Mission Statement:
GR Soccer strives to utilize soccer as a platform to deliver HIV/AIDS health education, longitudinal academic support, and leadership skills to empower local youth and the charitable organizations that work with them.
About Gr Soccer:
GR Soccer utilizes soccer as a platform to deliver health education and other resources to local charitable organizations, such as our lead community partners, River Flow Soccer Club & the Center for Youth After-school Program. GR Soccer is a University of Rochester student organization bridging the School of Medicine & Dentistry, School of Nursing, School of Public Health, Simon School of Business, and Warner School of Education. Our collective ambition is to work towards an HIV free generation in Rochester. Our work includes community based participatory research exploring the potential for harnessing evidence-based models of sport for development programs developed by American and South African initiatives including Starfinder, Grassroot Soccer, Grassroot Project, & CTC10.
History:
The Grassroot Project is a part of Athletes United, a 50l©3 non-profit organization founded by a college athlete for the purpose of mobilizing other college athletes to empower youth through sports. Their mission is to use sport as a vehicle for social change. The Grassroot Project is the first major enterprise for Athletes United and is a collaborative effort between Grassroot Soccer, MetroTeenAids and Georgetown University. By 2010, Athletes United hopes to encompass the 5 Division One athletic programs in the D.C. metro area and will be run by a corps of former student athletes. Athletes United, as an organization, will expand in subsequent years to address “sport for social change” projects broader than HIV/AIDS.
The Grassroot Project uses a series of games and activities that allow youth to explore sensitive issues relating to HIV/AIDS. College student-athletes are trained as Grassroot Coaches to deliver this game based curriculum to youth aged 10 to 15 years. The curriculum based on their partner, Grassroot Soccer, creates a fun, friendly and safe environment in which youth can share their feelings and beliefs about HIV/AIDS, increase knowledge and develop healthy attitudes and behaviors concerning HIV/AIDS. This program empowers participants with skills necessary to lead healthy lives. These skills include critical thinking, decision-making, communication, and resiliency. The Grassroot Project partners with a number of organizations, including NGOs and universities. The first, Grassroot Soccer, is an international organization that provides African youth with the knowledge, life skills, and support to live HIV-free. Their goal is to mobilize the global soccer community in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The organization continuously improves its innovative HIV/AIDS life-skills curriculum, shares its program and concept effectively, and utilizes the popularity of soccer to increase its impact. At present, 195,000 kids have graduated their program across sub-Saharan Africa. Joining the Grassroot Project means joining a global effort against HIV: along with countless Grassroot Soccer coaches and graduates. The Curriculum that Grassroots utilizes was developed by Grassroot Soccer in early 2003 and has received extensive consultation from: the Zimbabwe Ministry of Education, the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, behavioral scientists, educational consultants, medical professionals, and the role models delivering Programs with youth. These various formal and informal evaluations since the Grassroot Soccer Pilot Project in 2003 have helped Grassroot Soccer fine-tune its curriculum to focus on the most important aspects of knowledge, attitude and behavior change that influence healthy decision making for youth. Grassroots, through education, support, and advocacy, MTA works to prevent the spread of HIV, promote responsible decision-making, and improve the quality of life for young people infected with, or affected by, HIV/AIDS. Using the Grassroot Project as an outline, Michael Barnes started Grassroot Rochester Soccer, or GR Soccer. Grassroot Rochester’s vision is to reach all at-risk youth in Rochester, NY by engaging students from all colleges within the University of Rochester and implementing the curriculum in all Rochester City School District middle school classrooms within the next few years. GR Soccer aims to combat urban Rochester’s all too familiar issues of poverty, obesity, and other social inequities with positive role models, as well as a higher standard for academic and athletic performance. GR Soccer not only provides boys and girls with a healthy alternative the several destructive influences in our neighborhoods, but also emphasizes academic and life skills. Therefore, it has developed a youth empowerment-themed program that focuses on self-esteem, leadership, and health education. Through this approach, GR Soccer will have the opportunity to impact kids through a growing sport within the Rochester community. GR Soccer will cultivate a culture of equality and inclusivity, as a guiding principle as well as through the community members they aspire to serve and the members they welcome. Volunteers and recruitment will not be limited to student-athletes, but will include any undergraduates or faculty with a desire to join GR Soccer and the collective endeavor leveraging soccer as a platform for youth empowerment through longitudinal mentoring, academic support, physical activity, and evidence based sexual health education. GR Soccer will cultivate a culture of equality and inclusivity, as a guiding principle as well as through the community members they aspire to serve and the members they welcome. Volunteers and recruitment will not be limited to student-athletes, but will include any undergraduates or faculty with a desire to join GR Soccer and the collective endeavor leveraging soccer as a platform for youth empowerment through longitudinal mentoring, academic support, physical activity, and evidence based sexual health education. |