WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY 1, 2024 - DC Soccer Club has been named a 2024 project Play Champion. Project Play is an initiative of the Aspen Institute that develops, shares, and mobilizes knowledge that helps build healthy communities through sports. On May 15, DC Soccer Club will be honored on stage with other Champions at the annual Project Play Summit in Baltimore. Project Play Champions are organizations aligned with Project Play's 8 strategies to enhance accessibility and improve quality in youth sports. Recipients are recognized for their innovative commitment to building healthier communities through sport.

DC Soccer was selected to be a Project Play Champion for its commitment to improving accessibility for families and by helping to bring communities together with the collaboration of the DC Winter League. This past winter, DCSC initiated the joint effort of several soccer clubs in the city to offer competitive games that cut down on travel by keeping all games local to the District. As part of the initiative, all clubs agreed to a set of principles to promote a positive experience for players to have fun in a low-pressure environment while focusing on teamwork and sportsmanship. As a result of this collaboration, we increased city-wide, social interaction between players of various socio-economic backgrounds and decreased the stress of long travel time for competition. This experience has opened a new pathway for DC youth soccer clubs to work together in order to provide an accessible, positive environment for Washingtonian youth soccer players.

DC Soccer Club will carry on with its commitment to the principles of Project Play to expand access to youth soccer players and will seek to build on the innovation of the Winter League.

As a committed Project Play champion, DC Soccer Club will participate in Project Play’s Washington DC State of Play report by helping to collect data through youth surveys. State of Play reports are the Aspen Institute’s annual analysis of national trends in the delivery of youth sports activities.

ADD YOUR VOICE TO THE SURVEY!

The Washington DC State of Play Youth Survey asks all young people ages 8-18 to share their sport and play preferences to improve our programming and facilities. This short, online survey does not collect any personally identifiable information and takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Please support your child to take this survey by visiting rezed.io/1P23RS

ABOUT PROJECT PLAY

Project Play convenes leaders, identifies gaps in access to quality sport activity and mobilizes organizations for action by driving progress through research, dialogue, thought leadership, resources, and network building.

ABOUT THE ASPEN INSTITUTE

The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit founded in 1949 and headquartered in Washington, DC. They provide a bipartisan forum to explore policy strategies for homeland security, foreign policy, and global communities. The Aspen Institute has earned a reputation for gathering diverse, nonpartisan thought leaders, creatives, scholars, and members of the public to address some of the world's most complex problems. Business and society, energy and environment, opportunity and development, communications and culture, health and sport, philanthropy and social enterprise, justice and civic identity, and security and global affairs are all areas of impact for the Aspen Institute. For more information, visit https://www.aspeninstitute.org/.

ABOUT DC SOCCER CLUB

DC Soccer Club is a youth soccer club in Washington, DC, with a long history and strong ties to the community, bringing people together through the love of soccer. The club offers a variety of comprehensive programs for different levels of soccer training, education, and competition. Beyond teaching players technical soccer skills, our philosophy is to develop our players as a whole; we strive to help our players grow as well-rounded people with respect, dedication, and good sportsmanship. DC Soccer Club is committed to making soccer accessible to all youth players in the Washington, DC area, regardless of background or athletic ability. For more information, visit dcsoccerclub.org.

CONTACT

For more information, please email DC Soccer Club’s Director of Communications and Engagement, Colleen McNickle, at communications@dcsoccerclub.org.