, life skills, and family engagement.
Since our founding in 1996, PT&E has impacted 18,000+ youth. Our programs and staffing model are intentionally designed to serve youth from low-income households. PT&E staff creates a trusting community by partnering across each student’s ecosystem to bolster support structures in multiple areas of students’ lives: school, home, and athletics. We offer 1000+ hours of annual support in our tuition-free, comprehensive programs during after-school and summer hours:
Beyond this comprehensive programming, PT&E offers tennis and pickleball for all ages, skill levels, and abilities at a low-cost and non-membership model where 100% of revenue from classes and court rentals fuels our youth programs. Through this intentional “social impact racquet center” model, we aim to increase access to and bring additional diversity to tennis, a sport long-considered to be only for the wealthy elite. With rising costs and the continued impact of gentrification on Portland, our safe community hub located in the St. Johns neighborhood of North Portland is essential with programs aligned to our vision of a Portland where all youth have equitable access to a fair learning and playing field.
How has your organization enhanced internal culture and fostered a more inclusive environment for staff?
Our program and staffing model are intentionally designed to serve the unique needs of BIPOC youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. PT&E has long been committed to developing a team that reflects the diversity and strengths of our community through equitable and inclusive recruiting practices, staff training, and autonomy to create culturally responsive programs.
To foster belonging and inclusion within and across staff and youth, PT&E encourages staff, especially in cases where they share backgrounds with the youth, to create programs and lessons in support of youths’ identities. This has positively impacted the retention of staff and participants. For example, PT&E responded to a trend of femme-identifying youth disengaging from sports by creating a Female Empowerment Club (FEC). FEC is led by staff who identify as women of color, highlighting womxn in sports and serving as a safe space for femme-identifying athletes to share their experiences.
What is a new program or initiative from your organization that you’re really excited about?
PT&E is making great strides to increase our adaptive and wheelchair sports offerings. Earlier this month on January 11th, we partnered with Adaptive Sports NW and Shriners Children’s Hospital Portland to host “Try it! Adaptive Rackets Day”, a free event open to people of all abilities to play tennis, pickleball, and table tennis. PT&E also hosts free, biweekly adaptive clinics, aligning with our mission to expand access to racket sports for all!
How has your organization embedded equity into the organizational culture?
Our service to underserved youth from low-income families, our careful selection of youth in particular need of support, and our focus on St. Johns—a historically diverse and underserved neighborhood—all aim at promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
A key to our comprehensive, tuition-free program’s success is family involvement which ensures more stability for youth outside of PT&E. For example, we host “Todos Tenis” at the end of summer, which invites youths’ families for a potluck, to play pickleball and tennis, connect with other PT&E families, and view summer projects. We also have monthly Family Council meetings for a small group of dedicated families to partner with staff on key projects, identify and support upcoming priorities, and provide program input. PT&E’s Youth and Family Advocate works with families to learn additional needs that we can meet or connect them to services outside our scope (e.g. food and healthcare access).
When we are not serving the youth enrolled in our nonprofit program, PT&E’s three-court tennis and pickleball facility is a health center and community hub where St. Johns community members congregate to engage in healthy recreation and sport, all at a low cost in a non-membership-based model. All earnings from our public tennis programs go directly into our nonprofit programs, which creates a powerful cycle of community support.
Tell us about your upcoming events or initiatives.
We’re excited to announce an opening for a full-time Director of Advancement, a key leadership position focused on fundraising and marketing. This role involves strategy development, managing the advancement team, and direct fundraising with an emphasis on individual donors, corporate partners, and racquet clubs. The salary range is $75-84k and includes an opportunity to enroll in PT&E’s healthcare plan, PTO, and professional development opportunities.
Application Instructions:
Tell us about a notable Partners in Diversity program or connection with staff that has helped further your organization’s DEI-B efforts.
Our team has greatly benefited from attending Partners in Diversity’s DEIB Breakfast of Champions. This transformative event provided actionable strategies to enhance DEIB practices and introduced us to invaluable community partners. As new members of Partners in Diversity, we’re eager to deepen our involvement, gain more insights, and continue fostering inclusivity within our organization.
We also invite everyone to join us at PT&E to play tennis and pickleball and experience our welcoming community!
