About the Project

The purpose of Switch the Pitch is to strengthen community, build individual and collective empathy, examine and interrogate inequitable structures, and apply a racial justice lens to the practice of coaching and nurturing youth.

Switch the Pitch equips participants to foster meaningful dialogue and lead by example to take action toward racial justice. We leverage tools to increase awareness of the importance of racial justice and the duty to act when racial discrimination occurs.

By seizing the opportunity for a coach to be the most inclusive figure in a young player’s life, Switch the Pitch is creating safe spaces within and through soccer, where all youth can play, learn, and thrive.

How It Works

The current youth soccer system in the US is commonly known as “pay-to-play", meaning that access to and participation in soccer often reflects the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities embedded in our communities. Institutions charged with the responsibility to create safe spaces for youth are ill-equipped to prevent, respond to, and repair harm when racial discrimination occurs, exacerbating power dynamics and division.

We affirm that soccer doesn’t have to mirror these disparities; rather, we can use its global influence to positively shape communities.

Our work is designed to comprehensively engage with:

- Chicago Fire FC Academy
- Chicago Fire Youth Soccer Club
- Chicago Fire Rec Soccer
- Soccer in the Community
- FC77
- Chicago Fire’s safeguarding and high-performance team

The Switch the Pitch programme challenges coaches to disrupt traditional methodologies and transform the soccer pitch into an experiential classroom where participants acquire skills to build inclusive teams, foster meaningful dialogue, and lead by example to take action toward racial justice. Through our in-person and remote learning, we elevate our collective understanding of racial justice via the following topics:

- Identity & Perspectives
- Activism & Leadership
- Preventing & Responding to Racism
- Allyship & Collective Action
- Access & Resources

Through Switch the Pitch, we curate a digital repository of resources, including content centered of the following inclusive coaching principles:

- Authenticity
- Vulnerability
- Awareness
- Empathy
- Safety
- Appreciation

Our group in Chicago centered on the Fire Academy, the Youth Soccer Club, Soccer in the Community, and FC77 – all initiatives focused on connecting the Fire with all 77 neighborhoods of Chicago. Our work in Chicago features our largest participant count to date and our most robust immersion of racial justice work within an MLS club.

Learn More

To learn more, including on how to join us, please visit switchthepitch.org