The BASE was founded in 2013 by seasoned civic, community, and nonprofit leader Robert Lewis, Jr. Building on 40 years’ experience running the Boston Astros youth baseball program, The BASE combines exceptional athletic training with education and career resources to empower student-athletes to achieve their full potential.
The BASE proudly serves over 1,500 student-athletes annually, targeting urban youth from 6-19 years old that come primarily from the Boston neighborhoods of Dorchester, Mattapan and Roxbury. Since inception, The BASE has served over 8,000 achieving success and recognition at the local, regional and national level.
Believing that “excellence is the new minimum”, leadership at The BASE doesn’t just provide mentoring and training through sports; it is an urban pipeline to guide students from elementary, middle, and high schools on to college and impactful careers. Since its launch, The BASE has secured over $30M in academic scholarships, won 3 Triple Crown National Championships, and expanded to Chicago, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.
The BASE is leveraging their brand-new space in Newmarket Square to have an impact not only on their student-athletes, but on the surrounding communities. Working with corporate, civic, and political leaders, The BASE leadership is recruiting city-wide buy-in to ensure economic benefit for surrounding communities by:
Working with the Secretary of Urban and Economic Development, the Newmarket Business Association, and Wentworth Institute of Technology on an economic and workforce development strategy.
Engaging a workforce development specialist to work closely with a BASE-sponsored project manager to oversee an on-site workforce training program for student-athletes, parents, and community members.
Bringing more than 100 community, civic, and business leaders to Roxbury for the first time, and utilizing its space like a settlement house by hosting affinity organizations such as METCO and neighborhood schools.
Partnering with the Lynch Foundation
Since partnering with The BASE in 2017, The Lynch Foundation has provided both multi-year annual funding to support their growth.
The program expansion supported by The Lynch Foundation includes adding more schools to the BASE’s Community School-Based Program so that students who are not able to attend programs at The BASE’S facility can still be introduced to sports as a vehicle for success. In addition to growing their school-based partners, the support deepened their college and career readiness programs providing their students college and career fairs, resume and interview workshops, internships, and tuition support for the first year of college.