Legacy Volleyball Club was created in December 2011 by Afrolatino community member and advocate, Joel Sanchez, with the mission to serve as a youth empowerment organization that offers various programs in underserved communities, exposing youth to new experiences including national travel, competitive play, and collegiate exposure. Volleyball is traditionally an elitist sport, and Legacy brings volleyball to athletes starting as young as four years old through their senior year of high school who are coming from the highest poverty communities in NYC. During its existence of over a decade, Legacy has served more than 12,000 athletes and is the only volleyball club serving athletes in The Bronx and surrounding Harlem areas.
At the heart of Legacy is their Metro Program which formed in 2021 to focus solely on target communities. While Legacy as a whole mainly serves BIPOC youth, the Legacy club leadership wanted to be deliberate with their locations for those that struggle to travel to Throggs Neck. Being in The Bronx Community Boards one and six, the Metro program operates in some of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. With that in mind, Legacy must keep participation costs extremely low for the athletes.
“The communities Metro serves are the soul of our organization and we believe providing a league for members of those communities is of the utmost importance,” said Sanchez.
The Bronx is a large and diverse borough. Legacy’s flagship gym, located in the east Bronx is not necessarily easily accessible to all Bronx youth. On the West side of the Bronx is located Bronx Community Boards one and six. These zip codes have median family incomes below $20,000. Many of the youth may have increased familial or work obligations and may not have the luxury of time to take public transportation across the Bronx for recreation. Sanchez and many other staff understand this personally, as they grew up or reside in these areas. Legacy created programs solely for these neighborhoods.
The nonprofit offers programs for girls, boys, and youth year-round, including 20 travel teams. In June 2022, Legacy applied for the JVA Grant Program and was approved to receive funding to continue to provide the Metro program at little to no cost. The program runs twice weekly for neighborhood residents. This past year a record number of boys and girls joined the program. With the grant money, the club was able to purchase new uniforms and equipment, including…
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