Meet Mikayla Campbell of Street Soccer USA

Mikayla, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Sports have always been a monumental part of who I am. I grew up playing a handful of sports and pursued soccer and volleyball most competitively. I am a former division 1 soccer player, having competed at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), where I received my Bachelor of Arts in Business – Entrepreneurship in 2017. During my time at LMU, I received an internship with LA84 Foundation, a nationally recognized leader in youth sport programs and a leading advocate of sports-based youth development (SBYD). During my time with LA84 both in the capacity of an intern and later as a Foundation Assistant, I absorbed the intricacies of the youth sports industry and familiarized myself with the organizational landscape of SBYD in Los Angeles. In planning and executing a press conference and Los Angeles chapter launch for Street Soccer USA, a national nonprofit that uses soccer as a tool for social change, in my role as Foundation Assistant I established a promising relationship with Street Soccer USA (SSUSA). I was excited about the opportunity to build SSUSA’s youth soccer programming in Los Angeles from the ground up, and decided to join the organization.

Interestingly enough, I never considered a career in sports, and looking back, soccer in particular is intrinsically linked to who I am as an individual. I believe deeply in the transformative power of sport, but also know from experience how detrimental the competitive sport environment can be to a youth’s psyche if not practiced through a relationship-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally sensitive lens. I understand my work with Street Soccer USA as being one of my first professional opportunities to begin eradicating barriers for communities of color. Now, going into my second year of Program Management with SSUSA, I feel a deeper sense of purpose in my work, striving to: have a long-term impact on the male and female youth that I work with, influence young female athletes (especially young female athletes of color) to exude confidence, and change the Black/African-American perception of soccer. Representation matters.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Starting youth programs in LA for SSUSA has certainly come with its set of entrepreneurial, political and cultural challenges. I knew and learned about the successful SSUSA models in New York, Philly, Portland, etc., but even still, starting a new chapter with little local support (our next closest SSUSA region is the Bay Area/Sacramento), was intimidating. However, I ultimately took comfort in knowing that this call to action was inarguably aligned with my experiences up until this point and that my skills (many of which were developed through sport) would lend themselves to my success in the role. SSUSA Los Angeles possess many of the inherent qualities of a start up, and so requires me and my team of coaches to act with agility, to take ownership, to learn and listen, and to be highly self-aware.

Specifically, it was initially challenging to relearn how I was socialized to perceive some of the neighborhoods I would be serving, neighborhoods that I did not grow up in. Having taken up African-American Studies as a minor at Loyola Marymount, I enjoyed several courses that tapped into the rich and complex cultural history of Los Angeles, and I ultimately understood Watts to be a traditionally and majority black neighborhood. However, in managing our first partnership with Children’s Institute, Inc. in Watts, I learned that racial demographics had been shifting, and that Latinos also make up a large portion of the community. At SSUSA we believe in meeting communities where they are at, and personally I believe that a portion of seeing this to fruition requires us to employ coaches that look like the groups they are working with. I take pride in having employed what I would consider a racially diverse staff, although there is still room for growth specifically in hiring more women. One of our SSUSA initiatives right now is to grow our female participant presence to make up 35% of our programming.

With this in mind I feel a responsibility to also grow the number of female coaches we have. We know that by the age of 13-14, most girls are dropping out of organized sports, which is a challenge in itself. In order to mitigate this decline, we inevitably have to employ female coaches to manage the specific and nuanced needs of young female athletes. Unfortunately, I realized early on that retention and high-turnover often plague the non-profit sector. To this point, I’ve more than once felt as if just when we are making strides in formalizing new partnerships and impacting a larger group of participants, I’m faced with a staffing obstacle. Similarly, many organizations are often under-staffed and overworked, often creating barriers for program staff in getting initiatives off the ground. Nonetheless, I am particularly thankful for this obstacle as I’ve grown into persistence and proactivity, which are critical in this space.

Despite these challenges, I’m pleased to say that we’ve seen an upward trajectory in our programming here in Los Angeles, and we look forward to growing alongside the communities we serve. In fact, I’m so proud that we’ve now served more than 600 youth and teens in 4 different LA neighborhoods.

Street Soccer USA – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Street Soccer USA has been around for a decade, and is committed to providing best-in-class, free programs and street league events to our participants across the seven cities where we operate. The Street Soccer USA curriculum connects soccer skills to life skills, giving players the tools they need to unlock their full potential. We provide more opportunities for our players to have fun, work hard, and lift each other up – on and off the field. By hosting community-based tournaments and showing up each day for practices and games, Street Soccer USA creates the space for players to cultivate trusting relationships, connect to local social services, and build the skills and confidence to succeed. SSUSA’s accredited coaches are trained in Sports Based Development and Trauma Informed Practices and are able to develop a variety of prosocial skills in the players they coach including teamwork, problem solving, resilience, empathy, and optimism. Because every community is unique, we tailor our approach to fit each community’s vision of success; whether it’s building a safe, healthy place for community members to call their own, or supporting local schools and clubs so more kids have the chance to play the beautiful game. We are also the official partner of the Homeless World Cup and the Street Child World Cup, which provide opportunities for valuable international experiences for our program participants.

As an organization, we are extremely proud of the opportunities that we’ve provided to youth to play through the depth of our relationships. We ultimately have found success in empowering communities through soccer, providing an alternative to the pay-to-play model. Street Soccer USA is a social enterprise with revenue generating leagues and tournaments that leverage private donors and corporate responsibility donations to fund in-school, after school, community-based club, and adult programs that improve the future of youth and young adults. Street Soccer introduces and builds the grassroots capacity of soccer in urban areas with goal of transferring life skills and creating a social safety net in the community for our participants.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my (young) career so far was the realization of the community that I’ve built around me and the affirmation of the impact that I’ve had on a handful of black female athletes. I take very seriously my role in not only changing the perception of sport, specifically soccer, by young black girls, but also the importance of mentorship and representation in the spaces I occupy. I was fortunate to have grown up with innumerable experiences with female coaches, as I know this is not often the case for female athletes. I am continuously humbled and inspired when girls express to me directly that they had their first opportunity to touch a ball through our programs, or that they enjoyed playing with me/my company, and have hopes of having me as a coach for sessions to come.

Ironically, my work with Street Soccer USA has granted me with a mentor who has reminded me of the profundity to which my relationship with black and brown youth can impact their lives. She has provided me with the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and practice the skills essential to my existence as a trainer, coach, and manager. She is continuously calling me to be introspective and pushing me to operate at my highest potential, to ask for what I want, and to be proactive in creating all that I envision. Her support fills me with confidence central to my success where it is lacking, much like the social-emotional impact I hope to see with my own program participants and youth players. This relationship is an unending reminder of the seriousness of providing youth players with coaches and mentors that look like them and have experienced similar hardship.

Pricing:

• Our programs are completely free to our youth participants.