Game On and International Alliance For Youth Sports have partnered to
organize youth soccer leagues for poor teens around the globe. IAYS
helps youths from 12-19 years old develop community in poverty-stricken
areas while Game On encourages life skills through positive
competition.
It’s a marriage of two organizations with a very common
goal, the betterment of youth citizens world-wide. In a nutshell, Game
On provides the structure to rehabilitate these youths through youth
soccer, while AIYS develops self esteem, leadership, and a community.
The catalyst for this achievement becomes the love of the sport. More
developed area teens are lucky to take part in such healthy social and
physical interaction, so the goal is to spread that growth to less
fortunate.
In a state where many of these impoverished teens would drop
out of school and take part in risky behavior, this program encourages
teens to take part in a league where they obtain life skills they would
miss otherwise. It’s amazing to see these types of organizations
partner to create such positive environments. Find more information
here.
The applications for the 2010 USYS grants are available (click here). This year’s
offerings have added recreation, TOPSoccer, and Soccer Across America
grants. Last year the USYS awarded $85,000 in grants so it’s worth a
shot.
Since 1998 more than $2 million has been given out in order to
further assist developing soccer programs. The organization is doing a lot to build youth soccer in the US and we are thankful for their efforts.
"We believe these US Youth
Soccer programs further our mission of fostering the physical, mental
and emotional growth and development of America's youth through the
sport of soccer at all levels of age and competition," said Jim
Cosgrove, executive director of US Youth Soccer. "With the addition of
the recreation grants program, we continue looking forward to
increasing the opportunities provided to children across the country."
In 1999, preoccupied
with questions about the fundamental nature of humanity and the most
pressing issues of our time, filmmaker Jeremy Gilley launched Peace One
Day and set out to find a starting point for peace. He had a mission:
to document his efforts to establish the first ever annual day of
global ceasefire and non-violence with a fixed calendar date. In 2001,
he achieved his primary objective when the 192 member states of the
United Nations unanimously adopted 21 September as an annual day of
global ceasefire and non-violence on the UN International Day of Peace.
Peace Day has now been proven to save lives and inspire and empower
people everywhere to take action toward a more peaceful world. On Peace
Day 2008, 100 million people were actively engaged in Peace Day
activities in over 200 countries. There were life-saving initiatives in
14 countries -- including 80 activities in Afghanistan alone. POD was
instrumental in helping to secure the conditions in which an estimated
3.2 million children were vaccinated against polio on and around Peace
Day.
While the day is obscure in the states, it’s widely
celebrated around the globe. Do your part and help spread
the word. The goal this year is to bring about awareness of Peace Day
asking clubs to take the following steps:
1.
Have your club teams dedicate their regularly scheduled home matches
the weekend of 9/19-9/20 or 9/26- 9/27 to Peace Day by having coaches
make an announcement before eachhome matchthat the game is dedicated to Peace Day – September 21.
2. Send your club members the link to Peace One Day’s website to become aware of Peace Day: www.peaceoneday.org
3. Register
your club’s commitment on Peace One Day’s website If nothing else at
least watch the Introduction to Peace One Day here. Remember the goal
this year is to spread the word, so forward this to anyone you would
think is interested.
"She's been a pioneer for the women's
game, and what's so extraordinary about her is it started off like any
mom caring about her kids and wanting to help them out. She saw how
women's soccer needed to be spoken for and just started volunteering.
It's amazing what she's been able to accomplish and how much the
women's game has improved over the past 20 years because of volunteers
like her." ~Amber Brooks
Charlotte Moran has left an unmistakable
footprint on the world of women’s youth soccer, particularly Region I
ODP. Her influence is being recognized through cancer research
foundation Score for a Cure, spurred by two players whose lives
wouldn’t have been the same without her presence. Charlotte’s passing
will be a great loss to our community, but in her absence, even her
memory will inspire progress and goodwill through funding cancer
research.
Her honorary event includes commemorative bracelets,
t-shirts, and a 3v3 tournament in PA on June 12th. The tournament
started as a public service assignment for the two graduating seniors
Amber Brooks and Heidi Sabatura, but they hope to make their work more
meaningful than just a sense of obligation. Congratulations to both
girls for being earnest and creating something positive out of tragic
circumstance. Links for the tournament and purchasing a bracelet are
here.
Score for a Cure donates their proceeds to the National Breast
Cancer Foundation, a 4-star Charity Navigator Charity. SFAC works with multiple sports but has had two
tournaments in April this year so far, and has become a positive event
in supporting well needed research funding. Soccer, more so than most
sports, has an intense sense of community. Hopefully we can all take
notice of the benefits here that women's soccer has discovered.
MLS
W.O.R.K.S., Major League Soccer’s community outreach initiative, this week
announced that they will be working with youth soccer clubs throughout New Jersey to promote Trick-or-Treat
for UNICEF during the Halloween season.
Remember
those orange cardboard boxes you (or your kids) used to carry around
during
trick-or-treating? They always appeared after the candy had been doled
out because, candy was the gold standard. Well, this year, MLS, in partnership with the
youth soccer community, will distribute those same Trick-or-Treat for
UNICEF
boxes to 160,000 soccer-playing children across New Jersey, each of
whom will be invited to participate in an
incentive-based fundraising challenge running from this week through
mid-November. Winners -- both individual
and team-based -- will be recognized at a 2009 MLS Red Bulls game and
receive prizes
like autographed memorabilia and a meet-and-greet with Red Bulls
players.
New York Red Bulls
All-Star forward and MLS W.O.R.K.S. ambassador Juan Pablo Angel will be writing
a blog about his support and participation in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF.
Starting on October 9, Juan Pablo’s blog can be viewed at: http://fieldnotes.unicefusa.org
The
story behind UNICEF and the boxes is that every day, 25,000 children die
needlessly from preventable causes – because they lack simple things like
access to clean drinking water, basic childhood medical attention, or mosquito
bed nets to prevent malaria. UNICEF has
the resources and reach to give these children the best hope of survival.
It’s a good
story and Major League Soccer has come to understand the potential in working
with youth soccer organizations to reach a critical mass of their fan base. In this case, they have dedicated their
efforts to educate them on the struggles of less fortunate children in other
parts of the world, and provided a means to help.
If you or
members of your organization are interested in getting involved in the
Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program, please visit www.unicefusa.org/trickortreat
to order your free materials.
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