Tufts University provided Somerville’s youth soccer and lacrosse programs with access to more than 600 hours of playing time on its athletic fields this spring sports season in an effort to help address a shortage of city fields. The arrangement continues Tufts’ commitment to supporting the youth of the university’s host communities.

An agreement between Tufts and Somerville will allow the city’s young athletes to hold soccer practices on Fletcher Field and Triangle Field, and lacrosse practices on Field J, through the season’s end in June.

“We’re deeply committed to supporting our host communities and encouraging young people to become scholar-athletes,” said Tufts University President Anthony P. Monaco. “We welcome our young neighbors onto the Tufts campus and hope that we can continue to build strong partnerships with the City of Somerville.”

Tufts supports its local communities through a variety of programs, resources and volunteer efforts, a number of which involve Tufts’ student-athletes. For example:

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mass Bay named Tufts Athletics as its Collegiate Partner of the Year in 2016, noting that it has made 60 matches between Tufts athletes and local youths since 2012.
• Varsity teams have held clinics for Somerville and Medford Little Leagues and youth softball teams.
• Student-athletes have hosted groups on campus and traveled to local middle schools for clinics through Level the Field, a non-profit that provides inner-city youths with opportunities to work with high achieving collegiate student-athletes.
• And several of Tufts’ athletic teams act as mentors for local children through Team IMPACT, a program co-founded by Tufts alumni that pairs children with severe or chronic illnesses with college athletes.

To learn more about how Tufts is involved in its local communities, visit https://www.tufts.edu/info/neighbors.

Tufts University, located on three Massachusetts campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville, and Grafton, and in Talloires, France, is recognized among the premier research universities in the United States. Tufts enjoys a global reputation for academic excellence and for the preparation of students as leaders in a wide range of professions. A growing number of innovative teaching and research initiatives span all campuses, and collaboration among the faculty and students in the undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across the university is widely encouraged.