PROFILE
Kids In Trouble,
Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit corporation formed under
the Non-Profit Corporation
Act (DC Code, 1981 edition, titled 29 Chapter 5).
The program was established in 1968 after the riots in the Cardozo/Shaw area
of Northwest Washington, DC. The program was known as the Hillcrest
Children’s Center Saturday Program.
MISSION / SCOPE
The program caters to the needs of at-risk children as it relates to social
services
such as, education,employment, law enforcement, drug
abuse
and gang related violence in our community. We workwith children of all
ages, but our main focus is on the growth and development of the elementary
school
child. We work closely with school administrators, teachers,
counselors and support staff trying
to lay a solid foundation. Kids
In Trouble,
Inc. instills values that will hopefully provide an unlimited and bright future for
our next leaders.
PROGRAMS PAST & PRESENT
For over four decades
Kids In Trouble, Inc. is the longest on-going community
based toy for tots program in the country. It has provided thousands of needy
children
with toys, clothing and school materials in DC, MD,
Virginia, Atlanta, Ga.
and Princeville and Pine Top, North Carolina.
The Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday
Program was designed as a tutorial and
recreational vehicle for community children. In the late 60s students from the
Seven Day Adventist Church in Tacoma
Park, Maryland were bussed into the
inner-city to tutor neighborhood children. It was Harold who
coined the phrase
“Every black face you see is not your brother and every white face
you
see is not your enemy.” In 1970 KIT found the first Half-Way House ever
established
for juvenile delinquents on a military installation at Bolling AFB.
In 1988 KIT program friend and Maryland University All-American
basketball
player Len Bias died of a drug overdose. Kids In Trouble, Inc. established a
Cocaine
Hotline for young athletes and children needing help and counseling.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
NBA Hall of Fame basketball player
Dave Bing was the first professional athlete
to volunteer to work in the community and give something back through Kids In
Trouble. The ground work
for this unique relationship originated when Dave was
just a kid on the playgrounds in NE DC. In
1967 Dave was asked by KIT founder
and friend Harold Bell to come to Spingarn High School. He was
needed to help
quell gun violence among DC public high school students. Dave Bing cared long
before the NBA. Dave is now in the NBA Hall of Fame and the Mayor of his
adopted hometown, Detroit,
Michigan.
In 1968 Green Bay Packer great and NFL Hall of Fame player Willie Wood
joined the Kids In Trouble,
Inc team. During his NFL career
Willie would
return to his DC hometown to teach in the DC public school system. He
would later become a Roving Leader for the DC
Recreation Department.
Willie and Harold would become co-workers. The rest is NFL and
community history.
In 1970 the
Washington Redskins led by players, RB Larry Brown, WR
Roy Jefferson, LB Harold McLinton and CB Ted Vactor, would become
the first group of NFL players to
volunteer their services in the community.
The rest of the NFL would follow their lead.
Members of the DC Superior Court, led by legendary Judge
Luke Moore,
Harry Alexander, Ted Newman, Henry Kennedy Jr., Eugene Hamilton and
Chief Judge Harold Green, they completed the “Reach One,
Teach One”
foundation for Kids In Trouble, Inc.
THE BENEFACTORS OF KIT & INSIDE SPORTS
James Brown (NFL CBS), John Thompson
(GTUni), Sugar Ray Leonard,
Michael Wilbon (ESPN), Dave Aldridge (TBS), Adrian Dantley (NBA),
Adrian Branch (ESPN),
Cathy Hughes & Alfred Liggins (Radio & TV One),
Jair Lynch (Gymnastics Olympics), Omar Tyree (author), Jamie
Foster Brown
(Sister 2 Sister Magazine) Jeff Majors
(Radio One), Butch McAdams
(Radio One), Glen Harris (TV 8 Sports), Dave Jacobs (Boxing), Dave Bing
(Mayor of Detroit), Lonnie Taylor (Chief of Staff on Capitol Hill), Bobby
Gardner (NFL St. Louis Cardinals), Aaron Pryor
(Boxing), Darryl Hill
(First black athlete Navy Academy & ACC)
