The Tennis Center in Kiryat Shmona is a second home for dozens of children who come there a few days each week for training sessions. The cost of tennis sessions in Israel is very high for the following reasons:
- Salary costs of the professional trainer is relatively high
- Children participate in small groups.
- The equipment used constantly is expensive and needs regular replacement.
These factors raises the “white sport” bar so high that is not achievable for families living in the impoverished periphery regions in Israel. The result is that many children in these periphery areas do not play tennis and there are not too many professionals who are willing to live and teach in the periphery of northern Israel.
The project
The Galila foundation collaborated with the Managing Director of the Tennis Center in Kiryat Shmona and developed a working model in which the foundation partner subsidies the activities at the Center, thus allowing for children who participate, to pay much lower participation costs. This model allows children, who until now were restricted in participating in the tennis activities, to actively be part of these sessions. It also allows the Center to increase the scope of its overall activity. The instructors are compensated well for choosing to stay in the periphery and work with these children.
In 2012-2013 we added 5 new tennis groups.
The contribution for this project was provided as part of the Beren – Galila initiative.