SARATOGA COUNTY EXTENDS DEADLINE FOR YOUTH PROGRAM FUNDING

BALLSTON SPA, NY – The Saratoga County Department of Aging & Youth Services has extended the deadline for applications for Youth TEAMS Programming funding to August 19, 2025. Municipalities, nonprofit, and community-based organizations with programs that provide team sports programs for youth may be eligible for funding.

Youth Team Sports (YTS) is grounded in the principles of positive youth development. It is intended to provide support to local team sports programs across New York State in communities where such programs may be scarce or under-resourced.  YTS has a sole focus on team sports.  For the purposes of YTS, a “team sport” is defined as an organized physical activity in which groups of two or more individuals compete with two or more opposing individuals. 

 Programs eligible for funding must meet the criteria below:

• Provide team sports activities for youth under age 18 in under-resourced communities.

• Operate in New York State.

• Demonstrate basic competency in the areas of governance, monitoring and evaluation, partnership, and financial stewardship.

• Have a child protection policy in place that includes adherence to local city, agency, school district, and state child protection guidelines.

• Have the ability to collect registration data, including participant demographic information, as required by OCFS in a manner that allows for accurate reporting of anonymized aggregate data.

 Organizations, expenditures, and activities not eligible for funding are the following:

• For-profit organizations or businesses.

• Private foundations, as defined in section 509(a) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.

• Organizations that discriminate based on age, ethnicity/race, political affiliation, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or other disability, national origin, or any protected characteristic under local, state, and/or federal law.

• Research or project-planning activities.

• Elite or private sports camps, programs, or teams.

• Endowments, memorials, budget deficits, or fundraising activities.

• Religious organizations whose sports programs do not have a secular and community focus.

• Lobbying, political, or fraternal activities.

• Capital projects.

Funding is made available through the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. 

Required forms and additional information about funding eligibility requirements and grant eligibility criteria are available on saratogacountyny.gov/youth. For more information, please call (518) 884-4100.