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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – The United States Tennis Association (USTA) today announced that as part of its continuing efforts to get more children into the sport, it has committed to a three-year partnership with Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA).

The partnership will serve as a platform to promote the USTA’s youth tennis initiative, which will soon take on a wider scope, with more opportunities that promote health and wellness to young people around the nation.

The USTA announced its commitment at PHA’s sixth annual “Building a Healthier Future” Summit in Washington, D.C., where it promoted its initiatives and efforts to support healthy lifestyles for youth and families nationwide, along with other corporations, nonprofits and sports entities in attendance. The event is an opportunity for these groups to discuss the variety of health issues that currently plague Americans, with the goal of developing best practices and solutions to overcome these issues.

“The USTA is fully committed to expanding its efforts at getting youth to be active and have fun by emphasizing the importance of multi-sport play at early ages,” said Craig Morris, General Manager, USTA Community Tennis. “We believe tennis can be the model sport for our young people, but beyond that, we are committed to helping kids all around the country make great choices with a focus on health and a lifetime of activity. I believe this partnership with PHA is a way to showcase the USTA’s passion for enhancing young lives through our sport, and will help in our efforts to make sure that more children each day are given the tools and opportunities needed to achieve their own greatness through tennis.”

“Since 2014, the United States Tennis Association has reached more than a half million youth by building thousands of tennis courts and training more than 10,000 coaches,” said Larry Soler, President and CEO of the Partnership for a Healthier America. “We are so proud of this achievement and look forward to reaching even more youth with increased opportunities for physical fitness through the USTA’s recommitment to our partnership in 2017.”

This is the USTA’s third partnership with PHA. In 2012 the USTA and other National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) joined with PHA to provide several opportunities to children nationwide to become physically fit and stay active through their respective sports. The following year, the USTA announced a further commitment to its national efforts to grow youth participation and encourage children to lead a healthy lifestyle. That commitment was pledged to PHA in support of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative, and led to the installation of thousands of youth tennis courts around the country, training thousands of new coaches, teachers and volunteers to deliver youth tennis training and programming, and donating new tennis equipment to schools and youth facilities committed to providing USTA youth tennis programs.

The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level — from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization with more than 715,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, the highest-attended annual sporting event in the world, and launched the US Open Series, linking seven summer WTA and ATP World Tour tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns approximately 90 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S. and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network. For more information on the USTA, log on to usta.com, “like” the official Facebook page, facebook.com/usta, or follow @usta on Twitter.

The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) is devoted to working with the private sector to ensure the health of our nation’s youth by solving the childhood obesity crisis. In 2010, PHA was created in conjunction with – but independent from – Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! effort. PHA is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that is led by some of the nation’s most respected health and childhood obesity experts. PHA brings together public, private and nonprofit leaders to broker meaningful commitments and develop strategies to end childhood obesity. Most important, PHA ensures that commitments made are commitments kept by working with unbiased, third parties to monitor and publicly report on the progress our partners are making. For more information about PHA, please visit aHealthierAmerica.org and follow PHA on Twitter @PHAnews.