A Washington Wizards charity initiative turns 3-point plays into help. And they’re on a roll this year.
Late in the fourth quarter of the Washington Wizards’ April 7 matchup against the Boston Celtics, shooting forward Martell Webster fielded a pass, pulled up from just beyond the 3-point line, and fired a shot toward the basket. The high-arcing ball dropped effortlessly through the hoop, cutting the Celtic lead to 98-88 with just under four minutes to play.
Within the context of the game, the shot was obsolete. Ten points was as close as the Wizards would get, eventually falling 107-96.
But Webster’s shot was far from meaningless — with the flick of his right wrist he had provided support and funding to a segment of the District’s homeless children.
Thanks to Community 3’s, a community service initiative that rewards donations for every 3-pointer knocked down by the Wizards, the outside shooting resurgence Webster has helped lead in D.C. is having a very direct effect on local homeless families.
Through the initiative, every 3-point shot made by the Wizards this season, $100 dollars is donated to first-year beneficiary Bright Beginnings, a child development center for homeless infants, toddlers and preschoolers and their families in the D.C. area.
The charitable program is the result of a partnership between the Wizards and the not-for-profit health insurer CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. Now in its eighth season, the program has resulted in a total of $240,000 in donations to community services since 2005.
This year, donations will go towards improving the chances of young children whose homelessness puts them at increased risks of falling behind in school.
“Research shows that homeless children are more likely to have some type of developmental delay,” said Latoyia Allen, Development Manager at Bright Beginnings. “They go to kindergarten behind their peers and sometimes never catch up.”
Bright Beginnings combats these risks through early intervention centered on an individually tailored, child directed curriculum Allen said has proven effective with kids that come from “chaotic environments.” All of the roughly 150 children the program serves year-round are officially documented as homeless, and mainly come from transitional housing and shelters in Wards 7 and 8.
Thanks to the Wizards’ improved 3-point shooting, Bright Beginnings is on pace to receive substantially more in donations than previous beneficiaries. Last year the team hit 344 shots from beyond the 3-point arc, resulting in $34,400 worth of donations. This season they have already downed 514.
While the team’s attempts from downtown have not significantly increased between the two years (ranked 20th in the league both seasons), their efficiency has improved dramatically, going from 28th in the league in 3-point shooting percentage in the 2011-12 season to 11th in 2012-13.
Webster has been a major catalyst for the improvement. He is currently shooting 42 percent from 3-point land, good for 11th among NBA sharpshooters. He has been particularly effective at home, pouring in 2.7 threes per game in the Verizon Center.
With nine games remaining in the season at the time of this article’s writing, the Wizards’ average of 5.2 made threes per game puts them on pace to make a $21,000 increase to this year’s Community 3’s recipient.
Unfortunately, the Wizards’ outside shooting efficiency hasn’t been the only percentage increasing in the District. While preliminary results of the District 2013 homeless count reflects a slight decline in family homelessness, the number of homeless persons in families rose steadily from 2008 to 2012.
“Family homelessness is something that is growing and continues to grow, especially in D.C.” Allen said. “There are a lot of factors coming together that makes it difficult for our homeless families to survive.“
While kids are of particular interest, Bright Beginnings’s services are directed toward combating family homelessness as a whole.
“We don’t like to say that we’re just childcare. We provide family care,” said Allen, who explained the center provides services to children and parents alike in an attempt to create an all-encompassing family development program. “We try to be very comprehensive and holistic in our approach.”
With just over half of their funding coming from private sources, corporate donations like those provided by CareFirst through Community 3’s are critical in Bright Beginnings’s ability to combat these rising rates. However, while Allen says the financial support is important, it is the visibility that joining Community 3’s brings that is of particular importance.
“Our partnership [with the Wizards] is putting us in front of people that may have never heard of us or didn’t know there was even a need for us,” she said.
