The Washington Tennis & Education Foundation (WTEF) was founded in 1955 as an organization designed to help disadvantaged youth through tennis. Since then, it has evolved into an organization that provides academic help to at-risk children by helping them to apply the lessons learned on the tennis court in the classroom and beyond. In 1991, its long-time Executive Director, Dwight Mosley, envisioned helping Washington, DC's most at-risk youth improve their life prospects by using a combination of tennis and academics. In 1994, the organization officially changed its name to the Washington Tennis & Education Foundation to reflect its expanded focus. Today, WTEF is a leader in the best practice of providing academic enrichment, supplemented by tennis and life skills instruction, as a means for developing the skills necessary to achieve academic and personal success.

We believe in developing minds in the classroom and on the tennis court. The skills our children master    through tennis such as – discipline, self-confidence,    goal-setting, self-reliance and teamwork – are the same skills we show them how to use in the classroom to help them succeed academically and lead a positive life path.

WTEF’s goals are: (1) to keep children off city streets and engaged in productive activities that instill self-pride and discipline; (2) to provide opportunities for children to improve their academic performance and help them make choices that enrich rather than endanger their lives; and (3) to provide opportunities for underprivileged children to go to college and to obtain academic and athletic scholarships. For those not college bound, WTEF helps them to join the work force and make constructive life choices.

WTEF has recently concluded a three-year, capacity-building grant from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF), a foundation nationally known for its investment in youth-development organizations. In EMCF’s words: “…the foundation works with a select group of high-performing youth organizations that serve young people during the non-school hours to help them grow stronger and better able to serve larger numbers of youth….” (www.emcf.org). EMCF studied 14,000 youth-serving organizations and chose fewer than 21 to work with intensively to date. After a year-long evaluation of our programs, EMCF proved that the promotion rates of children in our AACP are greater than those of the average school population and the absence rates of those in the AACP are lower than those of the average school population, and thus decided to make the grant commitment to WTEF.