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Joy is contagious. There is nothing that beats the feeling of being together with teammates and mentors, laughing and learning together. Yet the number one reason that kids quit sports is that it's not fun. Creating joyful and fun sport spaces starts by understanding that players are whole people who come to the field with complex stories, feelings, experiences, and stressors. Our mantra "You play best when you're smiling" isn't only about fun and joy, but also about how we incorporate self-care and care for others. Many of our participants have experienced acute trauma through forced displacement; many also experience chronic trauma from exposure to community violence, poverty, and unsafe schools and neighborhoods. We incorporate trauma-informed coaching strategies like opening and closing circles, patterned, rhythmic, repetitive behaviors, and predictable, consistent transitions in order to create a sense of safety and promote healing. This year, our annual Play It Forward campaign celebrated 32 stories from 32 Men's World Cup countries, each detailing how soccer is creating belonging and uplifting communities around the world. Below, we have highlighted five stories which have captured the spirit of our "You Play Best When You're Smiling" mantra.

At Soccer Without Borders, we serve youth participants from over 70 countries of origin who speak more than 50 languages. It's impossible to know, understand, and practice every cultural norm within our diverse community. But what we can do, every day, in every program, is embed respect and cultural humility between participants, coaches, volunteers, staff, and families into the fabric of our organization. In many cultures, it's a show of respect and cultural humility to "Leave your shoes at the door." For our participants, this looks like not only sharing aspects of their own culture - foods, words, holidays, and music are all great ways - with others, but also being curious and open to learning about teammates' cultures. Through mutual empathy and openness, teams start to feel like family, and SWB feels like home. This year, our annual Play It Forward campaign is celebrating 32 stories from 32 Men's World Cup countries, each detailing how soccer is creating belonging and uplifting communities around the world. Below, we have highlighted five stories which have captured the spirit of our "Leave Your Shoes at the Door" mantra.

Barriers such as a lack of equipment, transportation, and financial resources make traditional youth sports programs inaccessible to many youth. For many newcomer youth, barriers of language as well as the need to work and/or take care of younger siblings after school can limit participation. For many girls, barriers can stack up even higher, with cultural and gender norms that can limit parental support, add additional domestic responsibilities, and create internalized bias that "sports aren't for me." Every young person has a unique set of individual circumstances. This is why our mantra "Get Them To The Field" is about much more than physically transporting kids to the field. It's about understanding each individual's barriers and addressing each obstacle as it comes. However, building trust between coaches and participants in order to understand their story and circumstances takes time. This year, our annual Play It Forward campaign is celebrating 32 stories from 32 Men's World Cup countries, each detailing how soccer is creating belonging and uplifting communities around the world. Below, we have highlighted five stories which have captured the spirit of our "Get Them to the Field" mantra.

Sometimes it can be hard to find the words to express what we need or how we feel. When you are learning a new language, as is the case for more than 80% of Soccer Without Borders participants, it can feel even more overwhelming. Having someone in your life who just "gets it" - even without being told - is a gamechanger. When newcomers first arrive to a new country there is so much unknown. New logistics, customs, ways of being, ways of navigating, and ways of communicating can all add up to an overwhelming sense of uncertainty. "Know the Thingy Thingy" is about the intuition that comes along with a trusting relationship, where young people feel seen, heard, and valued. This year, our annual Play It Forward campaign is celebrating 32 stories from 32 Men's World Cup countries, each detailing how soccer is creating belonging and uplifting communities around the world. Below, we have highlighted five stories which have captured the spirit of our "Know the Thingy Thingy" mantra.

Joy is contagious. There is nothing that beats the feeling of being together with teammates and mentors, laughing and learning together. Yet the number one reason that kids quit sports is that it's not fun. Creating joyful and fun sport spaces starts by understanding that players are whole people who come to the field with complex stories, feelings, experiences, and stressors. A coach's energy sets the tone for the team. This is why two of our essential coach behaviors in our FAMILY coaching framework are to "greet each participant joyfully by name" and to "model positive energy throughout the session." By taking these simple actions consistently, coaches invite each player to find joy in the game and in one another. Our mantra "You play best when you're smiling" isn't only about fun and joy, but also about how we incorporate self-care and care for others. Many of our participants have experienced acute trauma through forced displacement; many also experience chronic trauma from exposure to community violence, poverty, and unsafe schools and neighborhoods. We incorporate trauma-informed coaching strategies like opening and closing circles, patterned, rhythmic, repetitive behaviors, and predictable, consistent transitions in order to create a sense of safety and promote healing. We draw on research and partnerships with experts like the Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport to learn about the effects of trauma on young people's stress responses to design our programs to be healing-centered. This means prioritizing consistent, multi-year head coaches to ensure caring and reliable relationships; creating team and field markers to make every day feel like a home game; and offering league seasons with exposure to positive stress through healthy competition. Healthy stress looks like trying new things, getting out of your comfort zone, and knowing that your team has your back when you make a mistake. The combination of "safe space" and "try everything" - two of SWB's five rules - creates a sweet spot where participants are challenged, experience failure, and build resilience. Nature has its own healing strategies. While most SWB programs operate in urban areas, we prioritize taking team trips out into nature, enjoying hikes at state parks, playtime at the beach, trekking in the mountains, sledding down hillsides, and an occasional white water rafting trip. Getting off of screens and into the trees is always a great recipe for joyful time together. You can't give from an empty cup. Self-care is not only for our participants, but also our staff, who experience vicarious and secondary trauma as they support youth and families through challenging circumstances. A caring interpersonal culture is one of many strategies we use to ensure our best program practitioners can stay healthy and energized year after year. "You play best when you're smiling" is an everyday reminder of the whole person approach that makes SWB a community filled with joy, fun, and care for one another.

Soccer is often called a "universal language" or "the global game" because of its widespread popularity and the passion that communities all over the world express for the game. It is arguably the most significant cultural phenomenon on Earth; more than half of humanity watches the Men's World Cup alone. But popularity and passion for the game does not inherently make it good. There are too many examples to count of soccer players, teams, clubs, fans, and sponsors exacerbating ethnic conflicts, tolerating gender-based violence and homophobia, perpetrating or ignoring racial discrimination, and perpetuating economic inequality. It takes intention to create a culture of soccer that embraces diversity, strengthens inclusion, and takes action to create equity. At Soccer Without Borders, we serve youth participants from over 70 countries of origin who speak more than 50 languages. It's impossible to know, understand, and practice every cultural norm within our diverse community. But what we can do, every day, in every program, is embed respect and cultural humility between participants, coaches, volunteers, staff, and families into the fabric of our organization. In many cultures, it's a show of respect and cultural humility to "Leave your shoes at the door." For our participants, this looks like not only sharing aspects of their own culture - foods, words, holidays, and music are all great ways - with others, but also being curious and open to learning about teammates' cultures. Through mutual empathy and openness, teams start to feel like family, and SWB feels like home. Cultural humility is a skill that we value in hiring and seek to strengthen in our staff through ongoing training and experiential learning. By working with people who have different experiences and perspectives, living in communities different from our own, and approaching travel and learning with empathy and openness, we can build a global community within Soccer Without Borders itself that embrace diversity as a strength and models how to bridge differences. In soccer, too often ego gets in the way of building caring and cohesive teams. "Leave your shoes at the door" is a continuous reminder that humility, not ego, is what makes our communities stronger, on and off the field.

Sometimes it can be hard to find the words to express what we need or how we feel. When you are learning a new language, as is the case for more than 80% of Soccer Without Borders participants, it can feel even more overwhelming. Having someone in your life who just "gets it" - even without being told - is a gamechanger. When newcomers first arrive to a new country there is so much unknown. New logistics, customs, ways of being, ways of navigating, and ways of communicating can all add up to an overwhelming sense of uncertainty. "Know the Thingy Thingy" is about the intuition that comes along with a trusting relationship, where young people feel seen, heard, and valued. Positive change happens at the speed of trust. This is why at Soccer Without Borders we prioritize long-term relationships between teammates, between participants, parents/guardians, coaches, and between SWB and all stakeholders communities we serve. This means investing our resources into retaining program practitioners over time, offering programming for a wide range of age groups, and working to resolve barriers and partnership challenges as they arise. For our staff, Knowing the Thingy Thingy means continuous learning and listening. From trauma-informed coaching strategies, to restorative practices, to social-emotional skills in our programs, to inclusive and equitable policies, efficient systems, and authentic brand-building behind the scenes, our team members are always seeking ways to build their own skills and contribution to the mission. Knowing the thingy thingy does not mean having all of the answers. More often, it means asking the right questions. Monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems help us to ask measure our progress and respond to feedback. Our Theory of Change draws a through-line from our youth-centered activities to how SWB contributes to gender equity, social inclusion for newcomers, and community cohesion. Our mantras define our culture and guide decision-making, especially when what to do isn't immediately clear. Know the thingy thingy lives in this space of intangibles, where trust, experience, and intuition, make all the difference.

At Soccer Without Borders, we believe that when it comes to youth development, the process is the point. We hold process-orientation as a core value, and it shows up in everything that we do on the field, off the field, and behind the scenes. Focusing on the process means prioritizing the lessons learned through experience, like how to cope with stress, connect with teammates, contribute to a collective, and get back up when you fall. It makes things like scoreboards, statistics, and test results secondary. We celebrate the "pass" - passes of all kinds - more than the goal. This year, our annual Play It Forward campaign is celebrating 32 stories from 32 Men's World Cup countries, each detailing how soccer is creating belonging and uplifting communities around the world. Below, we have highlighted six stories which have captured the spirit of our "Celebrate the Pass More Than the Goal" mantra.

Building an inclusive team culture starts with welcoming. Welcoming is not the same as attending. Welcoming means embracing each and every person's unique contribution to the team, and celebrating their decision to be a part of our SWB community. It means inviting each person to bring their whole self to the team, and meeting each person where they are. This is what our mantra "We're Glad You're Here" means. This year, our annual Play It Forward campaign is celebrating 32 stories from 32 Men's World Cup countries, each detailing how soccer is creating belonging and uplifting communities around the world. First up, we have highlighted six stories which have captured the spirit of the "We're Glad You're Here" mantra.

While the world loves to celebrate a great goal, and great goal-scorers, true fans of the game can appreciate a fluid build-up, an energetic transition, and a poetic combination just the same. At Soccer Without Borders, we believe that when it comes to youth development, the process is the point. We hold process-orientation as a core value, and it shows up in everything that we do on the field, off the field, and behind the scenes. Focusing on the process means prioritizing the lessons learned through experience, like how to cope with stress, connect with teammates, contribute to a collective, and get back up when you fall. It makes things like scoreboards, statistics, and test results secondary. We celebrate the "pass" - passes of all kinds - more than the goal. Every week, a coach makes hundreds of decisions, big and small, about what to prioritize, what to say, what to do, and how to respond in the moment. Our FAMILY Coaching Framework provides guidance for how to make those decisions. It details over 40 specific coach behaviors across six domains: Facilitation, Activity, Management, Identity, Learning, and Youth-Centered. Coaches self-assess and are observed against the FAMILY Framework regularly to help these behaviors become second nature, receiving feedback on areas where they need the most support. Soccer Without Borders TEAM programs serve youth ages 5-20 who face tremendous barriers to social inclusion. Many youth participants stay with SWB throughout middle and high school, gaining a sense of contribution, belonging, and agency through a caring team environment that feels like a second family. But personal growth throughout adolescence does not always look linear from the outside. Leaving space for mistakes and successes and making time to support one another through difficult moments are all a part of the process of building a healthy identity. Celebrating the pass is not only our approach to youth development, it is also how we approach staff development and leadership pathways. With full-time staff in Nicaragua, Uganda, and multiple states across the USA, every day presents new opportunities and challenges to adapt our tools to these unique contexts. There is no single policy or handbook that can cover every scenario. By centering around the process, local staff sharpen decision-making filters and take the lead in bringing the best version of SWB to their community. On the soccer field, successful passing combinations require players with different skills and perspectives. Through partnerships, we can bring even more people into the game, giving assists that create a ripple effect well beyond our direct programs. Projects and collaborations have brought SWB tools and methodology to 37 countries on five continents. Our mantra, "Celebrate the pass more than the goal" does not mean forget about the goal. Rather, it means that by teaming up with others and by focusing relentlessly on our process, we can create a stronger movement to shift outcomes for the better. And, to a young person, the journey is the goal.

In a typical soccer game, each player spends less than 5% of the game with the ball. What you do off the ball, seen and unseen, is what ultimately determines the outcome. The same is true for coaching. As a Soccer Without Borders coach, the actual time coaching the full group at a practice or game is just a small portion of the effort it takes to create a thriving team and program. Barriers such as a lack of equipment, transportation, and financial resources make traditional youth sports programs inaccessible to many youth. For many newcomer youth, barriers of language as well as the need to work and/or take care of younger siblings after school can limit participation. For many girls, barriers can stack up even higher, with cultural and gender norms that can limit parental support, add additional domestic responsibilities, and create internalized bias that "sports aren't for me." Every young person has a unique set of individual circumstances. This is why our mantra "Get Them To The Field" is about much more than physically transporting kids to the field. It's about understanding each individual's barriers and addressing each obstacle as it comes. However, building trust between coaches and participants in order to understand their story and circumstances takes time. All Soccer Without Borders programs are free of cost, including all necessary equipment, uniforms, coaching, and activities. Thanks to the generous support of Capelli Sport, SWB teams have top notch uniforms that truly make the team feel united. Transportation, one of the biggest barriers to participation, is provided as often as possible through group buses, free passes for public transportation, or volunteer drivers. Our participants speak 59 different languages, and many do not have an adult at home who speak the local language. As a result, SWB offers registration and other materials into the most common participant languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Swahili, French, Tigrinya, Burmese, Amharic, Urdu, Vietnamese, Nepali. Translators, including high school participants and recent alumni, support home visits and parent meetings. All of our mantras define not only our youth culture, but also how we approach building our staff team. We invest significant energy into inclusive hiring and teaming practices, and continually expand our staff support benefits and resources. This has led to an average annual staff retention rate of over 90%, even throughout the pandemic years. Even when it seems most impossible, such as when the Covid-19 pandemic first shut down schools and parks, the SWB team rises to the challenge. Never missing a beat, coaches found ways to bring the field to the participants, dropping off playing equipment, activity kits, food, and computers for virtual school. Get Them To The Field is more than a mantra, its a mindset.

At any given Soccer Without Borders session on any given day, you will find youth, coaches, and volunteers with widely different cultures, languages, ethnicities, interests, gender identities, and lived experiences. Many SWB participants have overcome significant barriers to get to the field, having fled some of the world's most challenging conflicts. Many girls in SWB programs are playing on their first-ever sports team. For many girls, cultural and gender norms keep them from accessing sport programs. SWB programs use specific strategies to recruit and retain girls of all cultural backgrounds, reducing barriers and building a sense of belonging and confidence. Building an inclusive team culture starts with welcoming. Welcoming is not the same as attending. It is not the same as participating. Welcoming means embracing each and every person's unique contribution to the team, and celebrating their decision to be a part of our SWB community. It means inviting each person to bring their whole self to the team, and meeting each person where they are. This is exactly what our mantra "We're Glad You're Here" means. Our mantra shows up every day in how we deliver programming. All Soccer Without Borders sessions begin with an opening circle to celebrate everyone's choice to attend the session, welcome new participants, check-in to see how everyone is feeling, practice names of everyone in the group if needed, reinforce the rules and culture of the space, and set expectations for the day's activity. Because many of the youth we serve have experienced disrupted education and displacement, we maintain an open enrollment, meaning that we welcome new participants throughout the year. Our mantra also shows up in the way we welcome new staff, volunteers, and partners to the SWB community. Every on-boarding includes a virtual opening circle introducing SWB teammates from around the world. Staff on-boards, birthdays, and milestones are celebrated through shoutouts and other appreciations. Like former participants, former staff members remain a welcome and valued part of the SWB community. We're Glad You're Here is not only about welcoming, but also about belonging. We like to say that if you have a new player you have a new team, meaning that as we welcome, we must also consider how to bring our new teammates into the fold, creating teams that feel like family. Belonging is a basic human need. This is true for everyone, but it is especially true of young people, who are still developing the mental resiliency skills needed to process the massive changes happening in the world today. Losing this basic human need can lead youth down a path of disengagement and increased risk. Belonging nourishes like food, it protects like Vitamin C, it washes away harm like soap, and it strengthens resiliency in a way that none of those other things can. ​ At Soccer Without Borders, soccer is the vehicle, but we have always been in the business of combating exclusion and isolation with belonging. Our approach is centered around meaningful relationships; we strengthen the social fabric of the teams, schools, and communities we are a part of by ensuring that each individual young person and family feels seen, valued, and supported to reach their full potential. We're Glad You're Here!