In a time of need, Isaiah Thomas and Chris Woods’ hoops camp provides Philly kids with a ‘safe space’

The Isaiah Thomas and Chris Woods basketball camp operates with intention.

The three-week August camp that comes at no cost to campers started at Sankofa Freedom Academy. And for the last 10 years, it’s been strategically scheduled during a slower programming period in an effort to keep Philadelphia kids active in a protected environment.

Last week, the mother of a camper sent Councilmember Thomas an Instagram message that validated their approach. When there was a shooting on her block, she was grateful to see a video posted of her daughter playing basketball in a safe space.

“Messages like this make it all worth it,” he replied.

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Thomas started the camp with about 40 kids for a week in 2012. The Thomas and Woods foundation helped the summer program make strides in 2015, and it now runs for three weeks at three gyms for the first time.

“When I lost my [second City Council] race in 2015, that was the first time I raised that type of money,” Thomas said. “We felt like if we could raise that much money for politics, we can do things that are not political to put some resources in neighborhoods.”

Thomas and Woods, a former district union leader, grew up together and met playing basketball. They hoped to create similar opportunities by starting the foundation in 2015 and funneling resources into the summer camp. They branded it as part of a 501(c)(3) entity and grew from there.

The foundation simultaneously runs Basketball Beyond Buckets and Youth Leagues, a year-round program for high school students to play basketball and get standardized test practice. There’s also a Martin Luther King Day Speech Contest and a Thanksgiving Turkey drive.

Many of the conversations Thomas has with participating families about community issues translate directly to the work he and his staff do from their third-floor office.

“When you’re in City Hall and travel to Center City every day, you become distant, subconsciously,” Thomas said. “You start to live in a bubble. … This informs my work as a councilmember because it puts me in a position to understand the music they listen to, the culture they have, what it means to be a child in a pandemic, and their perspective on some of the crime that we see.”

Week 1 of Thomas and Woods’ camp ran at Sankofa in Kensington, where Thomas coaches the boys’ basketball team. The camp went to Audenried Charter in South Philly for Week 2 and the final session will be at Finley Recreation Center in Northwest Philly.

Roughly 65 of the 100 kids, ages 4 to 16, attend multiple sessions. So Thomas keys in on different basketball themes each week while mixing in arts and crafts and other educational programming.

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The Sankofa theme was kinesiology. Campers spent time in the weight room, doing yoga and learning about fitness — something Thomas says kids are less likely to do on their own. Audenried honed in on skill development. Campers worked on ballhandling, pick-and-roll situations, and moving without the ball. For the final week at Finley, Thomas said they’re going to be heavier on games and competitions for the 10-year anniversary theme.

Thomas’ favorite part of camp is the diversity in its guest speakers. They range from college coaches like Rider assistant Dino Presley to elected officials like State Rep. Jordan Harris and Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson.

“I try to bring as many different types of speakers to the camp as possible,” Thomas said. “The basketball part is cool, but the guest speaker is always a time when you can use basketball to teach life.”

Many of the counselors who aid Thomas and Woods went through the camp themselves.

Jaymes Savage is in his third year helping out. He played for Thomas at Sankofa before going to Rutgers-Camden, where he’s a junior. Savage is an only child and said going to the camp growing up always kept him busy and got him out of the house during the summer.

“Some of these kids, I don’t even know if they like basketball,” he said. “It’s just a fun experience because they’re around kids their age.”

For Thomas, it’s about providing a foundation that can carry his campers through to adulthood, not whether they care about sports.

“The goal was to give young people an opportunity to meet each other through sports,” he said. “To be able to network and use sports to help them navigate their way through life.”