About Us

Vision

Create a stable future for Pilsen as a friendly, connected, safe and resilient neighborhood through empowering parents and the community’s youth.

Mission

ABC-Pilsen’s mission is to strengthen a sense of community in Pilsen, reduce violence and improve the personal trajectory of Pilsen’s underserved children and their families through academics, basketball and community building.

I hope you can help provide opportunities for our youth because I have no-doubt they will be our leaders of tomorrow, thank you in advance for your consideration.. - Alex Anaya

ABC Pilsen began with a dad, who was a high school basketball coach and wanted to help his 2 young children develop their basketball skills. Through word of mouth the program grew tremendously, today the weekly program instills values to 100 plus kids who reside in and around Pilsen.Located on the West Side of Chicago, Pilsen is plagued by violence and gang activity. Sadly over one-third of the children live below poverty level and two-thirds drop out of school. This program has a positive impact on this youth, teaching them teamwork, confidence and leadership skills through basketball.

This experience has helped them keep focus, motivated, and more importantly keeps them clear from negative influences on the streets. The program gives them a chance to showcase skills learned when they participate in tournaments and we’re all a testament that basketball fundamentals go hand-in-hand with self and social responsibility.

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As the program has evolved the children have blossomed with more then just basketball so we adopted the slogan, Athletics through Academics, to reinforce that the lessons learned go beyond the court – emphasizing and prioritizing academics. What started out with a dad’s goal to teach his own children life lessons now provides hope and inspiration to improve self-esteem, family ties, and to yearn for a better future for a hundred plus kids in Pilsen.