The purpose of ABC is to promote the importance of athletics, education, and community involvement among youth in Jersey City and their families. ABC offers athletic and recreational activities with academic assistance including lectures, counseling, and workshop to help Jersey City’s youth increase their self-awareness and to build their self-esteem.
Athletes for a Better Community (ABC), Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3 tax exempt organization established by former St. Anthony High School and Marquette University star Charles “Mandy” Johnson.
The purpose of the organization is to provide a variety of services to youth and families with a focus on athletic activity enhanced by supportive and educational services.
It was his intent to establish year-round programming that would provide structured quality initiatives and positive alternative activities for inner city youth - specifically, the goal is to assist those who live in and around public housing.
Jersey City youth (like many of their counterparts and/or peers from urban cities) are often embattled with fundamental challenges, disparity, and a personal decision to do right or wrong.
The streets are a magnet that engulfs the very essence of our young people and swallow them up into a world of disarray. The participation of our youth in a structured, safe environment with impacting activities can change their lives for the better.
Vision 2026 – Main Objectives
To enhance the quality of life for the youth, young adults and families by offering programs that address their physical, academic, emotional and interpersonal skills.
To encourage continuation of education for the development of marketable skills to achieve and enjoy a better life and become more productive citizens.
To offer a basketball academy (leagues and other recreational opportunities) where youth and young adults can increase their athletic skills, become more physically fit, exercise fundamental teamwork principals and improve social skills.
To provide mandatory workshops and encourage family participation that will expose youth and young adults to positive influences, ideals and forums for life planning, resistance skills against at-risk behaviors, career thinking, and referrals for supportive services as needed to other positive intervention community resources.
Founder & President
"Seeing the Vision, Making a Difference"
Charles "Mandy" Johnson was born and raised in Jersey City's Marion Section - and he never forgets the community that shaped him.
A standout athlete at St. Anthony High School and a Marquette University Alumnus, Mandy earned recognition on the court, finishing as one of Hudson County's all-time leading scorers and holding Marquette's all-time steals record for nearly 25 years. But what has defined his life is not what he accomplished as a player - it is what he chose to do after.
For many years, Mandy served Jersey City families through the Jersey City Department of Recreation, showing up every day for the young people and parents who needed someone in their corner. When he retired, he did not walk away. He went further. He turned his full energy towards Athletes for a Better Community, Inc. - a non-profit organization he quietly built since August 2001 and committed himself to it completely. Its mission is to promote social welfare through charitable activities that bring civic enrichment and social improvement. The organization provides a variety of services to youth, young adults, and families, focusing on athletic activity supported by educational and supportive services.
ABCKidz was built on something Mandy has believed his entire life: that every child deserves a safe place, a caring adult, and a real chance. That is why every program ABCKidz offers is free to Jersey City residents - summer camp, after-school tutoring, STEM education, the basketball academy, the Girls' Empowerment program, and holiday events. No family in Jersey City should ever have to choose between their child's future and their budget.
Mandy knows the families he serves. He understands the pressures they face, the neighborhoods they navigate, and what it means for a child to have one person who sees them, believes in them, and refuses to give up. That is the standard he holds himself to, and the standard he brings to every volunteer, every partner, and every program ABCKidz runs.
In June 2024, that commitment found a home - the ABCKidz Community Center at 32 Dales Avenue, a fully renovated space in the heart of the Marion section for the next generation of young people Mandy pledged to serve.
Mandy believes, as his life experience shows, that athletics is a means of self-enhancement and personal development. Understanding the role athletic activity, along with academic achievement, played in his success, the organization was founded with the help of volunteers to give youth, young adults, and families in Jersey City a chance to benefit from a positive, uplifting environment of organized sports and educational assistance.
Read Mandy's Hall of Fame Story here:
https://www.abcinckidz.org/post/hall-of-fame-is-dandy-for-mandy
Charles "Mandy" Johnson
Founder & President
Athletes for a Better Community, Inc.
