Street Soccer USA
This project's parent organization is Help USA
It operates in United States
It uses Football (Soccer)
Entered the Sport For Social Inclusion Award
More about Street Soccer USA
Street Soccer USA (SSUSA) believes ending homelessness is a team sport. Our 20-city league spanning all regions of the US, helps homeless youth and adults build the skills and support systems they need to live healthy, self-sufficient, and fulfilling lives.
Through a systematic approach we:
1. Build community and trust through sports with participants and volunteers, transforming the context within which they live from one of isolation, abuse, and marginalization, to one of community, purpose, and achievement.
2. Require participants to set 3, 6, and 12-month life-goals and deliver a curriculum of 8 “street soccer skills” which translate soccer skills into real-life skills proven to help them achieve social integration.
3. Empower participants by marrying clinical services to sport programming and providing access to educational/employment opportunities, legal, health and other services through our Jobs Academy.
We use sport because it delivers fundamental needs the homeless lack: a safe space in which to grow and develop, a sense of normalcy, a social network outside of the homeless community, and a sense of accountability to a group. Without these, there is no home worth keeping, but with these elements intact, there is nothing that can keep our participants from a home.