The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis is home to the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, which was established in 1988. After her retirement in 2001, Jackie was able to focus more on her foundation. The organization focuses on providing the disadvantaged youth in St. Louis (Jackie's hometown) an opportunity to reach their goals and dreams in life. The foundation provides athletic and educational programs to help children succeed (via JJK Foundation).
The JJK Center provides reading programs and career days, as well as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs that focus on robotics, architectural design, life sciences, math, and physical sciences. The foundation also has partnerships with school districts in order to offer better enrichment programs to struggling students. Additionally, the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation offers summer camps to youths ages 6 to 18 years. Furthermore, they follow the Winning in Life curriculum, which focuses on several life skills (confidence, self-respect, dedication, values, and others) that are integrated in the programs they offer.
In an interview with New York Daily News, Joyner-Kersee talked about the work her foundation does. "Besides sports, we also have them do their homework and read books. If you produce great people, those people will do great things. Whatever career they choose to be great in, we teach them to be on time, be respectful, listen and be coachable," she said.
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