Open Field changes the lives and futures of youth through the game of soccer by promoting four of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): (3) Health, (4) Education, (5) Gender equity; (8) Employment. Open Field's framework for educational soccer-based activities promotes health, education, civic engagement, and leadership skill-building in youth ages 6-18. The model is effective because it empowers teenagers and young adults from within the target community to play a key role in affecting change in their neighborhood, engaging them in key leadership roles and providing training and resources to build their capacity as role models and peer educators. The peer educator approach is a widely-accepted, proven-effective tool in promoting healthy behaviors among adolescents in the global health sector. A peer, as we refer to the term, not only considers age, but also ethnic/racial background and shared experience. Our programming provides hundreds of hours of leadership experiences for participants including mentoring, peer education, governance, and community service. Community leaders gain personal and professional skills, on-the-job training and management experience, and access to future employment. All participants learn about vital health and social issues integrated into the soccer activities. The long-term goal is to develop a model for grassroots, educational soccer programs that can replicate and scale to reach youth across the world.

Typical Sport for Good (specifically soccer-focused) initiatives that target low-income communities often utilize adult leaders/instructors from outside the community. As a result, youth do not engage and learn from coaches, mentors and role models who look like them and have a similar experience and background. Often, youth who want to participate in these programs must travel outside their community. Our approach builds the capacity of representatives of the neighborhood to take leadership positions and utilizes space within the community to improve the quality of place. Our approach is youth-led, and neighborhood-based. This approach is guided by two very essential concepts that contribute to our success: removing adults from the typical decision-making roles and replacing them with youth who know better what their peers need and removing the barrier of transportation, which discourages many youth from participating in a lot of extracurricular activities. We create safe spaces for youth to play and learn, with an educational topic connected to every practice and game. Youth participants take on leadership roles as coaches, referees, and mentors to their peers. Youth participants emerge from our programs with new skills to succeed in school and in the work force. Our model provides transforming experiences and transferable skills to youth through sport. Youth experience: • Leadership roles as referees and match delegates • Mentoring relationships as coaches and team captains • Integrity and respect as key elements of all competitions • Part-time jobs in their community Youth learn: • Communication • Teamwork • Conflict resolution • Personal responsibility

Our approach to Sport for Good is informed by Open Field's decade of experience working in Sport for Good in Cameroon, Africa. Sport for Good, also known as ‘sport for development and peace’ or ‘sport-based youth development’, is a theory and practice for youth engagement and community development that leverages the passion and character-building attributes inherent in sport to create positive outcomes in the lives of participants far beyond the playing surface. A successful Sport for Good initiative is intentional in the design and implementation of activities to go above and beyond traditional sport instruction. Since 2010, Open Field’s global team has engaged more than 4,000 youth in educational soccer programming, mentoring relationships, travel abroad experiences, and cultural exchange in Cameroon, Africa and now Pittsburgh, PA. We've hosted 30 educational competitions and community events, sent a select boys U-15 team from Cameroon to compete in an international competition for youth soccer teams in Bulgaria in 2018, and supported one youth participant from Cameroon to attend college and play soccer in the U.S. We have 8 local full-time staff in Cameroon and 1 staff in the U.S. with plans to expand our office in Pittsburgh.

Right now we look at 3 high level outcomes associated with our programming: 1. Framework for Open Field model to continue in the community (foundation laid for future activities) 2. Peer educator model proven effective (youth participants increase knowledge and change attitude) 3. Curriculum and guidelines developed (materials are informed by community of practitioners and participants) For Outcome 1, the desired outcome for success can be separated into two areas: internal and external. Internal success means that community leaders and high school-age junior leaders are willing to serve in their role as peer educators; it means that participating youth are excited to be involved and others from the community are interested to participate. Success means that events are well-attended, enhance safety in public spaces, and become recurring. Success means that more parents show an interest and become involved over the course of the year. Staff reflection, event summaries, and participant feedback via guided discussions and surveys will measure internal success. External success is defined by willingness of partners to continue their involvement, access to the fields and facilities, parents continue to allow their children to participate, and funders are willing to support the project. Survey of stakeholders and analysis of project documents (like attendance records) will measure external success. Outcome 2 is focused on impact in the lives of youth participants. This is the crux of the project and the most important outcome. The stated goals in the project description are highlighted below: - learn leadership and life skills (including transferable skills for future employment) - improve health and well-being - facilitate civic engagement (through active service of youth council and community service projects) Success in Outcome 2 is defined by (a) increase in knowledge as result of information sharing and experiences throughout educational soccer activities in the project; (b) change in attitude, with specific focus on increase in confidence related to new skills and position as role model and mentor; and (c) community service project involvement. Pre and posttest surveys and analysis of project documents will measure changes that occur as a result of this project. Finally, to facilitate monitoring of activities throughout our programming in support of the overall evaluation, CameroonFDP utilizes a Scorecard to capture key information related to outcomes. Metrics including participation rates, positive interactions, conversations with parents, are quantitative results that are recorded on a weekly and monthly basis. The Scorecard is one of the tools used as part of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (https://www.eosworldwide.com) for project management, which CameroonFDP began to utilize at

Despite the instability in Cameroon since late 2016, leaving millions of children without access to proper schooling, one thing that has been a constant: our presence on neighborhood soccer fields and in the lives of our youth. Overcoming chaos in the country, and with support from the United Nations Development Programme, our staff engage more than 1,000 youth in health, education and leadership skill-building activities in 12 different neighborhoods in three cities in Cameroon. In 2019, our first year running programming in Pittsburgh, we have engaged over 150 youth, primarily immigrant and refugees living in low-resources neighborhoods, in positive, healthy sport-based activities with caring adult and teenager role models and provided summer employment to eight teenagers using the same model developed in Cameroon. Here’s what that looks like, by the numbers: 1,250 youth engaged in 2 countries 20+ community events this past year nearly 100 girls engaged in Girls Leadership Initiative and empowerment programming 2-3 educational soccer sessions per week in each community 50+ peer educators trained and active as role models 9 new jobs for community leaders, including 2 past participants, in Cameroon 8 summer jobs in Pittsburgh 300+ parents attending league events Open Field is more than a game. According to preliminary surveys, youth involved in our program for more than two years, as compared to 1st year participants, responded with: - 13% greater confidence in their leadership skills - 40% more likely to complete community service projects - 30% greater sense of responsibility for community Youth involved in our programs today have hope for a better future.