Remember back in the summer when I reported on the Let Me Play Training Camp held in Los Angeles?
Well, it looks like the young social entreprenuers-in-the-making are now social entrepreneurs making change! So I'm perusing through Facebook, checking to see what my folks are up to and I come across a comment by one of my Facebook buddies and Outreach/Community Manager for YouthNoise, Amy Schapiro. Amy was commenting on Jerry DArko's video for Just Like You International Sports Exchange. (Oh the wonders of Facebook!)
I said to myself, "Hey! I remember these folks from the summer. Let me see what they've been up to." (Seriously, I said exactly that to myself). So I clicked on the video and WOWZERS was I inspired! The video captures these social entreprenuers engaging young elementary children through different sports from around the world. The idea is to create an environment of cultural solidarity and kinship through various types of international sports.
I'm so proud of these folks and all of their efforts. It's so cool to witness a simple idea flourish into profound possibilities. The children appear so engaged and enthusiastic while at the same time they are able to learn about other cultures outside of their own. What an amazing opportunity for children to learn about other cultures while having fun. Like my favorite feminist theorist/artist, Gloria E. Anzaldua once said, "The possibilities are endless once we decide to act and not react."
Awesome awesome AWESOME job gals and guys! I can't wait to see what's next for Just Like You. I also can't wait to see what the other groups are coming up with and how they too are contributing to social change through sport.
Here's some YouTube clips of the group talking about Just Like You:
Today I’d like to recognize a collaborative sports effort that pushes for gender equality, teaches about AIDS/HIV prevention, builds life-skills for at-risk youth, and provides educational opportunities for women and girls in Kenya.
The team began with a few primary players: CARE (a humanitarian organization that fights global poverty) and their Sport for Social Change Initiative, Nike Let Me Play (a youth-directed program to fight global poverty and oppression through sports), and the Mathare Youth Soccer Association (dedicated to empowering impoverished youth in Kenya through sports and community service projects).
Once these three players got together to kick some ideas around on the playing field, they realized that they were unstoppable. They chose a team name—the Kenyan American Soccer Exchange, or KASE—and scored goal after goal empowering women and girls in Kenya.
The KASE Girls USA Tour brought Kenyan teams to the States to build relationships and play soccer. KASE also hosts workshops to train Kenyan coaches, build political and economic support for women’s sports in Kenya, and assist Universities in developing women’s sports programs.
* also check out my previous post detailing MYSA's amazing program in Mathare, Kenya
I started to become aware of social issues in '90s when I was in junior
high and high school, and for most of my adolescence, the name "Nike"
was pretty much equivalent with sweatshop labor. I was appalled by
accounts of children younger than I was making my shoes for pennies a
day, and I didn't buy Nike products for years (and silently judged
anyone I saw wearing Nike gear on the street).
I
haven't kept up with Nike's practices very well for the last few years,
so my old beliefs still persisted until recently. When YouthNoise was
first considering a partnership with the Nike Let Me Play campaign, I
admit I was more than a little wary of getting in bed with a company
that had such a rocky history with labor rights. In the last few weeks,
we at YN have gotten a few angry e-mails from YN community members who
express the same issues with our partnership with Nike. In a nutshell,
they want to know, "If you consider yourself an activist organization,
how in good conscience can you agree to work with an evil corporation
like Nike?"
Touché. That's a completely
valid question and one I certainly asked myself before getting all "Yay
Nike." None of the staffers at YN wanted to jump on the bandwagon of a
corporation we had major misgivings about, so we did our homework
before making a decision.
What we found
was a company that had some awful business practices in the past and is
genuinely trying to make things right in the future. Nike's corporate
responsibility reforms may have started off as damage control-- a warm
and fuzzy PR push to improve their image with unhappy consumers-- but
we really believe they have gone far beyond that. Nike releases yearly
corporate responsibility reports (100+ pages, but a worthwhile skim if
you can stay awake) and was the first major footwear and apparel
manufacturer to publish a list of all of its contract factories on the
Internet to increase transparency and accountability.
It's bizarre, but Nike chairman Phil Knight may have summed it up
best when he said in 1998, "The Nike product has become synonymous with
slave wages, forced
overtime and arbitrary abuse. I truly believe that the
American consumer does not want to buy products made in abusive
conditions." Right you are, Mr. Knight. Right you are. Call me an optimist, but I think he was being sincere.
For
those of you who question YN's decision to work with Nike, I totally
understand where you're coming from. But I ask you to take another look
at the changes Nike has made in the last 10 years and join in the
debate we've set up on the site. What do you think of
Nike's corporate responsibility efforts and YN's decision to partner on
the Let Me Play campaign? Is Nike doing enough to fix its past
mistakes? What more should it be doing?
Apply to be a Let Me Play Leadership Society intern, and get hands-on
experience launching a project to use sports for social good in your
community. (NOTE: If you can say "Let Me Play Leadership Society
internship" five times fast, you are already on the road to greatness.)
We're kicking off the LMP Leadership Society with our Los Angeles
Training Camp from August 9-10! If you are accepted into the
internship, you will get to spend two days at a free crash course in
community organizing, team building and leadership training. Then over
the next six to 12 months, you will work closely with a team of
activists and mentors to make your sports project a reality.
Learn more about the Let Me Play Leadership Society internship Apply now to be an intern and attend the LA Training Camp
Welcome to Play City, where we are redefining what it means to be a
sports star. Forget the ego trips and the celebrity scandals—we’re the
real deal. We go beyond win and loss columns, we don’t hand out MVP
trophies and we certainly don’t have any signing bonuses. We are not
about performance; we are about change. We don’t care who we are
playing against; we care who we are playing for.
YouthNoise and Nike’s Let Me Play campaign are teaming up to bring the
phrase “Be a good sport” to a whole new level. We are building a global
network of young activist-athletes who want to use their talents to do
more than just sell endorsements. There’s no limit to what we can
achieve, whether we’re building basketball courts from our recycled
shoes or coaching soccer teams for future all-stars.
We believe sports can change the world, one player at a time. Get your game face on and play like you mean it.
Today I’d like to recognize a collaborative sports effort that pushes for gender equality, teaches about AIDS/HIV prevention, builds life-skills for at-risk youth, and provides educational opportunities for women and girls in Kenya.
I started to become aware of social issues in '90s when I was in junior
high and high school, and for most of my adolescence, the name "Nike"
was pretty much equivalent with sweatshop labor. I was appalled by
accounts of children younger than I was making my shoes for pennies a
day, and I didn't buy Nike products for years (and silently judged
anyone I saw wearing Nike gear on the street). 
Apply to be a 
