Street Soccer

Soccer Teams for Homeless Make a Difference

Read articles from the Kansas City Star or on KansasCity.com about homeless soccer. 

About Street Soccer

PORT Street Soccer's mission is to use soccer as a way to engage and empower the homeless in our community.  PORT Street Soccer's vision is to use soccer as a tool to provide a healthy social activity for people in the homeless community, with the goal of providing a positive and empowering experience. 

Soccer has been used to engage and empower homeless people around the world since the first homeless world cup began in 2003 (www.homelessworldcup.org).

In 2005 the U.S. team was started by Urban Ministries in North Carolina (www.communityworks945.org). In 2006 Urban Ministries engages with 133 individuals and of the 30 final team members, 75% moved off the streets, and 95% made significant life changes-entering drug treatment, going back to school etc... Seeing the positive influence soccer has on the homeless, PORT contacted Urban Ministries for information on starting a team and sent a staff member to a conference on Street Soccer in Charlotte North Carolina in July, 2007. The exciting outcome was that PORT decided to start its own homeless soccer team in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

SSPORT began its practices on August 2, 2007, with the hope of getting a team established to compete in the U.S. Cup (www.streetsoccerusa.org)  in June 2008 in Washington D.C.  SSPORT placed fourth out of 12 teams:  The teams they played against were:   Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Charlotte, NC; Los Angeles, CA; Minneapolis, MN; New York, NY; Richmond, VA; San Francisco, CA; St. Louis, MO; Washington D.C. and the US Homeless National Team from last year.   

PORT received two awards:   The Washington Kastles Trophy-awarded to the Best Female Athlete as the Kastles, like SSUSA, promote and encourage the inclusion of women in sports and coed competition. Our only SSPORT female on the team won this award!

The Kevin Carroll Katalyst Trophy-awarded to the coach who best embodies and encourages Kevin,s mantra,  "A ball can change your life" by his or her work with players on and off the soccer field.   Our Coach Sara Silvennoinen won this award! In addition, she has been asked to coach the US National Team in Australia at the Homeless World Cup in December!

Read an online interview of coaches Sara Silvennoinen and Linda Bacigalupi, as well as a story about the athletes.

The Homeless World Cup (www.homelessworldcup.org) was held in Melbourne, Australia December 1-7, 2008.  Sara Silvennoinen, the SSPORT coach, also coached the the U.S. Team at the Homeless World Cup in Melbourne, Australia. 

Practices are currently held Thursdays from 11-12:00 pm at WideWorld Sports Center in Ann Arbor.  If you have any questions or would like to help support the team, please contact Sara Silvennoinen at (734)222-3727 or silvennoinens@ewashtenaw.org .

SSPORT would like to thank The Hantz Group, Wide World Sports Center, and The Detroit Ignition and Zingerman's Deli for their support.