Beyond Boundaries: Making Soccer a Free-For-All

Soccer is widely known as the most popular sport in the world; look anywhere and you can find kids and adults playing. The sport is easy to get started—all you need is a ball, a makeshift goal and a few buddies. Though a soccer game doesn’t require many materials to play, the sport’s simplicity has nonetheless captured millions. Jo Ben Barkey, a franchisee with the child health-and-fitness brand Soccer Shots, saw this simple premise as a chance to make a big impact. In 2012, Barkey decided to draw up a plan to set up soccer academies in poverty-stricken areas so they could impact the lives of children across the world. To do so, Barkey and partner Seth McKennon created the non-profit startup called Beyond Boundaries Academy, which has already impacted the lives of hundreds across the globe. The idea of Beyond Boundaries was sprung from Barkey and McKennon’s participation with Soccer Shots’ non-profit called Global Goals. Like Beyond Boundaries, Global Goals was a built on a vision to provide opportunities for the growth of disadvantaged children through soccer, across the U.S. and around the world. According to Barkey, Beyond Boundaries takes a similar approach to the Global Goals model. “We decided to launch our own non-profit that was designed to fit with our vision for a sustainable impact on the character development of young children in the form of donated soccer academies,” Barkey said. “I started the organization with just $21 of my own cash. Now, we continue to see positive feedback and support from the Soccer Shots community, our Beyond Boundaries ambassadors and many other connections we have in the soccer world.” With these donated academies, Beyond Boundaries seeks to also provide a sustainable venue that will add an additional revenue stream to the given community. The Beyond Boundaries team stays in the community for two to three weeks to work with coaches and staff and build a curriculum together that focuses on impacting character development through the sport of soccer. Along with building a curriculum, Barkey and McKennon work side by side with the academy’s directors to teach them small business practices. This ensures that the program can be sustainable on its own long after the Beyond Boundaries staff leaves the area. The pilot project for Beyond Boundaries was a sponsorship with a poorly equipped soccer academy called Academia Leoardo Uehara in South America. In April of 2012, Beyond Boundaries supplied the academy with new equipment and an updated curriculum that has pushed Academia Leorado Uehara to become more successful. The academy now hosts 160 kids in various camps per week. With the success of the project in South America, Beyond Boundaries was able to put together another project in Rwanda in July of 2013. The Beyond Boundaries staff worked with a school called the Wellspring Academy, which has approximately 500 children enrolled with increasing enrollment every year. The Beyond Boundaries mission for this project was to build a soccer academy that would serve as an additional revenue stream for the Wellspring Academy, while also implementing a curriculum that incorporated character development into daily lessons. And, according to Barkey, their work hasn’t gone unnoticed. “One of the most inspirational things that happened to me was when an 8 year old in Rwanda came up to me and said, ‘I love soccer. No one has ever taught me soccer. But, that’s not why I am most thankful for you. I am thankful for you because you came here and you loved me.’” Beyond Boundaries continues to see success and growth. The next project is planned for Nigeria in 2014. To learn more about Beyond Boundaries and how you can help out, go to http://donatesoccer.com.