SSUSA Celebrates Community Across The Bay Area
At Street Soccer USA, WE BELIEVE IN SOCCER. We believe in the power and fun of soccer to bring diverse groups of people together. It’s a simple game at heart; anyone can play. We teach soccer skills, but the skills our players learn are so much more. When our players find success on the field, they begin to believe they can find success in other domains of life as well.
This SSUSA Value was demonstrated during the Bay Area’s end of the Season Festivals in their most impacted neighborhoods. Bringing the community together, SSUSA Bay Area held not 1, not 2, but 3 Festivals in a 2 week span. It was a heartwarming way to wrap up the Spring Season and celebrate the amazing relationship built with the youth, Program Partners, Volunteers and local community members that support the mission of SSUSA. Our SSUSA Festivals are a time to connect our participants across neighborhoods that have been working hard week in and week out in our Afterschool Programs. It’s amazing to see the teamwork and cross program bonding when the youth run from station to staion, completing in the various activities present. These afternoons are filled with music, smiles, snacks, facepainting and lots of soccer. They are truly a safe places for our youth to practice their Street Soccer USA Skills while running around laughing, and getting exercise with friends!
Los Angeles Program Manager Leads Session on Race and Gender in Sports
On Wednesday, May 23, the Los Angeles chapter of Up2Us Sports hosted a Women’s Coaching Breakfast to highlight female coaches in the Up2Us community, and the phenomenal work they are doing in Los Angeles to increase access to all. The organization recognizes that there is a lot of work to still be done in not only increasing, but also sustaining young girl’s participation in sports. Up2Us Sports asserts that simultaneously increasing the number of women coaches in sport is key to achieving this outcome. Los Angeles Program Manager, Mikayla Campbell, led both a thoughtful and insightful breakout session on the intersectionality of race and gender. Participants walked away having discussed the concept of intersectionality, and some high-level academic terms such as gender and cultural sensitivity, and code switching. The group was invited to share their own experiences, which drove the conversation to be inclusive and reflective of the importance of women in coaching positions. The ultimate outcome was for participants to equip their peers with new ideas for how to incite change in their teams and organizations.
SSUSA Sacramento player and coach selected as 1 of 2 Americans to attend Michael Johnson Young Leaders Program!
We couldn’t be prouder of Shauntel Payton, 18, who has been involved in SSUSA since she was 12. We met Shauntel while she was living in a homeless shelter with her family in 2011 and she has continued to stay involved with Street Soccer USA ever since. She was chosen to play in the Street Child World Games in Brazil in 2014, at 17 she joined our homeless adult program and quickly became a leader of the team earning her a spot on the SSUSA National team to compete in Homeless World Cup in 2017 in Norway. Since her joining the adult team she also became a coach for our youth programs in low income neighborhoods offering them soccer in a way that was supportive and hopeful for her own life. As a result of the adversity she has overcome and the accomplishments of graduating HS, getting her license, gaining employment and her passion for empowering youth through soccer she has now been selected as 1 of 2 Americans and the only female to attend the MJYL program June 6th.
Michael Johnson Young Leaders are specially selected young people from around the world who have overcome adversity but have shown high-potential and commitment to a future in sport, leadership, and giving back to their community.
Shauntel hopes to learn more about how to empower her community through sport and continue to thrive as a leader.
