East Boston Football Club
Social change depends on personal change. Our aim is to foster the healthy development of youth. East Boston Football Club has served as a low cost, high impact vehicle for encouraging East Boston’s racially diverse, predominantly low-income youth to be physically active while simultaneously engaging them in life skills programming.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Jennifer
Last Name
Molina
Website
Organization
Sport in Society
Country
United States, MA, Suffolk County
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
Sport in Society
Organization Website
Organization Phone
617-568-4701
Organization Address
360 Huntington Ave., Suite 510 INV, Boston, MA 02115
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Organization Country
United States, MA, Suffolk County
Your idea
Name Your Project
East Boston Football Club
Country your work focuses on
United States, MA, Suffolk County
Describe Your Idea
Social change depends on personal change. Our aim is to foster the healthy development of youth. East Boston Football Club has served as a low cost, high impact vehicle for encouraging East Boston’s racially diverse, predominantly low-income youth to be physically active while simultaneously engaging them in life skills programming.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
Our program holds two unique attributes. First, through Sport in Society’s Health Connection program, we have placed a Sport/Health Coordinator in the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. In this capacity, the coordinator has conducted a needs assessment of the city, joined community boards, and participated on community task forces. She has worked with physicians, nutritionists, neighborhood agencies, and schools to customize physical activity, nutrition, and life skills programming for East Boston’s youth. Due to the presence of the Sport/Health Coordinator at the health center, physicians are able to prescribe physical activity to overweight patients and refer them to the Sport/Health Coordinator. In this vein, we have been able to promote the football club to these youth, and to monitor the social and health outcomes of the patients who have been referred to it. Second, equal to our mission to help youth get physically fit, the EBFC aims to affect social change via a structured life skills development curriculum. Lessons in conflict resolution, teamwork, sportsmanship, nutrition, as well as anti-bullying discussions, are incorporated into each soccer practice. Because of the participants’ enthusiasm for the game and their trust in our coordinator, she has the unique opportunity to impart such lessons in a meaningful and effective way. Participants are fully engaged.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
We are very proud of and encouraged by the first-year results of this soccer program. The number of young people participating in the East Boston Football Club (EBFC) has increased steadily over the past four sessions of the program, growing from 30 to 70 youth. Nearly 70% of the participants in our most recent session have participated in previous sessions, a fact that demonstrates the program’s growing appeal. Boys and girls who participate in the program are playing soccer two or three times per week, which is particularly significant because three-quarters of them were diagnosed as overweight by their physicians and did not engage in any physical activity outside of the soccer program.
In addition to getting 70 young people on the field, moving, and excited to be part of something, our unique program employs a holistic approach to creating whole, healthy individuals. In keeping with Sport in Society’s mission to eliminate hate and violence and promote healthy development and social responsibility, we integrate structured lessons on relevant topics, such as bullying, nutrition, leadership, sportsmanship, conflict resolution, and appreciation for diversity, reducing screen time, and eliminating risky behaviors. Youth are particularly receptive to lessons, as each lesson is taught within the framework of being the best they can be, both on and off the field. One parent commented how happy she is now that her son actually LIKES to eat broccoli! Positive change like this inspires us and increases the level of investment of community members.
Problem
Sport in Society conducted an assessment of East Boston’s population and its health indicators, which revealed a grave need for change. Around 55% of its residents have been classified as obese by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and 68% have little or no physical activity. Obesity poses a serious health risk, as it increases the risk for certain cancers, Type II Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma, and stroke. Given that the mean family income of an East Boston family is just over $31,000, there are few opportunities for participation in a sports program or gym. Although physicians at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center were writing prescriptions for physical activity to many of their patients, youth, in particular, were left without access to a fun, inexpensive, structured program. The totality of these factors painted a grim picture for East Boston’s future generations.
Actions
Placing our Sports/Health Coordinator in the health center afforded the clinic the means to prescribe physical activity to overweight patients. Given the cultural significance of soccer to East Boston’s racially diverse population, including a growing Latino community comprising 39% of its residents, we believed soccer could be an effective medium to attract youth, increase their levels of physical activity, and provide us an opportunity to engage them with a life skills development curriculum. Following the assessment, we set to work to pilot a community soccer league. Much of the ground work to build its foundation has been completed, including forming partnerships; building the trust of community members; securing donations of balls, uniforms, shin guards, outdoor space; fundraising for the cost of renting indoor space during the winter; and outreach efforts. We continually fine-tune the program to fit the needs of participants.
Results
Given the growing interest in East Boston Football Club, we expect to attract many more youth. As they participate in our program, we eagerly anticipate change. Change will come on two levels for the individual: physical and psychological. On the physical level, we expect youth to increase levels of physical activity, maintain a healthy weight, and decrease their risk for poor health and disease. On the psychological level, we are hopeful our participants will make physical activity and good nutrition lifetime habits, decrease risky behaviors, value diversity, and, when faced with difficult situations, have the skills to de-escalate potential violence. Change will also come to the community, as youth grow up to become civically engaged, educated leaders. To impact East Boston in this way, and to sustain the program, we foresee expanding and deepening our partnerships, increasing the community’s investment in the program, and eventually handing over “ownership” of it.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Year 1: Success and sustainability of our soccer program depends on the community’s commitment to it. Such commitment stems from our Sport/Health Coordinator’s total immersion into the community and the trust she has earned. We will create a passionate and dedicated council for the club representative of the community. The council will be responsible for public outreach, formalizing the life skills development curriculum, and expanding and deepening relationships with partners. With the help of a Sport/Health Coordinator, council members will be responsible for securing donations of equipment, supplies, and space, as well as the recruitment of six to ten coaches, volunteers, and participants. They will also organize a summer jamboree to invigorate the community and attract participants. Our aim is to have 80 to 100 youth in six to ten teams playing across East Boston by the end of the first year.
Year 2: In an effort to build on the foundation laid by the previous year, we will further solidify the program by deepening the level of engagement of the council. Council members will undergo training in fundraising; the life skills development curriculum to be taught to coaches and, subsequently, the youth participants; securing resources; outreach; and other related tasks. By the end of the second year, we expect 100-150 youth on teams playing against other cities and towns in Massachusetts. The council and Sport/Health Coordinator will secure money for transportation and insurance liability coverage.
Year 3: Fully trained, the council will be ready to take the reins, as our Sport/Health Coordinator’s level of involvement is reduced to an advisory role. Ultimately, success will be achieved when 150-200 East Boston youth are participating in our program by the end of its third year, and the East Boston Football Club will be totally owned and operated by the community.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Three pillars supporting the foundation of our program must be carefully preserved, so as to create a robust, effective, and sustainable soccer program. First, the East Boston Football Club council must be fully invested in and take ownership of the program. If the community loses its vision of building a healthy East Boston through the physical and psychological development of its young people, the program becomes meaningless. Without the council to fundraise, build partnerships, recruit participants, coaches, and volunteers, the program would collapse. Secondly, the strength of our partnerships will greatly affect the strength of our program. If our partners, who have donated space, equipment, and other necessary supplies, are unable or unwilling to help, the growth of our program would surely be stunted. Lastly, momentum would be lost if the council was unsuccessful at fundraising. Without funding, our council cannot build a sustainable program, and we surely would miss our goal of engaging 30% of East Boston’s youth. All three facets—an energized council, robust partnerships, and successful fundraising—are the bedrock of our program. Without one or more of these, the East Boston Football Club would become a missed opportunity.
How many people will your project serve annually?
Fewer than 100
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$1000 - 4000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
In what country?
United States, MA, Suffolk County
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Health Connection, a program of Sport in Society at Northeastern University
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Our partners include governmental and non-governmental organizations, and we view their support as evidence of their belief in our program’s mission and confidence in our ability to fulfill it. The City of Boston’s Parks and Recreation Department has donated seasonal field permits for outdoor space. Boston Center for Youth and Families has provided indoor space during the winter months for a fee of $500 for eight weeks. The Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association has donated balls, opened up their coaching resources to our volunteers, and wrote a letter in support of our application for a US Soccer Foundation grant. Good Sports, donated 80 used uniforms to our participants. Integral to our program, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center houses our Sport/Health Coordinator. Its physicians refer patients to our program, and their AmeriCorp members have served as coaches and helped with outreach. The center has also helped pay for T-shirts and equipment.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
Building the capacity of our program requires three actions. First, we must recruit a dedicated and passionate council, one that is representative of the community. This is, perhaps, the most important task at hand and will influence the outcomes of all other efforts. The council will be responsible for the long-term sustainability of the program. Its members must uphold the vision of creating a healthy East Boston by fostering the healthy development of its youth. Equal to the health benefits of playing soccer, the council must recognize the importance of incorporating a life skills development curriculum into each practice.
Second, successful and ongoing fundraising, a primary duty of the council, will grow and sustain the program. It will allow us to provide scholarships to participants whose families cannot afford the $15 dues, which pays for a T-shirt, medal, and part of the cost of renting indoor space during the winter. (Participants who cannot afford to pay the dues are never turned away.) Fundraising will allow us to buy supplies and equipment. It will help us to engage in more outreach, attracting youth currently not involved in any physical activity. Fundraising will pay for the costs associated with training council members, coaches, and volunteers, and it will pay for the teams’ travel to other cities and insurance liability coverage. To this end, council members will be trained in fundraising.
Third, the council must deepen and expand partnerships. Cooperation and opportunities to share, collaborate, and secure resources can be sustained only when partnerships are mutually beneficial. We have built bridges to governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the success of our program depends on our stewardship of these relationships. We consider their partnership a vote of confidence in our program and its benefit to the community; we intend to exceed their expectations.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Inspiration for the East Boston Football Club is attributed to Jennifer Molina– an athlete, activist, and Sport and Society Sport/Health Coordinator for Let’s Get Moving, a youth and family wellness program at East Boston Community Health Center supported by Sport in Society.
Born in Mexico City, Jennifer Molina moved to the United States at an early age. Having played soccer most of her life, she loved the game and realized the gifts it bestowed upon her: high self-esteem, a healthy, strong physique, sportsmanship, teamwork, respect for others, opportunities for travel and study, self-discipline, and perseverance—just to name a few.
While based at the health center, it did not take long for Jennifer to perceive the ominous condition of the community’s health. An assessment of East Boston’s population, income levels, health indicators, and green space revealed that 55% of its residents have been classified as obese by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and 68% have little or no physical activity. The numbers are stark, and it was clear to Jennifer that the majority of residents were facing serious health risks posed by the increasing rates of obesity. East Boston’s families, especially youth, lack access to affordable and organized opportunities for physical activity and dietary counseling.
East Boston boasts a population rich in diversity, including a growing Latino community comprising 39% of its residents. Jennifer therefore believed that soccer, a universally loved sport crossing borders, language barriers, and cultural differences, could be the key to bringing youth together, getting them moving, raising their self-esteem, and engaging them with a life skills development curriculum. Armed with passion and dedication to improving the health of the community, Jennifer developed such a soccer program. She spearheaded the effort to lay the foundation of the program, build partnerships, secure donated equipment, space, and uniforms, and begin fundraising to build up a budget that started at zero.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Jennifer Molina has played soccer throughout her life. An accomplished athlete, she has witnessed firsthand the power of sports to change people, inside and out.
While a National Player for the Mexican Soccer Team from 2002 to 2006, Jennifer participated in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and has had over 35 international caps. She won “Top Goalkeeper” in the 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Bronze Medal in the 2003 Pan-American Games in Santo Domingo. While playing on the Women’s Premier Soccer League of the New England Mutiny in 2005, Jennifer again won “Most Valuable Goalkeeper” in the Eastern Division.
An integral member of the staff at Sport in Society, Jennifer Molina uses her athletic talent, passion, and commitment to social justice to advocate for underserved populations. Currently, she serves as the Sport/Health Coordinator for Let’s Get Moving based at East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. Through this initiative, she is able to collaborate with physicians, nutritionists, neighborhood agencies, and schools to customize physical activity, nutrition, and life skills programming for local youth.
A native of Mexico, Jennifer moved to Massachusetts at a young age. She graduated from Colgate University in 2003 with a degree in Environmental Biology. Jennifer is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
College or university
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
Sport in Society at Northeastern University
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 | 102 weeks agoJarrod Chin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 102 weeks agoJarrod Chin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 102 weeks agoJarrod Chin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 102 weeks agoJarrod Chin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 102 weeks agoJarrod Chin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 102 weeks agoJarrod Chin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 102 weeks agoJarrod Chin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 102 weeks agoJarrod Chin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 102 weeks agoJarrod Chin submitted this idea. |
