CoachCraft with Alf Gracombe
CoachCraft explores the art and impact of coaching youth sports through in-depth conversations with renowned coaches from grassroots to professional levels, revealing how exceptional mentors use athletics to shape character, build confidence, and positively impact young lives.
CoachCraft with Alf Gracombe
Caroline Foscato on Building Grassroots Soccer Unity in Boston
Caroline Foscato, President and Founder of Soccer Unity Project, shares her journey from organizing neighborhood pickup games in Boston's South End in 2008 to building one of the city's most impactful youth soccer organizations, now serving over 1,400 young players. In this conversation, we explore how Soccer Unity Project prioritizes diversity and community-building over competitive outcomes, the real challenges of scaling a grassroots nonprofit in urban environments, and why the current youth soccer system needs fundamental rethinking. Caroline discusses the barriers that keep families and coaches from participating, the importance of meeting communities where they are, and why every decision in youth sports should start and end with one question: What about the kids? Whether you're leading a grassroots program, coaching at any level, or thinking about how sports can be a force for positive change, this episode offers both inspiration and practical wisdom for making youth soccer truly accessible to all.
For more information about CoachCraft, visit https://coachcraft.info.
Caroline Foscato
So I challenge people, especially if you're not someone that's representing, a community of color, a marginalized community, to own what you may represent to other people and be okay that there might be some inherent tension there that has nothing to do with you.
So be ready to say, teach me. Find a champion that is gonna work with Understand it's gonna take years to build trust. you're not coming there to take, you're coming there, because it's a passion of something that you want to offer. And just being really humble about that, right?
and then bringing people alongside you that make those people feel comfortable to be in those spaces. And I think that people that wanna lead, people that wanna make a difference, and I still have so, so much more to learn in this work. There's so much we don't know, and we don't know what other communities want. We need them to tell us.
Alf Gracombe
Welcome to CoachCraft a podcast that explores the craft of coaching young athletes and developing young people. Today's guest is Caroline Foscato, not a coach, but the president and founder of Soccer Unity Project.
Boston-based nonprofit that reimagines how soccer can build community, bridge divides, and create opportunities for young people across the city. Caroline has brought together nearly two decades of grassroots soccer organizing, including South End Soccer, which she co-founded in 2008, and the Boston Unity Cup.
the city's signature celebration of soccer and cultural diversity that she helped launch back in 2018. Soccer Unity Project serves hundreds of young players throughout Boston, with a mission centered on equity, access, and using the beautiful game as a force for positive social change. But behind that mission are real questions and challenges that every grassroots organization faces. How do you find coaches who share your vision?
How do you train coaches and develop programming in neighborhoods where youth sports are under-resourced? And how do you build something sustainable that truly serves the community?
Thanks for joining and now my conversation with Caroline Foscato.
Alf Gracombe
Caroline Foscato. Welcome to the CoachCraft podcast. Great to have you here.
Caroline Foscato
Awesome, it's wonderful to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Alf Gracombe
Great. So glad we finally were able to make some time to have this conversation. We've been chatting for a while. We've known each other, you know, loosely for a number of years. You know, I do a lot of work in Jamaica Plain, you more in the South End and then Soccer Unity Project. So we're going to get into all that today. Super excited to have this conversation with you. So let's just start with kind of how you came to this work that you're doing today with Soccer Unity Project.
Where did it begin? Take us as far back as you like.
Caroline Foscato
Sure. Yeah, so Soccer Unity Project is really the outgrowth of, know, more than a decade of work that I had done in the city, in the community and community work, and then also directly through youth soccer. And really like a creating and a positioning of an entity that is there to build a unifying connective space.
that is pushing access and opportunity and all the wellness and life benefits that youth would get. So that came and all grew out of the first program I started back in 2008, which was South End Soccer. So typical town league, neighborhood league in the city of Boston, there's like about, I think eight or 10 of those in the city that are members of the state association and have in-house play and travel teams and all that.
That started back in 2008, and I have to give credit really to both my family, my sons, and also other community members and our co-founder Carolyn McNeil, who is working for the police department. Because I had young kids that just wanted to play sports, that's all they wanted to do. There was no soccer close to us, so as many folks know in urban areas, a real sort of measure that's used is...
people participate in things that are within a half a mile of where they live, where they go to school, and where they work. And so there wasn't anything close. And also because my kids had entered public school and I'd started to learn more about the community, not being from Boston, I had moved here, really starting to understand, and especially in the South End in particular, the huge disparity in equity between populations about
what people have access to. So when we started Southend Soccer, it was free and accessible to all, never charge anything, and create these spaces where people from any background can engage with the sport. And a unique thing about that, which is still big part of our ethos, is in sport for youth development organizations, social change organizations, non-profits, lot of them target specific populations.
because they want to bring that resource, that access, whatever it is to people that haven't had it. The thing that's very special about us is we see the potential for generational change. We see the potential of the power of the sport, a unifying social capital sharing building through diversity. So it's really important that we bring people together.
from diverse backgrounds, different incomes, ethnicities, races, identities, all of those things have people identify themselves and are identified by other people to truly break down barriers and connect people. So that was like from the very beginning. We had people in all sorts of economic situations and other things all playing together. And we've held on to that over time. And then as grown.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. Sorry.
so yeah, just talk about the South End the area that you were geographically within the city, maybe talk a little bit about just that neighborhood, demographically, what it looks like, where it's located within the city.
Caroline Foscato
Yeah, even from the beginning, we were pulling kids from South End, Roxbury, northern Dorchester, Chinatown, Mission Hill, Fenway, so that kind of started. But the real core, like initial, like 30 kids that played were mostly in the South End. And what's very interesting about the South End is over time and gentrification, it has become one of the most expensive neighborhoods to live in the city. At the same time, it's still the fourth highest rate of reduced income housing.
South and Little Roxbury. So you will have literally on the same block, a housing development, Section 8, market rate housing, all together. But those peoples are never connecting. And because we don't have neighborhood schools in the city, you may have two or three, like there are three schools right in sort of South End, Chinatown, elementary schools, public schools, but everyone in the neighborhood isn't in them. So they're going.
to, know, some are going to one school or the other, some are getting bused to another school because of the lottery system, some are going to parochial school or private school or METCO, you know, the program that gives people access to suburban programs. So there's not this central connectivity place for families across, you know, how they identify themselves. So that's why this was kind of the perfect spot to do this.
because that's how the population was already.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, it's similar in Jamaica Plain. We're just down the road for folks who don't know the geography of Boston, but we, I wouldn't say it's exactly the same. You know, it's a little more dense, I'd say in sort of the South End area, but demographically, you certainly do get the mix of higher income and lower income folks. And then we, you know, pull in people from those kinds of surrounding communities as well. So Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Hyde Park, et cetera.
So when you started this, I this is all in a volunteer capacity, right? Take us back. It's 2008. I think you said, you're you and how many folks are involved in the organization and yeah, what did that look like just on the ground?
Caroline Foscato
Yeah, mean, well, so the first thing we did was we got, they used to have something called Boston Rocks, a grant program through the city. We got a grant for that just to test it out in the summer and hired a college student, ran some clinics just to see people I'd met through the school system and other neighbors, you know, what the temperature of it was. And people loved it. And so then that fall we had, you know, probably 20, 25 different, you know, family, parents, community members.
And even then it was a combination of parents and community members, which a lot of town-based soccer programs that you see across the state and across the nation are really run by parents, They're parent volunteers, they're the fuel of it. But we, from the very beginning, we had some community members that didn't have kids leaning in. And so, you know, we pulled together and we kind of did clinic-based in-house league and sort of how so many of the programs that are in the system have been there for decades.
Like we really built it from the ground up and it was not very diverse in the beginning, honestly, right? It was like, or even the players, right? Like we got very intentional about our outreach and worked through some of the safety task forces and elected officials and the city to like populations that haven't historically had asked us something or historically had not played soccer in this country, the global sport, which is...
Alf Gracombe
In terms of the volunteer engagement.
Caroline Foscato
really bled into being sort of a white suburban upper class sport, that the sport they didn't see for them. So we did a lot of real intentional outreach to bring those communities in. And it was really interesting through the growth because we would see, you know, someone from a certain ethnic background participate a couple, you the next year. And then the year after that, there'd be eight more families from that background. And so,
There's so much trust based in this kind of work and building that trust and just letting it organically grow.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. Um, you know, it's, funny. You, I didn't realize the program is so strong. I actually, so I got involved in grassroots soccer here in Jamaica, Plain around was when my son entered first grade here in JP Youth Soccer So this was around 20, what is it? 20, 20, 12, 2013. I kind of assumed that you all were this very longstanding organization, but it was really just.
not even five years or so prior to that, that you were getting things off the ground. So it's a credit to where you are today. And we'll get to that here shortly that you've built so much. Did you have any idea that this was setting you on this course for this journey to building then Soccer Unity Project and kind of what you're doing today? Was this always part of the plan?
Caroline Foscato
Yeah. Yeah, it's,
it's really funny you say that because I, several years ago when we started going through it, we did a, it's been a huge growth in the last four years. my husband was like, don't, don't tell people that this wasn't strategic. I was like, it did become strategic, but initially like, I was a parent. I was a mom that wanted my kid to be able to play a sport they wanted to play with neighbors and get to know people.
And, know, ironically, I studied sociology and business in college, and that's now what I do for work, which wasn't really what I thought. And, you know, I was like, you know, millions of other parents across this country, they're working during the day, and then they're running to the field at night and on the weekends and like, and so that's, that was really how it started. But, you know, there were just so many moments, over the years from the beginning where
You know, an example, I remember we had, we used to do all in-person registration, right? Nothing was online. And this young boy, Christopher, came and he came to register and he didn't have a parent with him. And I think he was about 11 or 12. And we were like, okay, we, you know, we have to get your parent's signature. So I'm going to give you the form, you know, have them sign it and then bring them back and or they can call us. He goes home, he gets his stepfather, brings him back.
so he can register for him for soccer, because he learned about us searching online because he wanted to play. And I was like, okay, like, like this is really important that we create this access and we have this sport, like in a community had not had it because it's wanted. And so many defining moments like that, that really built our growth and the continued like partnerships and outreach and like,
Alf Gracombe
Mm.
Caroline Foscato
So much of what we do, it's because we have really amazing partnerships and really great stakeholders, right?
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. So just you've grown so much, as you said, and particularly in the last four years at a certain point, what was, you know, Southend soccer, a typical grassroots program, similar to what we have in Jamaica Plain Youth Soccer, but you created Soccer Unity Project. So this has been
Correct me if I'm wrong here, a 501c3 nonprofit, you're now doing, you know, you have fundraising activities, you have a board, you're operating like a, like a 501c3 nonprofit. So how did that change what you were doing?
Caroline Foscato
Yeah, yeah. we did become a nonprofit back in 2011 so that we could collect donations because our model has always been we give parents an opportunity to donate when they register or like we would have small events to offset all the costs because we don't charge. So we had to figure out and then partners would go. But the real kind of shifting happened around kind of
Alf Gracombe
OK. Yeah.
Caroline Foscato
2018, 2019, 2020. one of the things, so we've been doing the work for a while at this point, right? We had grown, we had a little bit of part-time staff when it was still south in soccer. And then I started something with a group of folks and Greta Teller was, who's done a lot in the soccer space, was the co-founder with me.
we started the Boston Unity Cup. And the Boston Unity Cup, we actually learned about through a friend in Philly, and Philly has a Unity Cup there. And actually, Philly was great. They were like, they helped us figure out, like, how do we set up this World Cup style event that was gonna bring in immigrant populations and different ethnicities to play, like you would see in a World Cup. And different things about working with those populations and registering all that. So.
We started that in 2018. And there were all these other moments, like I talked about with Christopher, but all these other moments over the years where I was like, this is amazing. And there was like communities, like I was learning how popular soccer was around the world. I didn't know, I didn't get it. I didn't get that like soccer is like oxygen in dozens of other.
Alf Gracombe
Did you play yourself
growing up? Were you around the game earlier in
Caroline Foscato
I
played as a kid, but that feeds into some also reasons why this work is important to me is there were a lot of challenging family dynamics and I didn't play sports through high school. So there were, and that's a whole nother subset, but it's a big driver for me. And so I knew, but I wasn't like this avid, people ask me all the time, like, where'd you play in college? did you coach at a high level?
And I'm like, I really got an idea about community, right? I mean, that was really the force. And so as I was saying, when we started Boston Unity Cup, which is now the city's largest soccer tournament, it's an adult soccer tournament, it's a free soccer tournament, we have, you know, this past year we had eight women's teams, 42 men's teams, sorry, eight women's teams, 32 men's teams representing over 35 nations and regions. And we play at 7v7
So you'll literally hear like at least eight languages on the field at the same time when we have two games happening concurrent. So that really start, I was like, there's so much more power in this sport. Like I kind of knew it, but that was really solidifying. So we were already a board at that point, lot of family members and community members. And it's like, we got some unexpected.
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Caroline Foscato
funding, which never happened. You're like, what? yeah, okay, money. And we had the ear markets or something. And we're like, let's do strategic planning. You know, at this point, my kids would be aging out. What were we gonna, what would we do? We're like, what should this be? And that's when we came up with Soccer Unity Project and this idea of re-imagining the sport, you know, accessible for all, building into the unifying power of it. And...
Alf Gracombe
⁓ huh.
Caroline Foscato
and said, we're going to go for it. And like, we're going to hire full-time staff. You know, we've tripled our budget in the last three years. You know, we're going to bring in like people around coach development ⁓ and player and youth development. Like that was really like a series of those things happening. That's really what sort of, and then we did it. We did the rebranding and the relaunch with Soccer Unity Project and hired our first couple FTEs.
Alf Gracombe
So what were some of the sort of challenges around scaling in the organization? You mentioned you just tripled your budget. I imagine you're bringing more families, more kids into your programs. I talk a lot about coaching on this podcast. Was this one of the areas where you experienced challenges around scale, is bringing more coaches in to run the programs?
Caroline Foscato
Yeah, so we made the strategic decision actually around the same time that we were going to start paying our travel team coaches. know, parent and community member volunteers are amazing. And like we couldn't run our programs without them. That's still how we run our grassroots league. And it's also really fun to coach your own kids. It can be sometimes it can be challenging. ⁓
Alf Gracombe
That's a whole nother podcast
episode right there is coaching.
Caroline Foscato
Now the whole night of nights
like, ⁓ do you want to coach your kid or somebody else? but, but we wanted to really lean into really the full depth of sort of that, ⁓ that holistic experience of what sport gives you and, and around youth development and around these things so that we could, and bring in coaches that, either had certification or wanted to get it. Cause that's another thing we do with our coaching, like
we will pay for any coaches certifications and we'll pay for all their trainings so they can actually, you know, access and improve their skills. But we wanted to give, you know, to sort of elevate that experience, deepen that experience, you know, through that. And so it, in that automatically started to make our budget increase and bring in a director of coaching and bring in, and now we have a director of programs.
But really to become, yes, the director of programs is the director of coaching is part-time, but the director of programming, I mean, it's amazing woman, Eve Wilcox that we just brought in who ironically moved here for family reasons and used to be in Australia at an amazing organization called Creating Chances. And so again, this intentionality, but it's been.
Alf Gracombe
Are these full-time positions by the way?
Caroline Foscato
I have to remind myself and people around in the organization, around the organization, like you've been really successful, like you need to hold onto that, but there's still so much need and we're so limited by our capacity, right? So we're always like, we have wait lists on the majority of our programs because we just don't have the capacity to bring the staffing and the organization.
to do it at the level of excellence that we want to do it. So we've really shifted from let's activate play, create access, to let's build strategic, impactful player coach development experiences. And that's the shift we're on now. And the capacity issues are really, it takes money. To pay people that have
know, the skill and the talent to bring in full-time staff. it takes, it takes a lot. And philanthropy is a very interesting space. I'll just say that. We're looking at some earned income spots, but you the challenges are philanthropy is fickle and what people choose and the sort of helping people realize what they already know that
Alf Gracombe
Say more.
Caroline Foscato
sports is a great builder for life success. My favorite quote, my favorite data point that I say literally to pretty much anyone I talk to about this work is Ernst & Young a few years ago reported that 94 % of C-suite level women executives played sports.
Alf Gracombe
Yep. I mean, I've definitely experienced that.
Caroline Foscato
So we're talking about
gender equity, if we're talking about like, you know, social capital, if we're talking about, you know, the wealth gap that you see between the black and the white population. If you're talking about like, about, there's your data point. But philanthropy wants you to do all these other metrics and measurement systems, all these other things for proof of concept. There's so much data out there in the sport for youth development world ⁓ that show
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. And do find they're looking for
like just more shorter term outcomes that they can measure and then, you know, as, as informing their next round of, of, of investment.
Caroline Foscato
⁓ It's shorter term
outcomes, but it's also, you know, it's the more than sport model, right? It's the, what are you doing other than sport? And I was like, we're inherently doing more. Coaches are identified as mentors. And there's another study that reports like, I think it's like almost 70 % of people that reported who their mentor was, was one of their coaches, right? So you're automatically a coach mentor.
Right, you're automatically like kids that do better in high school are more likely to graduate, they play sports. mean, like all the things are there, but they want, there's ⁓ a sort of like, and what? And we're like, we're doing the and what already, right?
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
It's a, it's a, it's just a natural by-product. mean, I can point to a million examples. I know you can as well. Like that is very much the case that it's just, just connecting people, getting diverse groups to participate in sport on the field together, connect families, connect kids. The benefits are incredibly clear.
⁓ I want to come back to something you said, and I think it relates to it, to what we're talking about here is, you know, this capacity issue and you are, you mentioned like you've wait lists for your programs, right? Like, you know, you and I are probably similar in that, like, it's painful to see that you have wait lists that you, that there's more demand for, for what you can offer. so how do you look at that demand and then also diverse populations, right?
Caroline Foscato
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Alf Gracombe
it needs to be inclusive. I think the folks, you know, I'll just say anecdotally, like, you know, the folks who register first, you know, tend to be the more well-to-do families. And so how do you balance these, these resource constraints with then providing access and enabling the diversity and the unity that sits at the center of your mission?
Caroline Foscato
Yeah, that is a great question. It's something that we talk about and we look at. One of the things we do is like, for instance, you know how families being like, can we register for next season? And when we like, registration will be open like for the spring, we won't open registration until March. And people were like, but I need to register, got to, like, I want to, and I'm like, this is when we historically play. It kind of equalizes it, right? Because people that are,
may have any sort of language or technology challenge or anything. They're learning about it. There's a self-selection process that tends to happen. I think as many people that have worked in the sport or have kids that are playing youth sports, the business of youth sports has shifted who has access. And for me, the whole thing needs to be blown up in Reset.
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Caroline Foscato
And so, especially in youth soccer, because a lot of people don't know that youth soccer, the Aspen Institute Project Play reported this, soccer is now the most expensive of the four most popular sports. So it's more expensive to play soccer than baseball, basketball, or football. And you're like, what? I don't understand. All you need is a ball, really. You don't even need a goal, actually. But it's this...
Alf Gracombe
Yeah.
Caroline Foscato
this mindset we've created about the sport. so, you know, it's, so when we're doing the outreach and we're intentional about where we do our outreach, right? So we're going to public schools, we're going to elected officials, we're going to people that are in touch with populations that historically haven't had representation. We're looking at, you know,
know, continuing to push our coaching and our staffing model that have that representation because people go where they feel comfortable and safe and there's trust, right? And everyone does it. So, you know, it's just a reality. And like on the girls' side, right? We push so it, on our girls' travel teams, there's at least one female coach on every team, which we, ask our coaches, were you ever coached by a woman? So many say no. So,
Alf Gracombe
Yep.
Caroline Foscato
You know, that
kind of thing, and the girls is a whole nother space where like we're really gonna be doing some analysis on. That's the one area we don't have, wait, let's start girls travel team. That's a whole nother conversation. it's, yeah, yeah, great, great. But I would say it's, you know, it's, I was starting to say, and I sort of interrupt to myself, but people do a self-selection. So there are people that can afford pay to play.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. Yeah, I was about to take us into that space, but we'll come back to it.
Caroline Foscato
and they want their kid in the club and they can afford it and so that's where they go. So there's plenty of people that live in the neighborhoods we serve that are self-selecting to play somewhere else because of the experience that they feel most comfortable with or the kind of experience they want or what they're looking for. So it keeps it from, it keeps that availability of it really being for all.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. So, you know, I definitely observed this and, you know, you can talk about, of course, the whole club system and the costs and expenses that go along with that and just kind of how the families and kids kind of sort into those spaces. And then the grassroots program, specifically the city has its own set of considerations that's unique when you compare it to, you know, even a suburban grassroots program. But if you look at.
Just the larger governing infrastructure of soccer. And so let's take Mass Youth Soccer the state governing body, you and I know a lot of people there work, you know, at the state level as well. to coach just folks who have coached know this, but like just what you have to do to become a coach in terms of, okay, the CORI check. Good. Let's do that for sure. The safe sport training, just the layers of,
time and, that is required just to become a coach and then, know, access to technology to do the training and all of these things. I have seen that also be a barrier in the city for people to get involved in coaching, just the layers of administration. And, you know, it's hard to say, well, this is bad stuff because the training is good. It's useful. You want coaches to have that, but do you see that as well? Just the, the, the hurdles.
just to get into coaching and the time commitment and what you have to do administratively just to get credentialed.
Caroline Foscato
Yeah, I mean, think it's interesting. I was on the board of Mass Youth Soccer for several years and working on some urban and underserved initiatives. it was great to be able to add some value there. In the city, there's recently been the launch of the Boston Soccer League, ⁓ which is a partnership between BAYS the league that our programs play in, and
the travel program and the city and Mass Youth Soccer and like realizing there's still a lot of people, coaches and players and communities in the city of Boston that are not in the sanctioned systems. so, and when, and we're working with the Soccer Unity Project is specifically working as a administrative and fiscal sponsor.
for a couple of very small programs in neighborhoods that historically haven't had the opportunity. And that is truly showing what we already knew in what you're talking about, about access to coaching and access to engagement of adults. And it's just highlighting it at a whole new level because I think it's a combination of like technology issues. So like we'll say to people, we have offices in Mission Hill now.
say to people, can come by our office and you can do the trainings there. We do a lot of work to bring alumni back to do coaching and really build youth, know, leaders, young leaders and mentors. We have a workforce development program around that. And, you know, it's something no one's ever had to do before, right? And they're not exposed to it and technology and language barriers and a lot of different things, but also culturally, you know,
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Caroline Foscato
Not every society functions like ours does with a sort of volunteer kind of engagement. And so people are like, do I, like, you know, sort of, why do I need, if I'm just coming to help, why do I need to do all these things? Right? And, but you brought the point up of like, you definitely want the C.O.R.I. clearances, but you also, you want to get people training.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah.
Caroline Foscato
Right? And so we look at that, like, we've done some things where like, we'll start a program a week later so the week before is the same time that volunteers would be coming, they're getting training that week, right? Hosting meetings where people can complete their paperwork and get support for their paperwork. because it is a hindrance, right? It makes it, but it's also hindrance across the system because...
Alf Gracombe
do the exact same thing in JP.
Caroline Foscato
everything that you have to do in order to be in these sanctioned systems and the administrative things that you have to do to get the players on the field, we've made it really complicated. Like, can't we just show up to a field, bring a ball, and have people play? Right? Like, think we want the adults to make sure that they are all supported that, make sure that you've got the good, right people. But I think we've...
we've over structured and over coached where we just want to get kids really excited that they can go play and they love the game and they're gonna play for the rest of their lives. That's the thing. And it's just the systems are, I mean, even to the extent of like, you know, you'll...
you'll go to play a game and you know, someone will be that goal is not exactly the right size or that field is not exactly the right size and the kids are 10. And it's like, we just want the kids to play and you run into the thing. They don't care. And we run into the same thing with refereeing too, right? Because, you know, there's a shortage of referees and so the engagement, you know, of anyone, but, you know, and on the coaching side, you know, I think
Alf Gracombe
Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, the kid don't care at all.
Caroline Foscato
Two, and this is something we're looking at and we're developing, is it's not just about completing those things you have to complete, but how are we really preparing kids, how are we really preparing adults to be on the field and manage kids and all the things that come with bonding a team and creating spaces that feel safe and people can be brave about who they are and...
have bad moments and how that coach is going to manage that bad moment with that child because all humans have bad moments. so there's so many layers in there. And then you're asking people to volunteer their time.
Alf Gracombe
Right. Right.
I mean, we've all done the safe sport training and like, it is all good information just to use that as an example, but it doesn't need to be, I'm just going to say it doesn't need to be that long. it feels like there's so much administrative apparatus set up just to get credentialed as a coach and to be on the field with kids. That feels like almost like we're just really trying to avoid lawsuits here.
You know, like we're going to, know, it's just, it's so all this time goes into. it's, is, don't get me wrong. Like this is important information for coaches to have. And you're on the field with kids and that is a, a very, you know, important dynamic that you need to understand your place in it. But, man, if we could just have, you know, an hour of that time for the stuff you're talking about, like how to actually get on the field to get your season going and to get the kids.
Caroline Foscato
Okay, yeah. Yeah.
Alf Gracombe
Excited and feel like they belong in this group and and just like that's what's important. have it you have ten weeks, right every season and It's not a lot of time and like to your point like we're dedicating that first week often times to training and we do the same thing in Jamaica plane Where you know the parents are available because that's the time they're gonna be scheduled throughout the rest of the season But yeah, that's something I just feel we need to understand about youth soccer is
Caroline Foscato
Yeah. No.
Alf Gracombe
is just lowering, know, reducing the friction just to get people involved and on the field.
So that's my up on the soapbox moment. And I know you experienced the same thing. Come back if we can to girls participation. I think anyone who follows the game, the women's game in particular, you see at the highest level that there is, it's historically been more white suburban.
middle-class, think that's maybe changing a little bit now, but it's still for girls in particular. Participation in the city and communities that are not the white middle-class communities in the city. How does the girls participation dynamic play out in Soccer Unity Project?
Caroline Foscato
Yeah, so it's been very interesting to us and we're gonna put some concerted time and effort in this. We launched a task force this past year to really bring women in and sort of from different backgrounds in sport and other spaces and soccer, of talk about like learn from them what...
what got you into the sport? Why did you play it or why did you play sports at all? Or what do you think would make it engaging? And going to some conferences and talking with other organizations that seem to be doing even non-soccer, non-sport organizations that seem to be doing well in the girls' engagement. Because what we've seen is, so we've had like a real increase in numbers, right? So we were, you know, we...
our free youth programming serves, it was 800 and then it was a thousand and then now it's over 1400 and it's probably larger than that. And the growth that we've seen literally since the official rebranding into Soccer Unity Project in 2022 has been like this, right? And we've added some programming too. like we do like preschool, we call it Peewee soccer. We also do adaptive programming.
doing some other things. So we've seen this increase and the girls are flatlined. So we haven't lost girls, but the increase we're seeing is on the boys' side. And we're asking all the questions and trying to figure out where to go, like why, why? Now there is, I've read some reports that specifically since the pandemic.
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Caroline Foscato
youth have been less engaged in activity and the drop off rate or lack of engagement rate has increased more for girls. Why? Right? You what is it? I mean, we all know and it's been reported for years that when girls hit middle school puberty, there's a lot of identity things around body and self and that's when they drop out.
Alf Gracombe
Hmm.
Caroline Foscato
So you see girls leaving sport, and so what kind of spaces are we creating so they want to be there? What kind of environments? That comes back to the coaching. What kind of support are we getting coaches to create these spaces that girls feel like, can be an empowered young girl, I can be an athlete, and at the same time? And so we're really focused on looking at all of that to figure out. But we also have to realize that
Culturally, I mean, this is why when you see internationally at the professional level, excuse me, where we are on the woman's side here versus so many other continents and countries. Because culturally, there are still cultures that don't encourage or even don't allow girls to play. So I think the greater Boston area is something like...
25, 35 % foreign born. So when you're looking at these populations that their culture is not have that ingrained, they will push and support their sons, but their daughters, you know, not so much. And one of the things we are looking at too is timing and location because some communities, some ethnicities,
Alf Gracombe
Hmm.
Caroline Foscato
very affiliative and it's really beautiful because family is the number one priority, right? And if you schedule things when either because of their religious beliefs, of historically kind of when they have things happening at times, the girls aren't coming. So we had an example when we started our travel teams.
whatever it was, 10 years ago, whatever. We had a girls travel team. think the girls were like, it was like you 11, you 12. They were all coming to practices. then like halfway through the season, a lot of them weren't coming to the games and they lived in common areas. And it was a large percentage Latina girls. And we found out that there were Quintaneras and there were baby showers.
and there were other family activities that were happening. And that's what they were gonna do, not go to their game. Okay, so let's look at the system and be like, okay, those are usually Saturday mornings, maybe we do our game Saturday afternoons, maybe we move them to Friday nights, but they're also religious communities that have services Friday nights. So it's like how you meet the communities where they are and not try and shove them into this system and ask them not to hold on to their cultural heritage.
So there's a lot of components. And I think I was just at the US youth soccer's grassroots symposium and speaking with different people that run girls programming and just some things that you do that make it feel really a space of welcoming and connection and belonging on the girl side. And so we're trying to learn about all that so that it feels like
Alf Gracombe
Yeah.
Caroline Foscato
I want to come here, this is the place I want to be, this is the place I want to be with my friends or make friends, and I don't want to stop doing it.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, it's, I've learned a lot about this space myself just over the years. You know, I don't have a daughter. I think, you know, parents who have girls as children can speak to this a little bit more clearly, but I do think it's important that folks, you know, like myself, who don't have daughters or are men, can start to engage on this a little bit more in a more nuanced way, because, know, oftentimes like, well, we make these programs available.
Right. There's it's equal. It's there's equity and that is true. Right. Like it's, available to girls as much as it's available to boys. But there are layers beneath that, that, you know, you may struggle as a grassroots organization to, you're already resource constrained, right? You don't have the fields whenever you want them. You have to take them when you, when you get them. but just to understand where are the entry points and where is the resistance.
Caroline Foscato
Yeah.
Alf Gracombe
is the first step. And then being able to, I think, shape conversations with whether it's policymakers, partners in the city. But it's really tough. You really do see, we can't change cultures of people that are living and working here. And so those things are just, they are a reality. But we do need to understand them and acknowledge them. But yeah, I've often felt.
Caroline Foscato
When I think,
and one of the things, yeah, and one of the things that, you know, we got some really great advice from Massey Soccer, because they mentored us when we started, right? And they really helped us through the years. and you know, the, I think the part of it too is that be okay to meet people where they are and have programming for that.
Alf Gracombe
Sorry, go ahead.
Caroline Foscato
So I think one of the things, real identifier of who we are as an organization, and it's why we've added in adaptive programming, is whatever level you are that you can play, you wanna play, it works for your family to play, let's give you that, right? So for instance, we've had families before that are like, and it's happened a few times, and those few times were more so on the girls' side, like,
I don't want to do a travel team. I just want her to play soccer and some, and so grassroots league. So a lot of programs, you know, they have, you know, grassroots programming, recreational programming until girls reach the age of travel teams. And then they just do travel teams from grades, from, you know, grade three, nine year olds up. So like, we have a program through middle school. So like,
you can keep playing in the way you want to. We've also added in what we call community pickup sessions. So like, if you just want to sign up and you want to come once a week and you just want to play, and you can, right? And then with adaptive programming, know, there's, there's, know, medicine has gotten so much better about identifying things for people and where they are. And, you know, the structured soccer space isn't necessarily the right fit for every child that has a cognitive or
physical disability. like, we have that space now that like, let's meet you where you are. And so you can keep playing and not be totally focused on how are we getting everybody to like a development academy or an ECNL or like whatever, right? like, it's more important because one of the things I say all the time is healthy adults, we're healthy kids.
Alf Gracombe
All right.
Caroline Foscato
Like how many adults do you know, did you play soccer growing up too?
Alf Gracombe
I did, yeah.
Caroline Foscato
Yeah. So how many adults do you know that started playing soccer that didn't play as a kid? How many folks do you know that pick up a rate that were not doing? So it's like that needs to, I think it's just meeting people where they are. So it doesn't matter how they're doing it. They're just doing it.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. I mean, this is just
to speak to that a little bit. you know, it's, in a conversation. don't know if you know David Shapiro. He's the president of YMCA of greater Boston. So he was on the podcast and he, he had a great observation of his like how you orient yourself when you're involved in youth sports as an adult in particular, it's just like, or a parent.
Caroline Foscato
Is it? Yeah.
Alf Gracombe
Like what is the goal here? Like what is kind of the end game? What are you working towards with this? And oftentimes, right, the most immediate is like, we want to have a good team and a winning season. And that's like, sure, that's great. But what are we really working towards? It's a much longer term engagement. You mentioned, you know, leadership and, you know, C-suite level women and their...
the disproportionate amount of women who played youth sports and how that's so important in their adult life. You know, I still play, I'm 54 years old and it's like my favorite day of the week is just being on the field and it's not always pretty out there, but it's fun and it's like a big part of, you know, what enjoyment that I get from life. so like that, I think is so important to just see and recognize that like participation now as a kid is something that
that is going to serve that person, you know, way, down the line and just participation, involvement.
Caroline Foscato
And those are people
that are going to be coaches, right? And it's like, I think the love of the game, right? Is like the, is in the connectivity of the game and the empowerment and all the things it gives you, like it's that, that focus that you said, right? Like how much, how much are we going to win? And, and that's, that's too, what's happened, you know, through, you know, the pay to play system is.
Alf Gracombe
Yes. Yes.
Caroline Foscato
People are going to these clubs and going to these things because like we won these tournaments. We had these kids go to these colleges, da da da. And I think that people have been sold a bag of goods when I think I don't have the, don't quote me because I don't have the right data, but it's definitely less than 1 % of kids that play soccer and a playing college.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. Yeah. Everyone's career is going to end at some point and you know, even the best players, right? So you're still like the best players, their careers over in their mid thirties, right? So there's a lot of life that comes after that. And that's so important. And yeah, a lot of people, like I didn't play in college. Like I, my career such as it was like ended at the end of high school, but it is such an important part of my life. And you talk about love of the game. It's like, we're not talking about just the ball getting kicked around the field and
Caroline Foscato
Yes. Yes.
Yeah.
Alf Gracombe
We're talking about this incredible social experience and you know, everyone around the world plays this game and you've seen this with what you've done here in the city with the Unity Cup and everything. Like it's a common vocabulary that can be spoken amongst people very quickly. I mean, the group that I play with of guys, I mean, literally from all around the world and...
Caroline Foscato
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Alf Gracombe
The
whole thing just flattens out the minute we step on the field and it's incredible. And I know this sounds cliche, but it is so, true about the game.
Caroline Foscato
It is. And it's the beauty. It's one of the beauties of the beautiful game, right? But we need to do a better job, holistically, like all of us, collectively and support each other in doing it, in making it feel welcoming and accessible to anybody. And that's from a player standpoint, it's from a coach standpoint, from a leadership standpoint, like...
You know, we need it to feel like, you know, this can be for me too. And, ⁓ and then once you're there, like, you know, people are, are happy you're there and it's not about like how you're identifying yourself with the medals you have on your wall. Right. I mean, it's just like, I mean, not that all of that isn't great too. We all have like, you know, we, we all love it when someone's like, I was top in my division this season. Like everybody, it's great. We love, we love that.
Alf Gracombe
Right.
Caroline Foscato
But, know, one of the things I like to say is the W comes after the word team, right? Like it's like you build the greatest teams. I mean, you look at the women's national team, right? And the amazing coaching that Emma Hayes does. mean, like, you know, and, and, and the, when she talks about things she talks about in the locker room or when players talk about things she says and does, like she's building a team, right? And
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Caroline Foscato
and you know, of good people that care about each other and like are gonna, they're there and like that sort of inspirational coaching, that's what we need to inspire more of, right? We need to inspire. And that's why I feel like giving people, you know, that we're gonna ask to work with children those toolkits, right? Like how do you actually work with kids? How do you actually like do these things? Not necessarily,
you know, are the X's and O's on the board, right? When you're your training.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I like to say, you know, there's you play it. This is the most simple example. You play a game. There's a score, right? People say, what's the result? Well, the result was two to one. Our team won. Great. Okay. That's one result. But what are the, there's a lot more results that are happening in the, in, in that game for both teams, even if you're on the losing side, there are positive results. Right. And so I think people need to look at that very holistically.
when they're thinking about the game. What are the results? What are the things you see show up on the field? What do we need to work on? What did we do well? How are we connecting people? How are we connecting teammates? The culture of the team. These are all things that are results that you can speak to.
Caroline Foscato
Yeah,
like one of the things when our director of program started Eve, one of the things we added in the season into our grassroots league is, so, know, we're building out our workforce development program, which you're really excited about because we're bringing alumni, teens that play with us, other young people that love the game.
And they're coming and we're teaching them to be junior coaches. And then they're also refereeing in the grassroots league. so, you know, amazing partnership with the city of Boston. I mean, I just have so much respect for the administration, what they're doing for youth sports. And so we are SuccessLink grantees now, which is a program that basically grants money to nonprofits and organizations so they can hire young people and give them professional development and work opportunities, which we're so thrilled that we're part of that.
So as part of that, right, we're like looking at how we give them different kinds of professional development, but we also have them on the field in the grassroots programs and we've made the choice to also figure out how to raise the money to pay them when outside of the time that we have that grant funding from the city. And so what got added into the grassroots league was something called Unity Points. So are you familiar with Football 3?
Alf Gracombe
⁓ just a little bit. Yeah. It was introduced to me by
a mutual friend, Ethan Goldman. Yeah. Yeah. So, but I don't know much about it, but yeah.
Caroline Foscato
yeah, Ethan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love him, love him.
So football three, yeah, football three is a really cool concept. Five-e-five, it's the players playing it to find the rules of the game. And it may be things like everybody has to touch the ball before you score, like different things around sort of social emotional learning and connectivity. And so sort of from that, know, Eve pulled out this concept of us doing unity points. So.
we're doing shout outs for players and teams when they're playing the game for doing positive things. So they did a high five, they helped the player out, da da da. So really trying to put that focus on that in a way that, you we live in a different environment. Like there's a lot coming out around, you know, lack of sort of inspired intentional motivation.
right, intrinsic motivation because of everything with technology and everything is like, I do a thing and I get a point on a game. Like there's so much. and so building that in them. So they're getting some points. kind of added that in, but, but it's, it's focusing on that. Like when we, used to do, we, for our travel teams, we do like a series of the coaches pick a series of different kinds of awards, like coach ability and best teammate and da da da.
And one of the ones I was always like, let's do who had the most assists. Not who scored the most goals. Right? It's like, and that was a hard thing to measure. So we didn't necessarily do it because you have to have someone tracking it, but on the sideline, but it's like that kind of mentality. you just have to, and any coach can do it, right? Like any organization can do it. You just step back, you take a deep breath and you're like, all right, the outcome that we want.
Right? What's something we can kind of integrate into what's happening to like push for that sort of priority in and out?
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, I love that kind of thing. know, yes, like the scoring a goal, it's sort of the most obvious, you know, good thing for your team to happen on the field. But this is the beauty of soccer. It's not just soccer. A lot of sports are like this, but like what goes into the goal? What are all the things that need to happen on the field in order for, you know, you even get an opportunity to have a goal measuring assists is a great one.
giving kids a chance to understand like they have a role to play and they have contributions to make. like, they may not be the one putting it in the net, but things that are, they're doing, you know, before that moment are, are what are just as important as, that final act as well. So Caroline, want to, ⁓ just as we kind of looked to wrap up the conversation, this has been just incredible. And so thank you for your time. You're, you're what you've done at Soccer Unity Project is incredible. And,
But it's also somewhat unique, just in the city. You know, there's programs all around the city. You mentioned it before. We're right down the street from you and I have learned a lot about Soccer Unity Project today that I didn't know before. And this idea of just, what do you do? Like, how do we move the game, the youth game in Boston?
forward in an environment and a lot of cities are like this. very neighborhood based. You've got a lot of programs. They operate a little bit in silos. It's not that they aren't aware of these other programs, but you sit in a unique position because you're running a big program now and it's, you've, you're, you're, you're bringing money in. have a larger budget than most organizations in the city. If you're speaking to leaders of other grassroots programs around the city,
Caroline Foscato
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Alf Gracombe
What's something you can offer to them to help develop and increase their own capacity and how to get either started or take that next step wherever they are in their progression?
Caroline Foscato
Wow, that's a great question. You know, I think what I would start with is, you the reality is anyone that's got like an entrepreneurial spirit or visionary or like anything like that, like you have to be willing to take risks and fail. And you also have to sometimes dive off the diving board, not knowing how deep the water is, right? Like you just have to, so like,
everything we've done in our growth in the last four years, there has been a moment where I just like hold my nose and jump and be like, ⁓ God, please, I hope like we're gonna make this work, like, cause we have to for the kids. And I think the biggest thing for the community. And I think another one of these biggest things is like, no one does anything alone, right? And so who are those people? Like, you know, we...
You know, when I was at MassU Soccer on the board, I started the Boston U Soccer Summit. We now host that every year. Prior to that, there was no collective moment. The programs across the city were connecting. And we built partnerships out of that. Other folks have built partnerships out of that or learned things out of that or connected with people. And the thing that I say to people, because it gets competitive, right? It gets competitive because it's inherently a sport and people want to win.
I have some real thoughts around how we structure who can play in what organizations and the territorialism that we have that you have to be in certain zip codes to play in certain programs. When the reality is the majority of people are gonna play the closest one they can at a grassroots level. But, and so it's competitive around like getting the players and then getting the funding and then keeping the players and getting the coaches and get like.
There's this inherent competitiveness in the space, especially in the nonprofit. And I challenge people in leadership positions. I challenge people, stakeholders. I challenge like philanthropy. challenge municipalities, like anyone that has any sort of decision-making, you know, or resource. How much more can we actually figure out to do together and support each other rather than I am doing this thing?
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Caroline Foscato
and I am gonna have the best team that's gonna X, right? Like, that's what we need so much more of because, you know, like to break down those silos, you know? So I challenge people that are like, there's a lot of, there tends to be a lot of like, I'm gonna, I wanna do this my way kind of thing. And it's like, yeah, I get it.
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Caroline Foscato
But we need to not have the kids be the thing in the central that's being pulled. And so I think that I challenge people to say, if you see something that you know would be great, and if you don't feel comfortable, I think a lot of things when we're talking about diversifying the sport. And as a white woman, the first time I went into communities of color, because we do a lot of
of work in different communities of color. We play on fields in South End and Roxbury and then other neighborhoods we're supporting now too. I would walk into those spaces not understanding, no matter what my background is, and I suffered a lot of challenges growing up, but no matter what I represent and what I look like automatically, right? And how I live, that I am living in market rate housing and that I am like, and like.
So I challenge people, especially if you're not someone that's representing, you know, a community of color, a marginalized community, to own what you may represent to other people and be okay that there might be some inherent tension there that has nothing to do with you. But we talk about like gentrification, like communities of color have had white people come in and take things from them. We're not allowed to have them since the beginning of this country.
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Caroline Foscato
So be ready to say, teach me. Find a champion that is gonna work with you. Understand it's gonna take years to build trust. ⁓ To understand you're not coming there to take, you're coming there, right, because it's a passion of something that you want to offer. And just being really humble about that, right? And it's like...
Alf Gracombe
Right.
Caroline Foscato
Yeah, because we're not gonna, and then bringing people alongside you that make those people feel comfortable to be in those spaces. ⁓ And I think that people that wanna lead, people that wanna make a difference, there's so much, and I still have so, so much more to learn in this work. There's so much we don't know, and we don't know what other communities want. We need them to tell us.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. ⁓
So I think what you just said is something I hope everybody, you know, really hangs onto from this conversation. I think the way you just articulated that was, was, was amazing. you know, at the heart of community is trust. can't have community without trust amongst the people in that community. And, you know, it's, it's not just a matter of showing up. is how you show up and the
The humility that you showed in that comment, I think is a really important part of that as well. And, you know, again, I don't mean to sit up here and like proselytize about it, but anyone who has worked in those environments sees the value in that approach. It really does matter. You can't just show up and, you know, act like you've got all the answers and here we're going to put this in place.
Caroline Foscato
You don't. You don't.
Ask the kids, right? Like ask the kids, right? I mean, we started our program, right? We started this with like, did it start? 2008, I thought we were gonna do like fall programming some clinics, right? Like we're gonna do that. The kids and the families were like, can we have competitive? We want travel teams, right? And then we had families that we first piloted Top Soccer, national adaptive program in 20...
I think 17 or 18. And then it took us a while to pandemic to bring it back. But we brought that because families were asking for it. And I think way too often there's this like, know what's best or I think like in the girls programming we're doing now, it's like we're hearing from families like girls want spaces that they can feel safe and brave that is just girls and female identifying. We're like, okay, great. So I think it's, just have to like,
You know, if you're a leader and you're trying to achieve things, we all have great ideas, but then you have to realize maybe you need to reset because what is it community actually wants? Right. And, and, know, for me, you know, I want every child to walk by a soccer field and think that's someplace for me to play, which inherently is going to be growing the game. But at the end of the day, it's about them. And I think the thing that I always say.
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Caroline Foscato
I try to always remember happens in every conversation. A conversation should start, if you're working with youth, should start and end with kids. Like that, it should be like, and what about the kids? I mean, it's why we started our workforce development. We had kids that were working and trying to play and they couldn't play because they had to go to their jobs and they'd missed practices and games. So was like, we'll create jobs.
Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.
Caroline Foscato
So you can work for us on days you don't have practices in games. And now you can do both.
Alf Gracombe
That's amazing, right? I think it speaks to what you've done. You're in touch with funders. You're now directing money into a system, which is fantastic achievement just to be able to do that. So well done on that. The last thing I'll say just on...
on this as well, like it is messy and it's not like, ⁓ here's a solution. And this is now the solution that's going to serve us for the rest of time. Like it is such a dynamic ecosystem. And, you know, we being adaptable and also just embracing the process and embracing it's messy sometimes, right? Not everybody's happy all the time. Like you have to hear people and have those conversations, but also recognize like you can only course correct so quickly, or you've got to honor other.
Caroline Foscato
though.
Alf Gracombe
you know, dynamics in the, in the, system such as it is. And, know, sometimes like in JPU soccer, we go through these cycles at some scenes sometimes, now we're doing the same thing we were doing, you know, eight years ago and we've been on this whole, you know, cycle and now we're back like running the program the way we were there. And that's okay. Like that's okay because it's showing that you're changing, you're listening and there's no one answer to all of this, but just those iterations and those cycles.
Caroline Foscato
Yeah.
Alf Gracombe
do you learn a lot just going through them and that that has a lot of value.
Caroline Foscato
Yeah. And we're dealing
with humans, right? So we're dealing with kids, we're dealing with adults, people make mistakes, people make bad choices. Like it happened, like that's part of it. And like we've started some programming and paused it or stopped it. We've tried some things and realized it didn't work, right? We've had people, know, coaches we thought would be a great fit somewhere and it wasn't actually a good fit. So we had to shift it. We've had players that we thought would be a good fit somewhere and we had to shift. Like it's all like...
It's just saying, this is humans and like, stuff's gonna happen, but you just come back to like, joy and love of the game. Like, and the kids. Yep.
Alf Gracombe
part of the process.
Yeah. And the people. exactly.
Caroline, thank you. Amazing. Just really enjoyed this conversation with you. So I appreciate you taking the time. know we're in the middle of the fall season, so you've got a million things going on. this is, I'm really appreciative of that. One last question for you. Any sort of resource or something that you kind of come back to in your work?
or it could be a book, it could be a movie, it could be an organization, something that's just a resource for you, a touchstone, or something you just got your head in right now and has really got your attention that you'd like to share with the audience.
Caroline Foscato
So I think the, so the first thing that I will say is from like a standpoint, like in sort of a leadership sort of role, the, one of the things for me that's been really important is that the village that's around me, you know, it starts with my family and then it bleeds into my friends. And I'm really blessed to have an amazing network there.
But then there's a couple key people, and if any of them listen to this, they know who they are, that I pick up the phone, actually it's usually a text, and I'm like, hey, can we meet for lunch? Because I'm really struggling.
I've had moments, I mean, I have had moments like, don't think I can do this, like, this is too hard, like what we're trying to achieve or like, you know, that we didn't get that grant or that person said no, or now federal funding is cut and there's things we can't have access to, like really hard moments or just things on the field and dealing with people, like whatever. And I call them and I'm like, I just, they've been doing what they've been doing a little longer than me. They're not necessarily in sports or soccer, but they're in the, you know, social change environment. And they refuel me.
And I have about four or five people like that. they uplift me and they're like, no, your work is really important. You were fighting system change. were like, you gotta keep doing it. And I think that's huge. I would say from like more related to soccer and inspiration. So there's been a couple key programs that like I really see as like truly inspirational in what they do and how they do it.
There's one that I ironically through people got connected with in Scotland called Spartans and they serve very similar for us and I kind of look at what they do. Another one is South Bronx United. I think they're kind of like a pillar in doing this work around both access and soccer and player development and workforce development for teens and like that, all of that. There's another one, Soccer Without Borders, which, you know, is international and
They are like the best at, one of the best I've seen of like the real community building, both from like a staff and a player and a family standpoint, like they really do great work. And then we've, you know, because now that we've been doing this work and we've gotten connected to people, like now we're members of Common Goal. And if people aren't, don't know what that is, look it up, it's a using support for social change. In fact, we're a member of them. They give us resources. So I think it's not like a,
There's not like a movie or a book or a thing. I think it's a combination of like, you know, what it is. And then there are other inspiring organizations that may not be in sport that like looking at their model and whenever I get a chance, like talking to someone and being like, how do you, how do you do this? How did you do this? Like I was just on the phone with someone this morning because we're in a big spot of, you know, raising our profile and board development and all of these things. And like, I saw you do it with your organization. How did you do it?
So I think for me, it's like, there's not a one or a few, there's like a ton.
Alf Gracombe
Well, Caroline, your answer is very on brand with the work that you do and Soccer Unity Project. It started with just your network and the people that are close to you and that you can rely on. that network of people is a, you know, we all know the network effect. Like these are your five connections to people close to you. Those five are connected to another five that are close to them. And so.
that knowledge transfer, that shared experience is invaluable. so it very much aligns with just how you've oriented around your work with Soccer Unity Project, making these connections across the city, within the community is fantastic. So continued success to you and the organization. I know we'll be talking, you know, going forward and bumping into each other on the field on occasion as well. So I'm really grateful for that. So thanks.
Caroline Foscato
yeah, always collaborating, always collaborating.
Alf Gracombe
Exactly. Well, great. Well, enjoy the rest of your season and thanks again for your time today. And yeah, just really appreciative of the conversation. All right. Thanks so much, Caroline.
Caroline Foscato
Thank you so much, I really appreciate you.
Alf Gracombe
Caroline Foscato's journey from organizing neighborhood programs in 2008 to leading Soccer Unity Project today offers valuable lessons for anyone working in grassroots sports. What emerged from our conversation were several key themes worth reflecting on. The power of bringing together diverse communities rather than serving isolated populations. The reality of scaling a grassroots organization and the difficult choices that come with growth.
and the often overlooked barriers that keep people from participating, both as players and coaches, and what it means to show up with humility when working across lines of difference. Caroline also challenged some fundamental assumptions about youth sports culture, particularly around how we define success and what we're actually trying to achieve when kids step onto the field. And most importantly, she reminded us that every conversation about youth sports should start and end with one question.
What about the kids? Big thanks to Caroline Foscato for joining me on the podcast. See you next time.
