GRASSROOT SOCCER INC

Grassroot Soccer (GRS) is an adolescent health organization that uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire and mobilize young people to overcome their greatest health challenges, live healthier lives, and be agents of change in their communities. GRS focuses its work on three core areas: improving knowledge, attitudes and communication around HIV and other health issues; igniting positive behavior change among adolescents; and linking adolescents to life-saving health services.

There is a global “adolescent gap" when it comes to knowledge about and utilization of health services, and as a result, young people are being left behind. While global HIV infection rates have dropped 50% over the last decade, they have increased 30% in adolescents. GRS recognizes that adolescents are vital part of community development, and that soccer is an effective platform for ensuring they have the information and access to foster a lifetime of healthy behaviors.

The primary beneficiaries of GRS's work are adolescents and young adults ages 13-25. GRS implements life skills and health education programs that focus on a range of relevant issues, including: HIV/AIDS, malaria, gender, sexual & reproductive health, physical activity and financial literacy. The goals of GRS programs are to improve knowledge, attitudes and communication and promote positive behavior change.

GRS Coaches, who are 18- to 25-year old community leaders, function as a critical link between young people and health services by encouraging testing/screening for STIs and HIV, facilitating referrals to care and treatment, and providing information and support to young people as they navigate the difficult world of adolescence.

Engagement with parents, guardians and community members is a critical component of GRS's work. Coaches and staff conduct home visits to educate parents and guardians about GRS programs and approach; GRS also hosts soccer tournaments that double as community health events, where participants play soccer while community members interact with health care providers. These tournaments provide regular access to HIV testing and counseling, STI and cervical cancer screening, referrals for medical male circumcision, resources for addressing gender-based violence, and other sexual and reproductive health and rights services.

GRS currently implements its programs in five flagship sites across Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa. Through technical assistance provided to partners, including the U.S. Peace Corps and Special Olympics, GRS programs are implemented in over 25 developing countries.

GRS has set an ambitious goal of reaching 5 million adolescents with critical health education, linkages to health services, and life skills in the next 5 years by building partnerships and sharing our approach with international organizations, government entities, private companies and community based groups.

GRS's strategy for continuing to implement and eventually scale its effective, evidence-based programs is based on a dual vision for GRS. On the one hand, GRS affiliates in South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe function as incubators for quality program design, implementation, and evaluation. GRS invests in its affiliates in order to test and evaluate current and new approaches. Through rigorous monitoring & evaluation, including quantitative and qualitative measures, GRS takes an iterative approach to its program design to ensure that it is always meeting the unique and shifting health needs of adolescents.

GRS takes the lessons learned from its flagships to provide technical assistance to partners on how to best use soccer to promote adolescent health. GRS engages with partners as a direct technical assistance lead, providing hands-on training and support; in an advisory capacity, providing input on program and curriculum design of other organizations; and as a thought leader, providing input on policy. This “depth and breadth" approach will continue to allow GRS to maintain a high level of quality in its programs while scaling its impact through partners.

All of GRS's programs are underpinned by a commitment to research and evaluation. GRS has conducted over 25 evaluations of its programs, including four randomized controlled trials.

GRS programs comprise the following Strategic Imperatives:
Positive role models, especially in adolescence, can create meaningful change at the individual level. GRS is committed to building local role models (GRS Coaches) through specific recruitment strategies and ongoing training & mentoring.
Soccer is the world's game and brings people together with a common language. Coupling soccer's popularity with active learning theory and sport infrastructure, GRS generates a unique level of communication and trust with community members.
Adolescent health in developing nations is a major priority and ideal space for GRS to have impact. The relevance of HIV & AIDS is undeniable and continues to be the primary area of work, but over the next five years GRS will continue to broaden its programming to include other key adolescent health issues.

In the near term, GRS is focused on ensuring that its flagship sites are consistently and fully funded, and that program implementation is of an extraordinary quality. GRS ensures this by securing, where possible, multi-year funding commitments from donors through a variety of revenue-generating activities in the US, UK and in country, and through opportunities to engage at policy levels. Additionally, GRS conducts annual reviews of its programs to maintain quality across its flagship sites.

GRS is committed to building partnerships with health care providers, international bodies, government entities, other non-governmental organizations and research institutions to inform and integrate its efforts with the growing international work devoted to improving adolescent health.

Internal
As with many development organizations, GRS's core assets lies within its people.
GRS leadership and four engaged co-founders who continue to drive the organization forward.
A Global Board of Directors who are leaders in their fields – finance, healthcare, advertising, advocacy – and who are financially and emotionally committed to Grassroot Soccer's success.
Staff and volunteer interns all bring unique and varying skills, experience and expertise, as well as a collaborative spirit.
GRS Coaches who are demonstrated community leaders committed to catalyzing positive change.
GRS maintains a strong internal pipeline of talent, with opportunities for staff development, promotion and retention, particularly at the program level.
Early in its organizational development, GRS invested heavily in developing its brand of soccer-based learning, building trust with local communities and international partners.
Soccer – internally this is a major motivating factor for all those connected to GRS. Not everyone has a playing background, but everyone has seen firsthand the power of soccer to bring people together and create meaningful relationships.
External
Soccer will remain the world's sport for some time. As such, it is the perfect 'hook' for participants, governments, and donors.
A broad and diverse range of donors and supporters, including government aid agencies, private foundations, corporations and corporate foundations, individuals and other non-governmental organizations.
A strong and connected range of partners, who contribute to GRS's success through collaboration, sharing of knowledge and experience, and complementary skills and experience.

Reimagining Impact: In the 12 years since its founding, GRS has moved from measuring impact solely by the number of young people who participate in its programs to consistently and effectively measuring changes in knowledge, attitudes, and communication; indirectly measuring behavior change in adolescents; and monitoring uptake of health services by adolescents. This demonstrates a belief that knowledge is an important part of sustainable and positive change, but that it has to be accompanied by positive behavior change and an enabling environment in which adolescents can exercise agency. The opportunity in this reimagining is that we are measuring real change over time; the risk is that it is difficult to measure behavior change (for example) without relying on human input. GRS has set itself the challenge of drawing on broader research and modeling to represent its impact in stronger ways, while maintaining the humility to know that real impact takes time.

Partnerships: Since its founding, GRS leadership has recognized the importance of partnerships, but only recently was the decision made to proactively invest in partnerships in order to achieve broader impact and scale. To date, GRS partnerships have been ad-hoc; today, GRS is actively seeking investment in its partnership approach and is taking a bigger view of what partnerships might allow it to do. The opportunity would be to make a difference on a massive scale – rather than implement programs that reach 20,000 young people in South Africa, why not work with the Ministry of Education to reach 500,000 or 1 million young people? The risk is in the loss of quality that may inevitably come with massive scale – which is why GRS will continue to run its flagship sites as “best practice" incubators.

Investment in Adolescents: As mentioned, the GRS impact model is centered on a meaningful relationship between youth participants and GRS Coaches. Short term objectives may revolve around increasing each participant's knowledge, attitudes, and communication around HIV & AIDS, but in the long-term GRS views all program graduates as future community role models, thus building a generation of aware, engaged, and conscious adults/parents that can take HIV (and other health issues) into their own control.

There is a success story every time a youth participant tests positive for HIV and actually gets access to care. Each time this happens, GRS is preventing further spread of HIV and adding years to that individuals' life. Many will go on to be advocates for positive living and motivating other youth to eliminate stigma and discrimination. The benefits of building up healthy HIV+ role models cannot be measured, but surely contributes to improving the community's response to HIV and other health issues.