GOALS has had a busy start to 2015! So busy, in fact, that we haven't updated the blog in awhile, but we're still posting photos and tidbits almost daily on Facebook, so be sure to Like our Facebook page to stay up to date.
For the third year in a row, GOALS kicked off 2015 with a two-week intensive staff training with our partner Coaches Across Continents (CAC) and their award-winning sports for social impact coach leadership curriculum. Each year, the visiting CAC staff tells us how impressed they are by the passion our coaches bring to the field with them every single day.
Life in Haiti is never easy. There's no running water, flushing toilets or electricity in any of the areas where GOALS works, but our coaches are dedicated to making life a little bit better for the young people in their communities. And it shows. CAC Coach Trainer Marissa, from Harvard women's soccer, started calling our program site "the field of dreams" because she saw just how much our coaches dream of a better future. As she wrote on her blog:
"The dream, I realized, was something that the GOALS coaches brought with them to the pitch each morning. The coaches wanted to play. They wanted to learn, and work together to solve problems."
Read more about Marissa's visit to GOALS on the Coaches Across Continents blog here.
Visiting CAC Coach Nora, who has played soccer all over the world, was inspired to see how our coaches are the breaking the mold when it comes to gender expectations. Greater equality on the pitch leads to greater equality in society, and GOALS coaches are making it happen every single day. Coach Dina, for example, had an older brother who took her under his wing and allowed her to come to the field to play soccer with him - the only girl on the field - and now, she's coaching both boys teams and girls teams with GOALS.
Check out Nora's blog about how GOALS coaches are using football to create new opportunities for young women in Haiti here.
GOALS has always known that our coaches, young Haitians themselves, are incredible role models for the next generation. And clearly, at least according to visiting coaches Marissa and Nora, it shows!