Our Story

How a small sports and music effort became a global nonprofit

International Sports and Music Project began with a simple idea: young people deserve consistent access to the activities, mentors, and community spaces that help them feel joyful, capable, connected, and seen.

In 2014, ISMP founder Jason Steinberg was teaching English, coaching basketball, and sharing music with students in Pohnpei, Micronesia. Many of his students had extraordinary energy, talent, creativity, and love for sports and music, but lacked basic access to sneakers, jerseys, equipment, instruments, and structured opportunities.

What started as a small effort to support student-athletes and create meaningful music experiences grew into something larger. Jason saw that sports and music could be more than activities. A basketball team could become a place where young people built confidence, discipline, friendship, leadership, and belonging. A music session could become a place where young people expressed themselves, connected with others, and felt the joy of creating something together.

That experience became the foundation for International Sports and Music Project.

Sports and music as pathways to joy, belonging, and opportunity

As ISMP grew, the vision expanded beyond basketball and beyond Micronesia. Across communities, we saw the same truth again and again: sports and music can create powerful spaces for young people.

A soccer field can become a place where a community gathers.
A track team can become a place where girls lead, compete, and thrive.
A basketball court can become a place where young people find confidence and friendship.
A music class can become a place where a young person discovers their voice.
A recording studio can become a place where creativity, identity, and expression come alive.

Sports and music are not extras. They are pathways to joy, mentorship, healing, confidence, expression, teamwork, leadership, and belonging.

ISMP exists to help make those pathways more accessible.

Built through local leadership

From the beginning, ISMP has been shaped by relationships. We do not believe in one-size-fits-all programming, and we do not believe lasting impact comes from dropping into a community with outside answers.

Instead, ISMP partners with trusted local leaders who understand their communities best. We listen, learn, and support the people already creating opportunities for young people.

Our role is to help provide the resources that make consistent programming possible: coaches, teachers, equipment, program funding, tournaments, music sessions, community events, courts, fields, studios, and long-term partnership.

This local-leadership model has helped ISMP grow while staying close to the heart of the work.

From one community to five countries

Over its first decade, ISMP has supported youth sports and music programs across five countries: the United States, Uganda, Rwanda, Greece, and Micronesia.

The work looks different in every place because every community is different.

In Uganda, ISMP supports year-round sports programming, community tournaments, and major sports facilities.

In Rwanda, ISMP supports locally led sports, dance, and youth development programming across multiple partner sites.

In Greece, ISMP supports music and creative expression programming, including a music studio and creative hub serving young people and communities who have faced barriers to access.

In the Bronx, ISMP supports youth track and community sports programming, including strong participation from girls and young women.

In Micronesia, where ISMP began, the early basketball program continues to shape the organization’s belief in long-term relationships, mentorship, and local leadership.

The ripple effect

One of the clearest examples of ISMP’s long-term impact is Jerome in Micronesia.

Jerome first connected with ISMP as a young athlete. Over time, he became a coach, athletic director, community leader, and ISMP’s longtime country coordinator in Micronesia. His journey reflects the kind of ripple effect ISMP hopes to support everywhere we work: young people gaining confidence, leadership, opportunity, and a deeper connection to their communities.

ISMP’s work is not only about what happens in a single practice, class, tournament, or recording session. It is about what can grow from repeated access to safe, supportive spaces over time.

Our first decade

Over our first decade, ISMP has helped create more than 1,000,000 Individual Impact Hours across five countries.

We measure impact through Individual Impact Hours because consistency matters. A one-time event can be meaningful, but repeated opportunities — week after week, season after season, year after year — can shape a young person’s sense of possibility.

ISMP has also helped build and support courts, fields, and music hubs that expand long-term access to sports and music. These spaces become anchors for programs, relationships, and community.

What comes next

ISMP’s first decade proved what is possible when sports and music are rooted in local leadership, long-term relationships, and consistent access.

Our next chapter is about building on that foundation responsibly: strengthening programs, supporting more local leaders, improving systems, expanding facilities and creative spaces, and creating the next 1,000,000 Individual Impact Hours for young people around the world.

We are still a lean organization. We are still relationship-driven. And we are still guided by the same belief that started this work in Micronesia:

Young people deserve safe, joyful, supportive spaces where they can play, create, grow, belong, and become more fully themselves.