. Teach children a healthy life style and constructive hobby . Guide kids away from drugs and violence. . Engage youth in the fight to preserve Florida's fragile natural recourses. . Introduce youth to the marine industry as a potential career path.
Give a child a fish feed him for a day; Teach him to fish feed him for a life time; teach him ethical angling, and protect his ability to fish for generations to come!
The Florida Fishing Academy (FFA) is a non profit 503 (c) (3) organization formed in 2006 for the purpose of empowering at -risk youth with positive life skills, alternatives to destructive or antisocial behavior and a sense of responsibility for shaping the world around them. FFA uses this as a vehicle for delivering these lessons , weaving effective life, enviremental and social skills into a youth oriented,hands on sports angling curriculum. We have,to date, have helped to change the lives of thousands of deserving children. We are constantly testing and improving our course and have recently adopted a proven, evidence-based life skills curriculum at the high school level, under the widely touted Lifeskills Training Program Model , which has been shwon to dramatically reduce drug use, risky sexual behavior and unsafe driving habits.
We strongly believe engaging Florida's children in the joys , responsibilities of ethical angling is a critical mission. In Florida , fisherman out number golfers 2-1 and 85 % of freshwater anglers start at age 12 or younger. And yet, South Florida- the fishing capital of the world - a local landscape filled with gymnastic camps, Little League programs,chess teams ,golf classes and adult fishing clubs has no school based fishing curriculum for kids. There is little if anything out there that engages children- tomorrows anglers,boaters,marine biologists,charter boat captains, enviromental stewards-in fishing as a sport and livelihood taught in a comprehensive fashion or invloves them in the effort to preserve our fragile marine enviroment. Thats the void we strive to fill,one child at a time.