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:

- Youth and academy-level coaches, clubs, and organizations
- Club and organisational leadership
- Supporters’ groups
- Parents and community members
- Sponsors

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

In Oakland, we have built two cohorts of soccer-for-good organisations. Building off the success of the inaugural group, our second iteration included Oakland Roots players and staff, tripled our participant reach, and launched in partnership with Let the Kids Play, a summer camp to provide free, quality coaching to youth players.

Learn More

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