Leveling the Playing Field: How Coach James is Using Football as a Launchpad for Youth
“Coaching is more than drills. It is about giving young people direction, alternatives, and belief in their own potential.”
Since establishing Kibera’s first all-girls soccer league in 2002, we have pioneered soccer initiatives to address ethnic conflict, promote community cooperation and development, and serve as a gateway to connect youth to health services. We leverage the power of sports and play to advocate for the health and wellness of youth on and off the pitch, equipping young people with information, services, and mentorship to live healthier lives.
Harnessing the power of sports and play to advocate for the health and wellness of young people.
We use soccer as an entry point to informal settlement communities, building trust.
Training coaches as mentors to improve the economic, educational, and health outcomes of youth.
Our signature youth soccer tournaments build community trust, develop important leadership skills, empower youth, and increase access to health and education services. The only tournaments in slums hosted at such a scale across Kenya, we engage teams from 16 informal settlements across 5 counties.
We conduct extensive leadership and mentorship trainings with community coaches in our Values Based Sports methodology, ensuring that coaches are equipped with the skills to engage students in conversations that encourage participation in school and discourage drug use, crime, and violence.
Our national-level women and men’s teams are proving the talent of slum youth to the world, with the Kibera Soccer Women FC the only informal settlement team in Kenya’s Premiere League and the Kibera Soccer FC leading in the 3rd Division. Using their national platform, the 50 players aged 18 -30 act as CFK Africa social change champions on issues related to girls empowerment, education advocacy, and health-seeking behaviors.
youth play in our soccer tournaments annually.
coaches trained each year in VBS methodology.
players on the Kibera FCs are social change champions.
“Coaching is more than drills. It is about giving young people direction, alternatives, and belief in their own potential.”
“As CFK Africa’s sports for development program continues to evolve, it holds great potential to further empower young girls and contribute to their holistic development.”
Written by Ben Bramson, CFK Africa 2024 Peacock Fellow and undergraduate student studying religion, pre-medicine, and conflict management at the University of North Carolina, Chapel
Who We Are
CFK Africa is a registered NGO in Kenya and 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the U.S. that empowers youth in slums.
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