BasketSoul. It’s a phrase easily confused with basketball, yet it is much more than a fast-moving team sport. BasketSoul, like basketball, is about individual learning and improvement that contributes to the energy and drive of the team.
Through BasketSoul, today’s youth in the Milwaukee region has a unique opportunity to learn and grow, heal their trauma, and discover who they are. They will uncover what they are passionate about, and those passions will continue to evolve and drive them into adulthood.
A Sobering Reality
The statistics are grim. Milwaukee Police arrested children under 16 years old 409 times in 2022 for auto theft and 76 times for armed robbery. We believe that by teaching our youth new ways to cope with their feelings, we can change the outlook of our youth’s future.
Ultimately, we will hand over the tools each child needs to break free, run the court of their life, and execute a Michael Jordan-style high-flying slam dunk with a future filled with the success they’ve dreamed of.
Who is it for?
BasketSoul is an after-school youth trauma healing camp for 25 students in 3rd–8th grade, designed around movement and basketball. Each camp session is six weeks long and takes place one day each week for two hours after school at a partner location.
Every week youth will begin camp with breathwork and yoga, followed by team building and basketball. The time together will end with self-love journaling. Other sessions included during the six-week camp are Reiki energy, building self-love, meditation, and emotional freedom tapping.
BasketSoul starts from the energy of love. Everything from our staff comes from the understanding that love and self-love are the basis of all healing. This is the most important energy and is the key to their success. Every child recognizes authentic love and responds to it.
We will have a core staff, volunteers, and accredited experts for each area of the program.
Why do we need BasketSoul?
BasketSoul is multifaceted. First, we must accept that, as a society, we have become completely disconnected from who we truly are and what we have become. This can be uncomfortable and may not be something we wish to do.
However, ask yourself, how disconnected have we become? Walk down any street and observe how many people are walking with cell phones in their hands, unaware of what’s happening around them.
We used to shop at a mall, interacting with each other, and now we buy most things from online retailers using our phones. We used to stroll down Main Street, and now it’s being boarded up, a thing of the past. All the while, the grip of cell phones and the lack of humanity has been steadily increasing.
We endure our self-made culture by blaming Covid for everything, but Covid just made us even more dependent on cell phones. We are on 5G-technology-crack. It has a grip on all of us, and we are too hooked to bother asking what’s happened.
Parents can even buy their kids babysitter tablets complete with teething ring handles. That’s messed up, but not any more messed up than the previous generation that had a different addiction.
However, let’s make one thing clear. The addiction may be different, but the underlying issue is the same. Our inability to deal with trauma has us all trapped within the mind-numbing addictions of our choice, and there are so many in today’s environment.
In our grandparent’s day, there was only one TV with very few channels. You could get bored and have to deal with pain (and each other), and maybe do something different. Rarely was there a TV in the kitchen. That was a place to talk, pray, and enjoy each other. Now there is an unlimited amount of noise to keep us away from each other and dealing with our pain.
Pain/trauma avoidance is now the norm. We are a tragic society of Ghosters–people so afraid of trauma they don’t possess the ability to deal with problems. They just go dark under the light of a cell phone.
This is what our children have learned, and we believe they need immediate loving attention so it can be reversed.
What is BasketSoul’s purpose?
BasketSoul teaches kids simple but proven trauma-healing techniques that bring us back to who we truly are. We are a society that can love and care about each other, and especially love ourselves. BasketSoul is designed to help peel back the layers of fear, trauma, and disconnectedness we now endure.
Our purpose is LOVE. We are all connected. Are you ready to break free and join us?