In April 2023, Ballard FC announced that we joined Common Goal, an international movement mobilizing the global soccer industry to pledge a minimum of one percent of all business revenues to sport-based social initiatives. The move made the team the first USL2 club to join Common Goal, as well as just the second club in the United States and the tenth worldwide to make the 1% pledge alongside SV Werder Bremen of the German Bundesliga and Oakland Roots SC of the USL Championship.
Common Goal funds projects across several major impact initiatives locally and abroad. Ballard FC selected LGBTQ+ inclusion as its area of focus. As part of the initiative, we worked with Common Goal on the Play Proud initiative, a grassroots-driven program that works with all stakeholders in soccer to make communities and stadiums a safer space for the LGBTQ+ community, and to equip players, coaches and staff with the skills and knowledge to ensure that LGBTQ+ inclusion is championed on and off the pitch.
We are now officially part of the 2024 Play Proud cohort as well, which is made up of eight clubs from across the US that are coming together to with other community organizations and supporters groups to champion LGBTQ+ inclusion. In April 2024, our senior leadership traveled to Atlanta for the first week of intensive training which will be followed by an additional week of training in November, all geared towards creating and fostering inclusive environments in our respective clubs.
The club is also focused on other efforts simultaneously to foster a greater sense of inclusion in our community, including providing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training for all members of staff. We are also proud of our DEI statement, which you can read here, and plan to further this work in the months and years ahead. One of the ways we’re actively doing this is by working with our fans to see which demographics may be underrepresented at our matches from our community and then engaging with those folks in turn to help understand how we can better engage with them.
Our Foundation is also laser-focused on this work by going out into the communities in our area that need support the most. We focus our Foundation’s work on free camps and clinics for youth in the greater Seattle area who may not otherwise have access to high quality soccer and activity. Our marquee program is a summer program called CLR Academy, which stands for Community, Leadership, Revolution, and was born out of our partnership with our friends in Ypsilanti, Michigan. This high quality, academy-style program meet every Saturday in White Center, WA over the summer and engages youth with all sports programming, as well as provides healthy nutrition and leadership skills development.
We’re excited to be on this journey with Common Goal and work together to propel all of these initiatives forward.
