Sixers’ Assists for Safe Communities helped thousands of local kids. Here’s who will benefit this season.
The Sixers and Penn Medicine are partnering with six new local organizations for the 2025-26 season as part of the team’s Assists for Safe Communities initiative, which donates $76 dollars for every assist the Sixers tally this year.
Ordinarie Heroes, Free All Minds Academy, The Apologues, Open Door Abuse Awareness Prevention, Design FC, and Level Up Philly will each host events with the Sixers and receive a portion of the grant money.
Last season, the team raised $144,476 through the initiative, and a few of those recipients were at the Xfinity Mobile Arena for Monday’s game against the Magic. For Shoot Basketballs Not People, the grant funding helped support the purchase of new uniforms for more than 1,500 local youth basketball players.
» READ MORE: How — and why — Sixers players are giving back to the community: ‘Growing up, I was in those kids’ position’
Tyrique Glasgow, from the Young Chances Foundation, said the grant money from the program helped expand the organization’s summer camp, fund a trip for 42 kids to San Juan, Puerto Rico, support their food and supply drives, and include over 500 more kids in their mentorship program.
“[The kids] were very excited, more excited to be working with the Sixers than with our organization,” Glasgow joked. “It was a lot of games, players, free stuff. Any time you say free basketball, the kids had a smile on their face. It would allow their parents to understand that the organization is doing impactful work for their whole household.”
Sixers forward Adem Bona went on a “Freedom Ride” with the students at the Young Chances Foundation last season, taking a tour of Cliveden of the National Trust.
Bona, still a rookie fighting to crack the rotation at the time, loved getting to meet the students and give them a face-to-face connection with the team. One of them told Bona, who she’d never heard of before that visit, that he was now the “coolest basketball player ever,” which made his day.
“The city, they’re the heartbeat of the team,” Bona said. “Whenever you come in the game, you feel the energy of the fans, you feel the energy of the city, so I think it’s really important to go out there, connect with the city and make them part of the team.”
The 3-0 Sixers recorded 25 more assists — or another $1,900 — in Monday’s win over the Magic, and are averaging about two more (25.7) than they did last season.
