Soccer Without Borders
For nearly a decade we have partnered with Soccer Without Borders to help positively impact the broader soccer community helping players gain access to quality soccer programming and training experiences.
Berkshire Soccer Academy Camp & Soccer Without Borders
Camper Connection
In addition to supporting Soccer Without Borders with our Juggle Challenge, the Berkshire Soccer Academy has donated 2 camp scholarships to participants of the SWB Boston programs.
Equipment & Cleat Collection
In summer 2023, we collected from camp families five large boxes of cleats and soccer gear and donated them to JWS of Western Mass, a Springfield, Massachusetts affiliate of Soccer Without Borders. For this holiday season, we are organizing our camp families to donate cleats to children affiliated with America Sources – New York.
About Soccer Without Borders
The Soccer Without Borders mission is to use soccer as a vehicle for positive change, providing under-served youth with a toolkit to overcome obstacles to growth, inclusion, and personal success. To learn more about Soccer Without Borders, visit soccerwithoutborders.org
The Berkshire Soccer Academy & Soccer Without Borders share more than a vision for developing girls through soccer. We have some of the same amazing coaches to bring our vision to life. After being an Assistant Coach at the Academy during the summer of 2014, Jess Lopez went on to help initiate the SWB girls program in Nicaragua.
SWB Nicaragua
Program Statistics
Did you know? SWB Granada reaches an additional 1,120 girls through clinics and gym classes, most of whom have never played a sport before.
Year founded: 2008
# of program participants: 154
100% Girls
Ages: 7-20
Hours per week available to each youth: 12
Program Overview
Girls in Granada, Nicaragua face tremendous challenges: 28% are pregnant by age 18, 52% do not complete primary school, many are expected to raise younger siblings. The chance to become engaged and educated members of society is slim; there are obstacles at every turn. While sport and sports teams have been proven to address these challenges, particularly with girls, 90% of girls in Nicaragua report barriers to participation, and just 13% report playing sports, formally or informally.
Our program gives girls in Granada the social, educational and economic support they need to overcome obstacles to success and achieve their personal goals The team atmosphere and shared identity provides girls with a network of caring peers and mentors that inspires each girl to stay enrolled in school, avoid risky behaviors and make healthy choices. By participating girls earn points that can be exchanged for school supplies, clothes, shoes, toiletries, and soccer equipment. Empowering these girls through soccer, the development of key skills, and connecting them to tangible education and career opportunities can help break the cycle and reset the precedent for what is expected of girls in Nicaragua, and what they expect of themselves.
Juggle Challenge with Yael Averbuch
The Berkshire Soccer Academy hosted a Juggle Challenge on April 30th, 2017 to help create positive change for the Soccer Without Borders girls program in Granada, Nicaragua.
TO PARTICIPATE:
- Create a campaign.
- Select a personal goal of continuous juggles that you will complete on April 30th. You can use any part of your body!
- Share your goal with friends and family via the online campaign and invite them to be sponsors. The more sponsors, the more prizes! (see below)
- Sponsors pledge money toward each consecutive juggle you complete.
- Practice your juggling before the big day!
- On April 30th complete your challenge and post your actual number of juggles. Your juggle-count determines how much money is raised for SWB!
Example: Yael Averbuch has set a goal to juggle a soccer ball on her head 100 times. Her friend pledges $1 for each juggle. If Yael completes 98 juggles on April 30th, then she will have secured a $98 donation from that sponsor.
* For Technical support with a campaign please contact: JP Bennett, jp@pledgeit.org, (888) 847-9854
PRIZES:
The key to a great campaign isn’t actually how many juggles you complete, but how many sponsors you get to support your juggling efforts. The following prizes will be awarded based on the total number of sponsors that pledge toward your campaign:
– 1st Place: Carly Lloyd & Houston Dash Autographed Soccer Ball
– 2nd Place: Yael Averbuch Autographed Soccer Ball
– 3rd Place: Abby Wambach’s Game Cleats from a USWNT Game
– Top Ten: Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly & Tisha Venturini Autographed Postcard
3 WAYS YOU CAN HELP:
1) Pledge a donation for every consecutive juggle Yael Averbuch completes with her head.
2) Create your own campaign and ask sponsors to pledge a donation for each consecutive juggle YOU complete.
3) Make a one-time donation toward this cause.
Learn More About the Berkshire Soccer Academy
Girls at the Academy receive elite training at top-quality facilities from our qualified and experienced coaching staff. As one of the few specialty soccer camps set in a traditional camp environment, we focus on player improvement while deliberately infusing fun and friendships into the learning process.
