Meet Kristin Hodge

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin Hodge.

Kristin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I originally come from Utah, the West Valley area where I attended Taylorsville High until my junior year of high school. My mom had a job transfer that took her to Phoenix, Arizona and I chose to stay to finish high school and moved in with my Dad. I originally intended to simply finish high school in Utah and then go to College in Arizona, but life happens and my road was just not easy as a teen. I really needed a new start, so I made the decision to move to be with my mom the middle of my junior year. I attended Tempe High School and graduated the following year. I enrolled in Phoenix Junior College for the first year and then enrolled at Arizona State University.

While at ASU, I had made some great friends and took the time to explore all that I was interested in for a career. I remember so vividly having a conversation with some of my friends who had just got drafted to the NFL about when I get out of Law School (for contractual law to be a sports agent) that I could be their agent. They told me ‘you’re a girl, we are not hiring you as our agent’. So, I said ok fine then I’ll run your foundations and events and I did. My first event was a celebrity golf tournament to benefit a charity headed by three Hall of Fame NFL Players and had a full course of celebrities matched with foursomes. The spark fired up inside of me to raise money to fund projects for non-profits, community organizations, and local churches. I began planning events like camps, combines, galas, golf tournaments, bowling tournaments, retreats, fashion shows, talent showcases, and more. The events were exciting but honestly, the organizations that it benefited and the impact it was making in the community was the passion that kept me planning.

As I began to have children and my family size grew, I had to do event planning as a second job and work full time in the corporate world. In my corporate world, I specialized in recruiting, process improvement, employee retention, and management. I loved making life better for the people I was directly or indirectly impact the workforce, what I didn’t enjoy was the volatility of the industries I was in. Company shutdowns, buyouts, and layoffs plagued the telecommunications and mortgage industry. In 2008, the mortgage industry took a big hit and my personal life took a hit as well. So, I had to make changes. As I was talking with one of my friends who played in the NFL, he shared this with me… ‘Kristin, you have to have a plan A, B, C, D, E, F. You can’t just rely on plan A to get you there. That’s how we have to think all the time, so get up and get the plans in place.’ Seems kind of simple but that statement really jumped at me. I began to form the next plans which included what I had been doing on the side.

I traveled to a few states coordinating camps, combines and charity events for some NFL Alumni friends. Then, locally with a business partner in July 2010, I went out to Queen Creek and started a Youth Basketball Academy and Youth Basketball League along with a 4-day Carnival there and across the valley with activities at each location designed to raise money to give back to the needs of children and families in that community. That partnership ended at the beginning of 2012. I knew the work I was doing needed to continue. It became such an overwhelming passion of mine, so I formed and funded a new brand solely in my name and thus RISE was formed. I developed the umbrella The RISE Family, Inc. where under are the branches I am purposed to continue:
RISE Athletics, RISE and DREAM Foundation, RISE Event Planning and the RISE Card.

What I knew in my soul is that I am called to make an impact – whether it is through sports, training, events, and giving back to the families in each of these communities. I began to really shape the purpose of each of these entities and realized this really was the purpose I was created for.

RISE Athletics started with seven kids at a basketball academy and now we consistently host over 1000 kids a year from Kindergarten to 12th that play in our Youth Leagues, Skills Training Sessions/Camps, and AAU Traveling Teams. We also have adult basketball leagues that host approx 350 men and women in 3-4 cities across the valley. These leagues are designed for the adults 18+ to continue to play basketball in a competitive or recreational manner all year long.

RISE and DREAM Foundation started with two families at Christmas time: A single dad and daughter and a single mom with five children. We did a home visit and assessment of their situation and bought them clothes, shoes, toys, food, clothes, hygiene items, beds, and household items to meet their needs. In 2018, we’ve delivered over 7000 articles of clothing/shoes, 6500+ meals to feed children and families, $21k in sports scholarships, along with providing hygiene kits, hair cuts, dental hygiene treatments, backpacks, school supplies, household items/furniture, and Christmas gifts to 300+ families.

Has it been a smooth road?
My road has been completely bumpy and full of a lot of twists and turns. Some of the struggles I’ve experienced along the way are with finding the resources to fund the vision, the true intentions of people that have come into my world, and being prepared to stay on course even when my personal life and health took some changes.

Funding this vision is a job all in itself. It’s a big task that requires resources monetarily, in kind and time. RISE has been completely private funded over the years by me, family/friends, community members, local business and churches. Finding the right team of people that believes in the work we are doing for the children and families is key to us raising the money to keep the programs continuing and expanding them as necessary. So many people have come in saying they will support but really don’t or presented themselves as something they are not. I’ve truly had to learn the true intentions and heart of people. Quite honestly it’s been a huge challenge.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
RISE Athletics is known for specializing in Youth and Adult Basketball Leagues. Our focus is on making an impact on sports. When you step into one of our gyms you can see that we are different from other leagues – we are a family. We are not chasing money and numbers, we are chasing purpose. We focus on building a community through relationships and a solid consistent organization with integrity that you can count on.

In our Adult Leagues, we create leagues in cities across the state so that adult men and women can continue to play the game they love. For athletes, you never lose the desire to compete and so we create the opportunity to compete, stay fit, meet new people and do it in the community you live with the sport you love. We come to the middle before every game to update everyone on opportunities and things happening around us, we find out if anyone has any situations they need special prayer for and we pray for one another. We cover each other and our families in thought and prayer and most of all in love. At the end of the day, we have no idea what each of us if facing, but if we can say a word or spread some joy that helps someone make it through another day, then we have done well.

In our Youth Leagues, we create an environment where kids can play in an organized fashion, with their peers, building and growing their personal game, and giving them experiences they would not otherwise have. We find adult men and women that want to give time back to teaching the youth this beautiful game without an ulterior motive. Most of our coaches are coaching teams that their own kids are not playing on – they just desire to give back. We start as early as preschool and continue through 12th grade playing all year long. Giving kids that love basketball an opportunity to play indoors and not dependent on whether they made the school team or not.

We teamed up with professional players from the NBA, NFL, Overseas, College, etc. to come in and share their story and offer training/life skills development opportunities to make an impact in the lives of these kids in a special way. For those ready to go to the next level, that skills training is at hand for them. These experiences are something that will last a lifetime. Everyone has a story and a journey they’ve gone through. It’s not about what you have had to go through or what you’re living in, it’s about what you are going to do with the choices and decisions you can make every day. The desire to be more and do more.

We are proud to have created three apparel lines that speak to Motivation, Christian encouragement, and Parent athlete support. It’s a movement. It pushes the community and culture forward. Speaking life into people to build them up and not tear them down. Encouragement, motivation, and pushing every day is what we all have to do in our own way every day. This is just a reminder as you put it on that you can trust the process, or refuse to lose or grind hard but pray harder. As I personally have gone through a sever recovery from almost dying to fight my way back to life and strength, I put shirts on that remind me to make it through that day. I become a walking reminder of where my focus needs to be so that I can push through that day and not give up when it becomes hard. I truly hope that every design speaks that kind of life into someone who wears it or reads it. I hope you join the movement! With every purchase, we apply a portion back to our youth scholarship fund. We truly want to make sure no child is left out of playing sports just because their family is facing financial hardship.

RISE and DREAM Foundation specializes in making an impact by Restoring Investing, Strengthening and Empowering the children and families that need it most.

INVEST – We invest in the families essential needs right now. Without handling what the family needs today, we will not be successful in teaching them how to sustain life tomorrow. When someone is hungry, we fill their need, allow them to breathe and then we can begin the next step. The programs in this step include food, hygiene items, clothes/shoes, backpacks, school supplies, household supplies, hair cuts, and dental hygiene needs.

With food, we create bags to send home in backpacks with kids every weekend. They take home two breakfasts and two lunches in a discreet backpack so as to not draw attention to their situation. So many children each these two meals because they are part of the free program at their school so when it comes to the weekend they lack. Teachers and counselors have shared just how much better kids perform in the classroom when they are not hungry. Secondly, we partner with local restaurants to save their food at the end of the night and we pick up weekly then deliver to families in the San Tan Valley, Florence, South Phoenix, and Central Phoenix areas. Right now we pick up from the following restaurants five (5) days a week: Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, Red Lobster, Cheddars, Cheesecake Factory, Outback Steakhouse, Chipotle, and Intel’s Cafeteria. We have seen such an impact with these two programs along with creating hygiene bags to deliver along with food for the kids. When people are hungry, they need so much more than food. You can only imagine the cost to keep you and your families hygiene up – well when people are forced to choose between food, hygiene or keeping the lights on honestly they will choose the lights. We hope to help fill in those gaps.

We also invest in two events: Back To School with a Fresh Start in July/Aug and Adopt The Family For The Holidays in December. These programs are designed to dive deep into the needs of the children and family and truly bring them up a little higher. With both events we will set up tables of new/gently used clothes and shoes for families to go through and pick 5-6 outfits. A local restaurant will cater the meal for the families to enjoy. Hairstylists and Barbers will come in and give every family member a cut or style. A dentist office will give everyone a fluoride treatment and provide dental products needed. Then, for back to school, all the kids will go to a table to pick up a backpack, school supplies for their age and hygiene supplies. For the Holiday program, each family member will receive wrapped gifts including new shoes for everyone, toys for the kids, household items for the parents and things they just overall need. Most years, we have delivered beds, couches, tables, dishes, blankets, etc. It’s all about investing in the family to make a true impact.

STRENGTHEN – Once we’ve supplied their essential needs, we seek to strengthen them internally through Sports & Fitness. Through RISE Athletics youth and adult sports leagues, after school programs, camps, and training sessions we get the whole family in motion and keep them in motion. We are able to include every member of the family whether they play, coach, team parent, volunteer, etc. We encourage them to work as a family on something productive. What you begin to see is the life starts be restored. Feeling hopeful comes back and families start enjoying life again.

RESTORE/EMPOWER – Once we’ve invested in their essential needs and we’ve helped strengthen them, then we begin to restore and empower them by teaching and training them. Giving them the skills to advance in the workplace or build a business: money management and financial literacy for their family; or tutoring and college readiness for the children is essential to getting the family to a place they can maintain themselves. Staying in the same place, with the same mindset will only prove to reap the same results. We seek families with a desire to change their lives and advance their current situation and to give their children a more solid foundation to step out into life on. There is no shame in needing help. We are about love, not judgment. The people on our team have a heart and desire to pour their knowledge and resources back into those who want a change. It’s about taking the things we say and putting them into action with love and care. Some families may get things fixed a year, but others may take three years. Truthfully, if we can show the children in the family right alongside teaching the parents, patterns and mindsets will break and the next generation will go higher and higher. What a true blessing that is to see and be a part of.

#loveinaction
#makinganimpact

When you look back, what are you most proud of?
Honestly, the proudest moment I’ve experienced in my career so far is when a family has said that what RISE has done for them has changed their life and their children’s life. Hearing so many tell me that their kids would not have been able to play sports without RISE or that their family couldn’t have made it through the crisis they were in without our help is just humbling. It helps me know that I’m doing what I was created for and what RISE was created for. I’ve won many awards and given many accolades in my life, but this message and this impact with a family or child directly are what makes me proud about the work I’m doing.

Pricing:

• Youth Sports League with Jerseys $195
• Youth Skills Training for 6 sessions $125
• Adult Basketball League with Jersey $105
• Provide 10 meals to feed children on the weekend $25
• Provide 20 hygiene kits for children $100
• Provide 20 pairs of shoes for children $500
• Give 26 kids a new backpack with school supplies $750
• Provide 12 mentoring/training session for a family $1200

Contact Info:

• Website: www.therisefamilyinc.com
• Phone: 602.391.8876
• Email: kristin@riseathletics.com
• Instagram: IG: @kristin.hodge
• Facebook: FB: KristinHodge
• Twitter: Twitter: @kristinamy71
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinhodge

Image Credit:
Traejun Foard, Malachia Foard, Kristin Hodge, Alexandria Foard, Danielle Foard, Jaelyn Hodge, Cameryn Hodge

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