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Housing officials in the District are using a game of hoops to help young people from low-income families with its first "Beyond The Voucher" basketball tournament.
More than 100 young people from families who receive housing vouchers or rent subsidies signed up to play in the tournament, which was held Saturday and Sunday.
Ronald McCoy, director of D.C.'s housing voucher program, says many of these children deal with the unfair stigma of being on public assistance. He hopes the tournament will provide camaraderie as well as self-confidence.
"I want the kids to walk away understanding that they have a chance," says McCoy. "How to be a good sportsmen, and also how to be a better person that's going to leave here understanding the basics of engaging themselves back into the community."
When players weren't on the court, they were able to sit in on different workshops.
"One of the workshops was how to tie a tie," says McCoy. "We had cheerleaders and what the cheerleaders were engaged in was how to be young ladies, how to be productive young ladies."
More than 11,000 families receive housing vouchers in the District and three times that many are on a waiting list.
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