About Beat the Streets

Beat the Streets is a Canadian youth development charity using wrestling, self-defence and skills-based programs to help young people build confidence, resilience and opportunity.

Vision

A world where every young person is empowered to go after their dreams.

Mission

Advance the education of low-income youth in the GTA through fun and unique sports, life skills and employment-based development programs.

Values

Building a community of resilient, confident and active youth.

Poverty can negatively impact a child's academic, social and economic outcomes.

We passionately believe that wrestling and skill-building can change that.

Theory of change

Read our Theory of Change
Our team

Meet our team
Our board

Meet our Board
Impact

Explore our impact
Financials

View our audited financial statements

Our history

Beat the Streets was founded in 2014 by former York University wrestling coach John Park, who believed that the lessons learned through wrestling – discipline, resilience, confidence and community – could help young people thrive on and off the mat. Inspired by established Beat the Streets programs in New York and Philadelphia, the organization began creating free opportunities for youth facing barriers to sport and development.

BTS became a registered Canadian charity in April 2021. Since 2015, it has served more than 30,000 children and youth through wrestling, self-defence, physical literacy, social-emotional learning and employment skill-building programs. While its work has evolved and expanded, its purpose remains simple: to give young people the opportunities, support and skills to recognize their strengths and pursue their potential.

Simply stated, my life, in every way, has been greatly enhanced through my involvement with sport. In my case, it was wrestling. In others, it can be another sport, music, drama or love of the outdoors. The key is passion, surrounding our youth with people of character and giving them the support and tools necessary to believe in themselves. Ultimately, the quest is inwards and helping youth find that inner power inside all of us.
Through my coaching career, I learned firsthand how transformative sport could be. I saw it and experienced it first hand, and to this day, I love the relationship I have developed with so many of those athletes I had the privilege to coach and know.
Once my business career was winding down, I felt it was time to give back, repay some of the coaching, mentoring, support and camaraderie I had received and enjoyed in my youth, and continue to enjoy and pay it forward to another generation.
I believe in our youth. They are now the greatest generation, they are changing the world, and it is our duty and my duty to help them along the way and trust they will find themselves in the process.
BEAT the STREETS is here to assist in that process.
John Park