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New York Yankee Derek Jeter donates money to help troubled teenagers E-mail
New York Yankee Derek Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation donated $500,000 to Phoenix House for an outpatient program for troubled teenagers with drug abuse issues.
Phoenix House has been helping both adults and teenagers since 1967 and it is the biggest non-profit substance abuse treatment and prevention facility in the U.S. Every day, in almost a hundred residential and outpatient programs in nine different states more than 5,000 people are treated.
The foundation will partner up with the Tampa Recreation Department in April along with the Yankees in order to put up clinics for the teens at Legends Field. This would be an expansion of a program which was done before in New York and Kalamazoo, Michigan.

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The foundation is also helping pre-teen girls in particular in order to develop their self-respect and encourage a healthy lifestyle by forming a Tampa chapter of Girls on the Run. Hopefully, running will be much more than a positive pick-me-up for the day and leave a lasting sense of self-respect in the girls.
During the annual charity golf event at Avila, Jeter said "We've grown a lot the last few years here in Tampa, and hopefully we can continue to do a lot more." This year’s charity golf event was also supported by actor Morgan Freeman, former NBA great Michael Jordan and other popular athletes.
Charles, Jeter’s father and director of the foundation, divulged that the foundation has shared more than $8 million with programs for teens through its 12 years and more than a million dollars went to those groups in the Tampa Bay area.
Of these donations, the Phoenix House project will be the most prominent, yet Jeter and the foundation wish to aid even more by finding a residential facility they could help out with.
But Jeter wants to give more than money.
"The reason I started this foundation is that I wanted to be involved," Jeter said. "I want to be hands-on. I want to have the opportunity to meet kids, hear what they have to say, see how well the foundation has been doing, what it means to them. And more importantly, get an opportunity to talk to the parents. This has been a lot of fun for us. It's been a learning process, we've learned a lot over the 12 years, but it seems that we just continue to grow and get better."
 
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