Lucas Marton, known as Luca by most, is fresh off an Instagram Live soccer bingo challenge when he sits down to chat with us. He laughs, and tells us about how:
“The silver lining with covid is that the whole program is available to everyone. A player from New York dialed in. A 12 year old girl came in and wanted to do the last bingo box, which was a juggle challenge, and smoked me.”
Luca, who is the Program Manager for the Los Angeles division of Street Soccer, has had to face the harsh realities of COVID on their program.
“I spent the last year and a half running programs and doing soccer stuff of course, but soccer has really been the avenue for so many different initiatives – whether it is social services like health and wellness, to community development,” Luca said.
The introduction of these social services, of course, would not be possible without the strong bond between SSUSA Los Angeles and their surrounding communities.
“It took the whole year and a half to even begin establishing trust in historically not very trusting communities. And I’ll preface that by saying they are non-trusting rightfully so.”
In the recent history of these communities, as Luca continues to explain, they have seen many people or organizations make promises and then disappear.
“A big potion of this is consistency,” says Luca. And with this, the potential negative effects of LA being under a strict lockdown become clear. The lack of in-person programs, especially in a time of need, could be misunderstood as Street Soccer LA pulling back. SSUSA Los Angeles has combated that with a number of virtual programs, and by taking this time to step back and strengthen their program structure.
“75% of my job before [the pandemic] was shaking hands, which is illegal now,” jokes Luca, “it’s definitely a very people centric, person centric initiative.”
SSUSA LA’s big structural project during this time is an exciting one— building out the Street Soccer USA board. For the past two to three years, they’ve had one amazing board member advising the organization, but a stronger board with more community ties will help the program flourish.
“This is great – we’ve had to be like, we can’t be outside so let’s capitalize on this opportunity to go and talk to people who have ideas about what we’re talking about today – racial and social justice, the economic implications of the pandemic, Luca said. ”These are the kinds of things that revolve directly around our missions and vision. We’ve been using this to build a perspective in terms of the trajectory of our programs for the next six to 12 months.”
Community based advocates and both physical and professional diversity are so important to the makeup of board members. The board will serve three purposes: amplifying community connections, helping to advise program directions (like when to reopen), and providing financial contacts and support.
“I want the board to be illustrative of the people we’re partnering with,” Luca said.
It is important to work with both the community and governing bodies in order to build a successful board.
“I’m learning as I go, just like anyone else, but what I would suggest to people who are building boards is look at where your operations are taking place and look what districts they’re in and look up what council members are overlooking those districts and make nice with them,” Luca said.