InnerCity Tennis is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization located in Minneapolis, Minnesota that has 56 years of experience linking character, self esteem building and physical education with inner-city youth.

Kidspeed is the method ICT uses to help young children subtly build confidence, hope, and a “can do” attitude. It utilizes physical and athletic skill development stations that - most simply put - make learning fun! Kidspeed creates a nurturing, fast-paced, educational environment. Kids rotate from station to station in quick seven minute intervals trying their hand at a variety of physical and athletic skills. There is a tremendous variety from station to station, but all the stations are designed so that they can be mastered with the proper coaching and practice. Our goal is to have kids leave our program saying, “I had fun, I was good at it,” and “I want to do it again!”


The ICT program differentiates itself in three ways:

Coach, Mentor Tutors (CMT’s)
ICT currently has over 100 CMTs, adults and seniors ages 20 to 85, who volunteer as coaches, mentors and tutors for kids in our program. An intergenerational connection between CMTs and children develop that is not always available in the child’s natural environment.

Learnings for Leadership® Curriculum
ICT has identified seven key character assets to nurture and incorporate into the lives of our youngsters for future success: Responsibility, Respect, Teamwork, Enthusiasm, Integrity, Perseverance and Service. Each program that ICT has developed is been designed to build one or more of these assets. This curriculum has been co developed by ICT, The Search Institute, and the University of Minnesota Department of Education.

Tracking Metrics
We are gathering data that demonstrates the efficacy of our programming. Working together with the Search Institute, we have developed metrics to track kids' development of the seven core values our program strives to build. The outcomes have been very encouraging, kids are improving!