Youth Partnerships

Building a healthier world through youth programming

Within our mission to build a healthier world, The McCourt Foundation supports life-changing youth health & wellness programs for school age kids in the Greater Los Angeles region. Through these programs we have supported 75,000 students across the Los Angeles Marathon Finish Line through Students Run LA and helped more than 36,000 elementary school students complete their 26th mile at Dodger Stadium in partnership with the LA Unified School District and Beyond the Bell's 26th Mile program.  These programs are proven models that have spawned similar programming around the country.

 

The 26th Mile is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s “Beyond the Bell” Youth Development Program, teaching students the importance of combining healthy nutritional choices with physical activity.  Each year approximately 25,000 students take part in this program. Students run 26 over this 8-week program. Approximately, 7,000 run their 26th mile at Dodger Stadium on the Sunday before the Marathon in celebration of health & wellness. TMF is an operating partner with LAUSD in this program.

Each year, SRLA welcomes more than 3,250 students from 200 public schools across Greater Los Angeles and of all backgrounds and abilities to train alongside their 550 volunteer teachers to complete the Los Angeles Marathon. Through this life-changing experience, students discover their best selves and learn how to plan for the future. Over the 34-year history of the program more than 75,000 students have finished the Marathon. 99% of SRLA students who started the 2023 Marathon finished it. Approximately the same percentage graduated from high school with college plans. Many will be the first to attend college in their families. 

The McCourt Foundation and The Los Angeles Marathon are proud to offer our legacy youth programs as part of our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The McCourt Foundation provides the financial, the structural support, the resources entries for students to run the LA Marathon. McCourt Foundation is one of the donors that SRLA could not survive without, and my students know that they paid zero for this program.”

- Brian Pfeffer, Board Member, Students Run LA