Empower Girls Through Soccer

The 2021 Pittsburgh Girls Programs for Open Field created new opportunities for girls from refugee communities living in Crafton Heights and Northview Heights to play soccer and build new relationships with girls and young women from different backgrounds. Conversations about social and emotional learning goals were included in each session and the fall season was focused solely on identifying and regulating emotions. Communication with parents near the end of the year increased participation, specifically in the field trip.Highlights include:

• More female coach mentors than ever before, including the addition of two part-time staff as lead coach mentors who facilitated programming
• More consistent participation than ever before
• Field trip to Robert Morris University Women’s soccer game
• More high school girls participating than ever before (9 teenage girls will form a soccer team to compete in the CitiParks indoor winter soccer league beginning January 2022)

Coach Chloe shared an experience about how soccer is bridging the gaps between refugee girls from different backgrounds. 

Last October when we had the initial Northview Heights vs Crafton Heights game, there was a lot of fighting. Since then, quite a few of the girls from Northview would always bring up how much they disliked the girls from Crafton. I would hear things like

 "Next time we play them I'm gonna fight them!"

 This past Sunday when we were picking up the girls in Northview for the RMU game I told them we were going to be picking up the girls from Crafton and again they were like "No we don't like them! They aren't allowed to come!" At the RMU game, when the girls could have sat anywhere and with whoever they wanted, one of the same Northview girls who would always make those kinds of comments was sitting with the girls from Crafton for most of the second half, getting along and having a good time. 

Building relationships between coach mentors, both staff and volunteers, and participants is fundamental to the work that we do. Reflecting on 2021, this is the greatest outcome. Thank you for investing in these critical relationships that provide transformational experiences for our girls.

Links:

• FIFA Foundation article about our work

Our programming this summer is engaging 200 girls in Soccer for Social Impact programs on two continents: in Africa and North America. Thanks to partnerships in Cameroon and here in Pittsburgh, our summer camp game is stronger than ever! And more girls will be able to participate and learn from female coach mentors this year than any other year before.

We've linked up with long-time partners in Pittsburgh, like ARYSE and SHIM, and new ones like Mooncrest Neighborhood Programs and Woodland Hills School District. We've hired new coach mentors, including student athletes and recent graduates from local colleges, to give them a platform to combine their passion for the game of soccer and community development. We developed new curriclulum based on Social and Emotional Learning goals that align with our core values and the fundamentals of the game. Combine this altogether and you get a really special experience for our girls. 

Meanwhile in Cameroon, our girls completed their 30-day challenge to do healthy physical activities combined with dialogue about their mental health to round our their spring season. Now they're gearing up for summer Olympic-style competitions which challenge them to improve their own strength, fitness, and soccer skills over the summer holiday period. Last week, a select group of girls participated in a workshop to help us design a social enterprise that we can engage them in later this year. 

Thanks for supporting our efforts to empower girls thorugh soccer. We look forward to updating you again on our progress later this year!