New Step Up – Career Development Partnership
April 13th, 2022 — Choice For Women is proud to announce our partnership with Women’s Football Education (WFE).
The partnership will provide career building opportunities for professional female footballers through Choice For Women’s Step Up Program.
The Step Up Program provides current and retired female athletes with the opportunity to gain vital work experience and develop their social voice, and aims to prepare athletes for their post-playing career. Through the program participants are able to grow their skills and add hands-on, impactful experience to their resumes.
The Step Up Program will complement the range of initiatives WFE offers footballers, including legal counsel, financial planning, mental health resources, brand building workshops, and more. We are thrilled to be offering our program to WFE and contributing to the holistic development of sportswomen world-wide.
“The Step Up Program has allowed me to develop my strategic planning skill set through my work with Choice For Women, while also directly impacting communities across the globe. My next initiative involves working with girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has me really excited!” – Mariah Lee, FC Nordsjaelland and Step Up Ambassador
“WFE provide invaluable education, professional support and career transition opportunities, which makes this new partnership with Choice for Women so exciting. Through the Step Up Program players are able to gain work experience, develop their social voice and have global impact.” – Martha Thomas, Manchester United FC, WFE Ambassador and Level Up Mentor.
“”As both a Step Up ambassador and a Level Up mentor at WFE, I have been able to gain invaluable business exposure that many professional athletes are unable to get. The Step Up program has allowed me to gain vital work experience, enabling me to develop and expand my professional skill set, whilst still competing in elite sport. Not only have I gained hands on business experience, I have also contributed to the positive social impact Choice for Women is having globally. As well as gaining crucial work experience on the Step Up program, I am entitled to the extremely useful resources provided by WFE for professional footballer players, including; legal and financial advice, mental health support and personal brand building assistance. I am excited to continue my work on the Step Up program and looking forward to being involved in future initiatives and impactful experiences.” – Brooke Chaplen, Reading FC, Step Up Ambassador and Level Up Mentor.
To learn more about this partnership and Choice For Women’s Step Up Program please email
Choice For Women, a specialized women-led organization working within Coaches Across Continents, is dedicated to amplifying the voices of girls and women, and creating a more gender-equal world. Coaches Across Continents is the global leader in using Purposeful Play and Education Outside the Classroom to address the UN SDGs and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Choice For Women and CAC work at all levels, from advising governments and creating corporate social purpose to advancing community organizations, developing coaches, and educating young people.
Women’s Football Education (“WFE”) provides female footballers with guidance, education, and support to assist with achieving their off-field goals. WFE’s career pathway is dedicated to supporting female players to their full potential throughout each stage of their career including beyond the field of play.
Back On-Field With Green Kenya
Our longtime partners Green Kenya have been back on field impacting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) using CAC’s Purposeful Play! Check out the blog below written by David Mulo, Founder of Green Kenya, and part of the CAC Instruct team!
60 hours, this is the amount of time we have spent on field running Kenya programs. We have played at least 21 games with Green-Kenya, Far East Basketball and Futaball Mas addressing 7 different UNSDGs, that is, SDG 3 Good Health and Well-Being SDG 4 Quality Education, SDG 5 Gender Equality, SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 13 Climate Action. The programs took place in some of the most challenging environments, like Kibare, which is one of the largest Slums in Africa and Mathare where majority of residents live below 2 dollars a day.
The on field training took 3 days per organization unlike previously where we conducted training for 5 days, this was due to strict Covid-19 protocols. We facilitated education around the UNSDGs on-field by engaging coaches through discussions and having vital conversation through different games.
During the 3 programs, we had a huge number of youth leaders attending the program, out of 128 coaches who attended that training, 90 of them were youth leaders, the high number of Youth leaders was steady in all the programs.
We also had an emerging Community Impact coach during the on-field training by the name Titus Musyoka, who is a community Coach at Green-Kenya, Titus has been committed to impacting many Children in Mukuru Slums since 2019 and he has been part of CAC training in Kenya since then. The emerging young leader was part of the implementing team in Nairobi and we believe he learned new skills that he will use to impact many young people not only in Nairobi but in different parts of the world.
We believe that our partners, through the youth leaders, learned that they would have to apply what they learned during the training because they hold the key to the future of teaching through play in there communities, they would have to stand in the gap to be counted as change agents through the power of play.
The on-field in Kenya impacted 4512 Children directly, out of these 2915 were boys and 1597 were girls 128 Community Coaches, that involved Physical education teachers.
2021 Global Day of Play
Coaches Across Continents launched the first annual Global Day of Play on August 27th, 2021. CAC’s Global Day of Play was the first international day dedicated to the positive impacts of play. With research showing the benefits of movement and play on cognitive, emotional and physical development, we were thrilled to have nearly 1.5 million people in over 40 countries participating, each of our partners highlighted the importance of play and celebrated the day in their own way.
We saw the playing of sports such as football, table tennis, badminton, handball, and netball. We also witnessed the joy of dancing, singing, chanting, and jump roping. The power of play was felt across age groups. While most of the organizations served the youth, adults and senior citizens got involved with Global Day of Play as well!
Slum Soccer, our partner in India celebrated Global Day of Play by inviting children and their parents to play activities together. Parents discussed the importance of play, took the #PledgeToPlayEveryday, and then played football alongside their children.
Our Ugandan partner, the Mbarara Sports Academy, not only participated on August 27th, but in the build up to Global Day of Play impacted their community by donating blood to a local blood bank. They shared, “play for us means giving and saving lives.” Mbarara Sports Academy also provided space for the playing of football, card games, and cycling. The boys created signs showcasing their #PledgeToPlayEveryday.
#PledgeToPlayEveryday reverberated across social media, reaching hundreds of thousands of accounts and garnering support from every corner of the world. We thank every individual who committed to #PledgeToPlayEveryday and each of our partners for making the first Global Day of Play an astounding success!
Written by Mariah Lee
Corporate Social Purpose With Soccerex
We are thrilled to announce that, in partnership with Soccerex, Coaches Across Continents and our Creating Legacies 17 division will be supporting Foot & Boot in Delhi, India. Through support from Soccerex, Coaches Across Continents delivery team will provide year round consultancy and resources to Foot & Boot impacting UN Sustainable Development Goal (UNSDG) 4 Quality Education which was chosen by Soccerex Connected 100 Attendees.
We are delighted to have been the Official Corporate Social Purpose partner of Soccerex for the past 4 years. Soccerex trailblaze the football world in innovation so we are happy to support them in leading the football industry to develop their social voice.
Through this partnership Coaches Across Continents will support Foot & Boot who extensively impact at-risk children left on the streets in Delhi. CAC will work with local Foot & Boot leaders to address the Global Goals and specifically UN SDG 4 Quality Education and UN SDG 3 Good Health and Wellbeing through the next 12 months.
Thank you to Soccerex, and Soccerex Connected 100 attendees for choosing to support Coaches Across Continents and Foot & Boot, enabling us to impact thousands of children through the power of soccer and play!
About Soccerex
Soccerex has been bringing together the global football industry to network in a unique commercial environment for over 25 years. From hosting industry leading networking events across the globe to our market insight campaigns, we provide a platform to connect your business with the game’s key stakeholders. We are committed to growing the beautiful game around the world and our love of football is truly at the heart of everything we do. We are Football, Connected.
Coaches Across Continents Launches Global Day of Play
Coaches Across Continents is excited to launch the first-ever Global Day of Play on the 27th of August 2021 – an annual celebration on the positive impact of play.
This year we want individuals, organisations and communities who believe in the importance of play to take the #PledgeToPlayEveryday HERE!
On the 27th of August we are asking communities and organisations to join us by holding an hour of safe, fun and inclusive play with people in your community. Please tag us @coachesacross on social media with the hashtag #PledgeToPlayEveryday.
Research has shown that young people are playing less and one of the main barriers to children and young people participating in play is a lack of time. Play is often seen as ‘silly’ and ‘non-educational’ but as Albert Einstein once said “Play is the highest form of research” and is vital in cognitive, emotional and physical development.
Organisations all over the world have already signed up and are excited to celebrate on the day. Organisations from 29 countries, out of CAC’s global network spanning 132 countries, have already taken the pledge. Groups participating range from an Australian Rules football team in Edinburgh, UK to Kusewara (which means PLAY in the Chichewa language) in Malawi.
One example is training4changeS in Stellenbosch, South Africa. International Director Daniel Thomae said “we believe Purposeful Play helps children grow as self-directed learners. For the upcoming Global Day of Play on 27th of August our futsal academy players will design and lead play sessions with their peers. We’re excited to see what these young leaders come up with.”
Jaspreet Kaur from YFC Rurka Kalan in Punjab, India tells us that “at YFC Rurka Kalan, we believe young people are the backbone of society and providing play based activities is crucial to their health and well-being. We are thrilled to be a part of the first Global Day of Play on August 27th and are celebrating with our whole community, including the schools, with lots of different activities and dancing!”
We are also delighted to have generous support from leaders in the sport for social change sector including the Aspen Institute, Beyond Sport, Laureus Sport for Good, Michael Johnson Young Leaders, REMS Brazil, Sportanddev, and streetfootballworld who will all be engaging their global networks.
Together we can work together to raise awareness of the importance of play and #PledgeToPlayEveryday
Coaches Across Continents Joins SocaLoca Network and Platform
We are excited to be joining the SocaLoca network! SocaLoca is the single mobile platform for fans, players, clubs, scouts and academies. Developed with the core mission of democratizing football through providing the tools needed to organize the sport in communities and countries where footballing infrastructure is not always available. The core mission is to provide each and every footballer in the world the opportunity to engage with football activity in and around them and to explore their potential to the fullest. The App aims to organize football so that talent from anywhere is identified and has the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
“Coaches Across Continents is delighted to be a part of the SocaLoca network. Not only does it allow us to further unite and connect with football enthusiasts around the world, but it provides a platform for us to share our impact and stories while connecting with industry leaders to deliver social purpose initiatives using football and education.” – Innovate Team, Kylla Sjoman
Check out SocaLoca at the link below and download the app on your mobile device from the Google Play Store or Apple Appstore free of charge to connect with football enthusiasts around the world!
SocaLocaFootball – https://www.socaloca.football/
