About

01 Why it Matters

Owing our own culture

Streetball is more than a game—it’s a cultural institution built by non-immigrant Black Americans. It’s where creativity, resilience, and leadership are forged, outside traditional systems and on our own terms.

But while streetball gave basketball its soul, the underserved communities it came from have yet to benefit from the industries it built.

GWYP exists to change that.

02 our Mission

Blacktop power

Grow Where You Are Planted (GWYP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to empowering at-risk youth streetball players in underserved communities by turning the game into a foundation for economic power.

We’re turning the blacktop into a place of transformation, where streetball culture is used to deliver real-world training in construction, cooperative ownership, and career preparation. It’s where youth learn to build, lead, and own—using the court as their foundation.

03 our story

Love + Basketball

My wife Christine and I (James) were tired of seeing raw talent in underserved communities go unnoticed, with young hoopers full of potential but lacking the resources to turn their skills into real opportunities.

We decided that the best way to be the change that we wanted to see, was to do it ourselves. In February 2023, we founded Grow Where You are Planted (GWYP) as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Our biggest mission when we started GWYP was to use streetball to cultivate the inherent strengths of underserved communities—and that remains our mission today.