Our Purpose

The Florida Fishing Academy (FFA) is a nonprofit, 501(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 fishing as a vehicle for delivering these lessons, weaving effective life, environmental and social skills into a youth-oriented, hands-on sports angling curriculum.  We have, to date, 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 shown to dramatically reduce drug use, risky sexual behavior and unsafe driving habits.

We strongly believe that engaging Florida’s children in the joys, responsibilities and opportunities of ethical angling is a critical mission. In Florida, fishermen outnumber golfers 2-to-1, and 85 percent of freshwater anglers start fishing at age 12 or younger. And yet, in South Florida — the fishing capital of the world — a local landscape filled with gymnastics 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 — tomorrow’s anglers, boaters, marine biologists, charter boat captains and environmental stewards — in fishing as a sport and livelihood taught in a comprehensive fashion or that involves them in the effort to preserve our fragile marine environment. That’s the void we strive to fill, one child at a time.