The Shoot Your Shot Literacy & Life Skills Program began from the growing needs that founder Dana Burns saw every day with young people in her community of South Phoenix during the height of COVID-19.

Schools and community centers were closed, and students were not only sliding back academically, but they were missing the personal connection with others, causing depression, isolation, mental health issues, and even suicide. These negative impacts from COVID only added to the ongoing stresses that low-income families were struggling with each day.

Determined to help, she discovered Vernon Brundage Jr.’s book, Shoot Your Shot: A Sport-Inspired Guide to Living Your Best Life, and leveraging the lessons within, she created the Shoot Your Shot Literacy & Life Skills Program, and launched the pilot program in 2020.

The Shoot Your Shot Literacy & Life Skills Program’s goal is to strengthen students’ skills in reading, writing, vocabulary, and comprehension, while helping them examine and develop in the areas of self-confidence, decision-making, accountability, and purpose. Serving up to 50 students in each cohort/semester in grades 5-12, the 12-week, immersive program leads students through 12 different modules focused on specific life topics, and includes weekly reading assignments, vocabulary study, essays, chapter tests, and group discussion.

Weekly modules include: Removing Limitations, Personal Responsibility, Decision-Making, Your Purpose and Strengths, Goal Setting, Following-Through, Mindset for Success, Becoming a Leader, Overcoming Adversity, Accepting Loss, and Health: Physical/Mental/Emotional.

Modules are held on Saturdays for two-hours, and are led by A Permanent Voice Executive Director Dana Burns and Coach Erik Hood. At the end of the program, students are presented with a certificate of completion at a special graduation celebration event attended by Shoot Your Shot’s author, Vernon Brundage, Jr.