Last weekend our Executive Director Tommy Park, along with representatives from Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) and the City of Alexandria, gave a presentation about our After School Scholarship Soccer League at the US Soccer Foundation Urban Soccer Symposium in Washington, DC.
Tommy, Dana Wedeles [Principal Planner for the City of Alexandria] and Kurt Huffman [Director of School, Business and Community Partnerships for ACPS] presented our model for working together to bring soccer to underserved communities and kids.
The presentation, titled, “A Soccer Club, City Government, and School System Unite to Break Down Barriers to Participation,” shared how a combination of creative facility planning, unique afterschool programming and finding resources to support, provided by the city, school system and ASA, were key to our successful Access4All after-school league.
Dana shared information on how she worked with ASA to build four new futsal courts in the city in the last year. She highlighted the city’s “Parknership” program and how it has allowed the community to work with the city to make improvements to parks outside the normal plans. Kurt shared data on the ACPS demographics and the gap in programming for many of its students, especially during the after school hours. He shared that by connecting partners, like ASA and Running Brooke, with the school leadership, we can utilize our strengths to better support the city’s youth population.
Dana and Kurt’s partnership, initiatives and investments have been a major key in supporting access to the game across all programs structured and unstructured. The trio shared on the USSF’s national platform tangible inputs, logistical tips, and information on the impact to our community.
Our hope for this presentation was that the information would provide groundwork, tips and inspiration for other clubs and communities to create and provide similar programs.
We’re lucky to have great support and partners in the city of Alexandria and we wanted to demonstrate that when we all work together we can support and benefit many more kids at a deeper level than each entity could do alone.
Check out our full presentation. Thank you to US Soccer Foundation for inviting us!
Have questions about the presentation? Please contact communications director Katie Brooks at [email protected]
