Atlanta Junior Bridge

We've come a long way since our inception!

We struck gold at the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) conference in November 2023. The response was overwhelmingly positive and 36 teachers started bridge programs at their schools in the months following.

Since March 2024, Jump Start Bridge has exhibited at 8 state gifted teacher conferences. And the results to date:

• 147 School Bridge Lesson Programs

• 5,378 Students enrolled

• 21 states, 2 provinces

Upcoming Conferences

• 2024 – National Association for Gifted Children Conference in November, plus 2 additional state gifted conferences.

• 2025 – National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference in February 2025 and 8 gifted conferences.

Immediate Needs

Due to the huge success in recent months, we are anticipating a funding shortfall in 2025. The average cost of a school program is $350. Since October, we have registered 91 new programs. We are expecting another 30 programs before the end of the year and another 100 programs in first four months of 2025. Plus many of our current programs will be moving on to the second series of lessons and will need the new student workbooks.

WHAT WE'VE DONE THIS LAST YEAR!

Training for Volunteers

Two training sessions were held to prepare bridge teachers and players to work exhibit booths at their state conferences.

We had 40 bridge enthusiasts participate. JSB now has 30 trained volunteers who can recruit local volunteers and run a JSB exhibition booth at their states gifted teacher conference. And JSB now has an additional 10+ support people to help in organization, fundraising, marketing, and logistics.

Conference Material

• Four (4) complete exhibit booth setups have been assembled that will be sent to those organizing and running conferences. ACBL is warehousing them and handling the shipping – sending them out for each conference to the organizer for that area, and then receiving it back and restocking.

• ACBL Marketing and Education staff assisted in the redesign of the conference signage, posters and brochures. And the ACBL Bulletin staff has created an ongoing page in the bulletin tracking JSB’s successes.

• An Exhibit Booth is also sent to every NABC and has provided great visibility in promoting the program. We have had significant traffic and opportunities to speak with bridge players from all over the country who are interested in raising bridge awareness for youth in their communities.

Immediate Plans

• Complete the design and development of the next eight lessons for the Jump Start Bridge school curriculum before year-end 2024.

• Define strengths of those already involved and assign responsibilities in line with individual skill sets.

• Encourage teachers who are involved in the program to recruit other teachers by offering to supply refreshments and swag if they have an inter- or intra- school game at the end of each school semester.

• Encourage local clubs and units (if multiple classes exist in their area) to host a week-long bridge camp during the summer with weekly play opportunities to follow.

• Create city or county championships in areas with a large concentration of programs.

WHAT IS OUR NEXT DIRECTION!

• Look at colleges with strong teaching programs and those that offer Continuing Education classes for schoolteachers during the summer. We need to identify who in the bridge community has connections to these colleges.

• Create a tournament template and offer financial support to areas that will hold summer classes for youth culminating in city tournaments, state tournaments and perhaps a youth GNT or youth NAOP where each district has teams competing.

Jump Start Bridge has several additional ideas for expanding the JSB schoolteacher/student platform to make even more significant inroads into the school system and increase visibility and access to bridge for our youth.