What started as a small sports camp in Connecticut, emphasizing multi-sport play over specialization, has grown into a worldwide movement to keep sports fun and accessible. Still true to our founding principles, 2-4-1 CARE knows kids thrive in structured, fun, play-filled environments. We harness the power of play to ensure underserved youth can grow confidence, resilience, and social-emotional development.
Your support of 2-4-1 ensures all kids get the opportunity to play, which helps build resilience, confidence, leadership, and belonging. Through 2-4-1's evidence-based free school and community programming, kids experience social-emotional learning (SEL) alongside the joy of sports.
Still based in Connecticut, we now operate across 8 states and countries, reaching over 3,000 students aged K-12 annually. Since our origins, over 30,000 kids across our home state of Connecticut, as well as Colorado, Boston, New York City, Washington, DC, Maryland, North Carolina, Vancouver, Kenya, and Zambia, have joined the 2-4-1 family, sampling multiple sports, making meaningful connections, building resilience, and discovering the power of play.
We are thrilled to operate in the Metro Denver and Boulder areas, and we rely on your support to close opportunity and achievement gaps for Colorado youth by supporting free access to our play programming.
Learn more about 2-4-1 at our website. Donors interested in supporting 2-4-1's programs directly through sport can apply to run with Team 2-4-Run in the 2025 Eversource Hartford Marathon.
To provide all children the opportunity to grow physically and emotionally through the play-filled power of sport.
The concept that Life’s 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport™ was our inspiration to launch a one-week sport sampling camp, which has swelled into a movement we now refer to simply as 2-4-1.
We have a history of making a positive impact on children and their future. In 2014, The Aspen Institute’s Project Play recognized 2-4-1 as a leader in sports sampling and invited our founders, Steve and Kerry Boyle, to help craft their call to action, aimed at supporting youth sport participation focused on physical literacy and addressing a long-standing and increasing disparity in youth sport participation across socioeconomic backgrounds.
Beyond household income limitations, many cities and towns struggle with competing priorities, resulting in reduced budgets for parks, recreation, and youth sports. To combat these systemic barriers to youth physical, mental, and behavioral development, we have expanded our partnerships nationally with Title I school districts to provide enrichment programs using our evidence-based and research-driven play programs.
Organization name
2-4-1 CARE
other names
2-4-1 Sports
2008
Tax id (EIN)
87-4014880
Category
Youth Development, Recreation & Sports, Education, Mental Health & Crisis Intervention
Organization Size
Large Organization
Address
1429 PARK STREETHartford, CT, US
Denver, CO, US
Boulder County, CO, US
Nairobi, Nairobi County, KE
Washington, DC, US