Toronto Blue Jays Embody Social Responsibility

For baseball fans the winter months are tortuous, and as we move closer to Major League Baseball opening day, let us look at social responsibility in sports, focusing on baseball. The first team to be profiled will be my team, the Toronto Blue Jays. Social responsibility in sports is very important because of the fact that baseball players are looked up to by children. If the team and organization are being socially conscious and are advertising the good deeds that they do, they will serve to inspire others and perhaps affect change.

So what exactly is it that the Blue Jays organization does?  Well, the Roger’s Center ballpark has an impressive commitment to being green that the Blue Jays share. However the focus of this article is the Jays Care Foundation. According to their website “since 1992, Jays Care Foundation has been empowering children and youth in need, inspiring them to make positive choices and helping them realize their dreams by providing access to programs that support physical activity, education, and life-skill development.” The mission statement of the Jays Care Foundation demonstrates the importance of Social responsibility in sports because they have such a positive impact on the community around them.

The Jays have had quite an impact on the city of Toronto, as they give back to the city that the players call home a few months a year. The Field of Dreams program started in 2000, “as a seven year $1-million commitment to the City of Toronto, Parks and Recreation Division for the refurbishment and restoration of baseball and softball fields, Field of Dreams has grown to now include the funding of capital project initiatives for the development of “safe youth spaces” where kids can play, learn and grow! The expansion of Field of Dreams has allowed Jays Care to outfit all eight YMCA Health, Recreation, and Fitness Centers in Toronto with baseball equipment for its Youth Sports Leadership curriculum.”

The ball club also awards Grand Slam Grants, semi-annually, to organizations that “focus on physical activity, education, and life-skill development for children and youth in need.” Beyond focusing on physical activities and safe spaces, they want to be able to give disadvantaged youth the chance to graduate high school and go to university or college. This is done through Home Run Scholars, which insures “that at-risk students enrolled in the Pathways program will graduate from high school and have funds available for post-secondary education.”

On a more lighthearted note, the “foundation partners with Toronto Community Housing to operate Rookie League, a summer-long baseball day camp for kids living in Toronto Community Housing Neighborhoods. Blue Jays centerfielder Vernon Wells serves as Rookie League’s Honourary Commissioner, with Honourary Division Captains Aaron Hill and Lyle Overbay joining Vernon in supporting the program and its participants.”

The Toronto Blue Jays embody what social responsibility in sports means, they have accomplished this through grants, monetary donations and the time of the players.  Kudos to the Jays for giving back to a community which has supported them over the past 34 years.