L.E.A.D. ambassadors, young baseball players and members of the Atlanta Police Department team

L.E.A.D. provides structure for Atlanta’s Black youth students

L.E.A.D. helps Black Boys In Atlanta

A sports-based youth development organization called Launch, Expose, Advise, Direct, or L.E.A.D., which aims to help Black boys in low-income households break out of the cycle of poverty and incarceration in their neighborhoods through the game of baseball.

Stewart and his wife, Kelli Stewart, with a goal that extends far beyond winning on the field. Stewart, 44, knows about their neighborhoods because he is a product of them. He grew up in inner-city Atlanta and his love of baseball gave him a reason to stay out of trouble, he said.

“[Baseball] was the goal. It was my reason for living. It was my reason to say no to drugs,” Stewart said. “It was the tip of the spear for me for everything.”

Stewart went on to play baseball for Georgia State University and then played professionally for the Chicago Cubs organization. He’s now a successful batting coach who has developed some of the game’s top professional players such as the Cubs’ Jason Heyward and St. Louis Cardinals’ Dexter Fowler.

When a client asked Stewart about the decreasing number of Black baseball players and what he was doing about it a lightbulb went off. The percentage of Black MLB players was just 6.7% in 2016, down from a high of 18.7% in 1981, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

He decided that he would go back to the neighborhood where he grew up to help people using the sport he loves.

“We really use baseball as a vehicle to help Black boys overcome crime, poverty, and racism,” Stewart said about the program. Each year, the program hosts tryouts for young men who attend Atlanta Public Schools. Players, who they call “ambassadors,” are expected to uphold the highest standards in school and in life.

“Grades, attendance, behavior, and community service — that’s how our boys earn their opportunity,” Kelli Stewart said. “Pay-to-play opportunities are out of reach for them, but getting good grades, good behavior and attendance in school and completing community service hours [are] well within their reach.”

Stewart likes to compare the program to the Navy SEALs because if expectations are not met, the young men will be cut.

“Expectations [are] an empowering thing,” Stewart said. “We’re saying, ‘We expect you to meet the standard. We believe you can do it. Here are the resources that you need. But if you don’t, the accountability will be swift and clear.'”

With hard work comes rewards and opportunities. On top of playing travel baseball and getting recruited by college coaches for free, the teens also take part in networking opportunities with some of Atlanta’s top business leaders and politicians.

The program boasts a staggering graduation rate. Since its start in 2007, 100% of the students have graduated from high school, 93% enroll in college and 90% of them enroll with scholarships, according to Kelli Stewart. Several young men have gone on to get college degrees, while some have enrolled in the Army, finished master’s programs, and started careers at top companies in the Atlanta area.

“The most rewarding aspect of founding L.E.A.D. is giving our boys the knowledge that they have someone in their corner,” Kelli Stewart said. “Day to day, they’re battling homelessness, battling stability … you can get to a point where you have no hope because you have no help. For the young men who are a part of L.E.A.D., they see people willing to help make a change in their lives.”

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