August 7, 2023 • 7 mins
Kenny Holdsman serves as PYB’s President and CEO as well as a co-founder of PYB. In his role, Kenny oversees all aspects of the organization including strategic planning; fund development; board development and engagement; community partnerships; program design, implementation, and evaluation; budget and finance; and operations.He has been involved with empowering young minds for many years through education, leadership, character development, mentorship, family involvement, and high-quality opportunities both in schools and in communities. Kenny has been a vital part of many successful organizations such as serving as the President of Legacy Youth Tennis and Education (formerly Arthur Ashe) from February 2009 to June 2015. Kenny attended Cheltenham High School, Lehigh University, as well as Temple University School of Law.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I'm a rain ballot marl with CEOsyou should know, brought to you by
Comcast Business. I'm Kenny Holtzman.I'm one of five co founders of Philadelphia
Youth Basketball, and I also serveas the organization's CEO and chief cook and
bottle washer. Describe your organization atits mission, So PYB at its core
is a youth development and community empowermentorganization, homegrown right here in Philadelphia,
(00:25):
and our great intention is to createtransformative opportunities for thousands of young people to
self determine as human beings, asstudents, as community leaders, and building
a life for them that has value, maybe even beyond what they could have
dreamed up or what their circumstances mightafford them. And how do you do
(00:45):
that? We do that through arange of programming. A lot of it
ties basketball with civic engagement, academicsupport, social and emotional learning, work
based career exposure, entrepreneurship. Butit's really about helping young people identify passion
and purpose. But at the endof the day, all of that requires
(01:07):
a deep trusting relationship. So forus, the superpower is the relatability and
the care of our coach mentors,many of whom come from identical communities and
circumstances as the young people whom theyinteract with on a daily basis. You
certainly have a passion for uplifting youngpeople and all the work that you've done,
(01:30):
and I wonder if you can tellus a little more about what drives
you, what drives you to cocreate an organization like this. In many
ways, what drives me is asense of opportunity and access, or put
less positively, disparity. We havea city and region that is in many
(01:51):
ways filled with abundance and desire anopportunity, yet at the same time,
for a lot of young people,especially kids from communities of color and lower
income communities, there isn't the sameset of opportunities, and we need to
create the conditions, the pathways,the sense of love and empowerment in young
(02:12):
people so they can believe in themselvesand create big dreams and have a legitimate
shot to go execute on those dreams. Tell us about the successes that you've
had so far. We have builta program and an organization that is robust,
impactful, and inclusive. And althoughit's taken us, coming now on
(02:32):
nine years to build a holistic,one hundred thousand square foot state of the
art center. We are well underway, so that's six months out from being
completed. And it's a thirty sixmillion dollar center in the middle of Nicetown
of North Philadelphia. And it isn'tjust the what that we've accomplished that at
(02:55):
least I'm most proud of. It'sthe how and with whom. So when
we say we are building a transformativeprogram, organization and center of by,
for and with the community, that'snot just mere rhetoric for us. That's
actionable, intentional approach from the beginningin twenty fifteen, about who serves on
(03:19):
the staff team, who's in theboardroom, who were the key vendors who
deliver goods and services for a feeto the organization, In what way do
we honor the voices of young peopleand their families. So at a time
when racial equity for all the rightreasons was really lifted up during the pandemic
and after the killings of George Floydand Brianna Taylor, this has been this
(03:43):
racial equity work for PYB has beenactionable and embedded into our core way of
being since the very inception other successstories. We just had a youth entrepreneurship
program that finished where we taught twelveyoung people in Philadelphia, all from Philadelphia
public schools, about the art andthe science of building a company. And
(04:06):
there was a young man named NaserPowell from Simon Gratz High School who was
the winner of the Shark Tank,the culminating activity at the end of that
program, and he got a businesscoach and ten thousand dollars of seed money
to grow his company Cookies Lawn Careto employ younger people in North Philadelphia,
(04:28):
and Naser will have the contract tokeep our campus cleaning and he goes to
school six blocks away at Simon Gratz. Wow, that's amazing. I always
end with a fun question, andso this fun question is if you had
a superpower, what superpower would youchoose for yourself? And why? Well,
(04:49):
the superpower that I have, Ithink in abundance is persistence and tenacity.
And in a world where social actis really hard, building an organization
bringing an amazing set of colleagues andboard members and partners and supporters together,
(05:10):
it requires real tenacity. And similarto the game of baseball, you might
get into the Hall of Fame ifyou bat three hundred. What that means
is seven out of ten times whenyou ask somebody to participate, you might
get a maybe, a no,You might be ignored in the ability to
be dogged in the pursuit of themission is something that I think I have
(05:35):
in great ways. At times,I think it can come off as a
bit overbearing or a bit much,but be that as it may. That's
my superpower, and by extension,I think it's the superpower of PYB.
If people want more information about PYB, where do they go? If people
want to find out more about PhiladelphiaYouth Basketball, our website is www Philly
(06:00):
Youth Basketball dot org. We're alsoon every social media platform and that's the
first point of entry. But ifpeople want to actually speak with a member
of the staff team, we havesixteen unbelievable carrying, mission aligned colleagues who
love to talk and show and engage. So a visit to program, a
(06:24):
visit to the future Center is alwayswelcome. There's nothing like being with young
people in a classroom or a gym, or being on our construction site with
a hard hat to truly appreciate theway that we're trying to knit together youth
development, with workforce development, withcommunity development, all with a really purposeful
(06:45):
approach to racial equity and inclusiveness.CEOs you Should Know brought to you by
Comcast Business, offering the complete connectivitysolution, cybersecurity, Internet and mobile all
from one provider, Comcast Business,powering possibilities
I'm a rain ballot marl with CEOsyou should know, brought to you by
Comcast Business. I'm Kenny Holtzman.I'm one of five co founders of Philadelphia
Youth Basketball, and I also serveas the organization's CEO and chief cook and
bottle washer. Describe your organization atits mission, So PYB at its core
is a youth development and community empowermentorganization, homegrown right here in Philadelphia,
(00:25):
and our great intention is to createtransformative opportunities for thousands of young people to
self determine as human beings, asstudents, as community leaders, and building
a life for them that has value, maybe even beyond what they could have
dreamed up or what their circumstances mightafford them. And how do you do
(00:45):
that? We do that through arange of programming. A lot of it
ties basketball with civic engagement, academicsupport, social and emotional learning, work
based career exposure, entrepreneurship. Butit's really about helping young people identify passion
and purpose. But at the endof the day, all of that requires
(01:07):
a deep trusting relationship. So forus, the superpower is the relatability and
the care of our coach mentors,many of whom come from identical communities and
circumstances as the young people whom theyinteract with on a daily basis. You
certainly have a passion for uplifting youngpeople and all the work that you've done,
(01:30):
and I wonder if you can tellus a little more about what drives
you, what drives you to cocreate an organization like this. In many
ways, what drives me is asense of opportunity and access, or put
less positively, disparity. We havea city and region that is in many
(01:51):
ways filled with abundance and desire anopportunity, yet at the same time,
for a lot of young people,especially kids from communities of color and lower
income communities, there isn't the sameset of opportunities, and we need to
create the conditions, the pathways,the sense of love and empowerment in young
(02:12):
people so they can believe in themselvesand create big dreams and have a legitimate
shot to go execute on those dreams. Tell us about the successes that you've
had so far. We have builta program and an organization that is robust,
impactful, and inclusive. And althoughit's taken us, coming now on
(02:32):
nine years to build a holistic,one hundred thousand square foot state of the
art center. We are well underway, so that's six months out from being
completed. And it's a thirty sixmillion dollar center in the middle of Nicetown
of North Philadelphia. And it isn'tjust the what that we've accomplished that at
(02:55):
least I'm most proud of. It'sthe how and with whom. So when
we say we are building a transformativeprogram, organization and center of by,
for and with the community, that'snot just mere rhetoric for us. That's
actionable, intentional approach from the beginningin twenty fifteen, about who serves on
(03:19):
the staff team, who's in theboardroom, who were the key vendors who
deliver goods and services for a feeto the organization, In what way do
we honor the voices of young peopleand their families. So at a time
when racial equity for all the rightreasons was really lifted up during the pandemic
and after the killings of George Floydand Brianna Taylor, this has been this
(03:43):
racial equity work for PYB has beenactionable and embedded into our core way of
being since the very inception other successstories. We just had a youth entrepreneurship
program that finished where we taught twelveyoung people in Philadelphia, all from Philadelphia
public schools, about the art andthe science of building a company. And
(04:06):
there was a young man named NaserPowell from Simon Gratz High School who was
the winner of the Shark Tank,the culminating activity at the end of that
program, and he got a businesscoach and ten thousand dollars of seed money
to grow his company Cookies Lawn Careto employ younger people in North Philadelphia,
(04:28):
and Naser will have the contract tokeep our campus cleaning and he goes to
school six blocks away at Simon Gratz. Wow, that's amazing. I always
end with a fun question, andso this fun question is if you had
a superpower, what superpower would youchoose for yourself? And why? Well,
(04:49):
the superpower that I have, Ithink in abundance is persistence and tenacity.
And in a world where social actis really hard, building an organization
bringing an amazing set of colleagues andboard members and partners and supporters together,
(05:10):
it requires real tenacity. And similarto the game of baseball, you might
get into the Hall of Fame ifyou bat three hundred. What that means
is seven out of ten times whenyou ask somebody to participate, you might
get a maybe, a no,You might be ignored in the ability to
be dogged in the pursuit of themission is something that I think I have
(05:35):
in great ways. At times,I think it can come off as a
bit overbearing or a bit much,but be that as it may. That's
my superpower, and by extension,I think it's the superpower of PYB.
If people want more information about PYB, where do they go? If people
want to find out more about PhiladelphiaYouth Basketball, our website is www Philly
(06:00):
Youth Basketball dot org. We're alsoon every social media platform and that's the
first point of entry. But ifpeople want to actually speak with a member
of the staff team, we havesixteen unbelievable carrying, mission aligned colleagues who
love to talk and show and engage. So a visit to program, a
(06:24):
visit to the future Center is alwayswelcome. There's nothing like being with young
people in a classroom or a gym, or being on our construction site with
a hard hat to truly appreciate theway that we're trying to knit together youth
development, with workforce development, withcommunity development, all with a really purposeful
(06:45):
approach to racial equity and inclusiveness.CEOs you Should Know brought to you by
Comcast Business, offering the complete connectivitysolution, cybersecurity, Internet and mobile all
from one provider, Comcast Business,powering possibilities
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