Soccer for Success - A Proven Sports-Based Group Mentoring Program

For more than 30 years, the U.S. Soccer Foundation has championed soccer as a vehicle to instill hope, foster well-being, and help youth from under resourced and historically marginalized communities achieve their full potential. Soccer for Success is an early intervention, sports-based youth development mentoring program proven to promote protective factors, mitigate risk factors, increase confidence in and about the future, and improve the health and overall well-being of youth participants ages 6–13. Trained coach-mentors engage mentee groups at least three times per week during 60- to 90-minute sessions for at least 24 weeks across two seasons per school year. During each session, coach-mentors lead participants through structured youth-centered activities. Through participation in the program, youth find a unique forum where they can forge supportive relationships, build new skills, increase confidence in themselves and about their future, avoid problematic behaviors, and learn to manage emotions and navigate the world successfully. The program also helps to close the mentor gap by strengthening the role coaches play in the lives of youth. This project will support expansion of Soccer for Success in California, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas/New Mexico, and Washington in partnership with 11 community-based organizations to reach at-risk and high-risk youth and activate mentors. Funding will also support implementation of the enhanced social and emotional learning curriculum, training and resources for coach-mentors and program administrators, and partner training on the Community Engagement Game Plan, which offers a framework for defining, developing, and strengthening partnership and engagement strategies in alignment with best practices and model programs.