The Brief<\/p>\n
The San Jose Earthquakes worked on a unique pilot program with residents of a juvenile detention center.<\/p>\n
The goal was to help connect lessons learned from playing, and coaching, soccer with tools needed to succeed in life after leaving the facility.<\/p>\n
The 14 participants in the program say they learned important lessons in personal accountability and teamwork.<\/p>\n
SALINAS, Calif. – With the World Cup<\/a> just over two months away, soccer is once again proving its ability to unite people from all walks of life \u2014 including those in juvenile detention.<\/p>\n The San Jose Earthquakes<\/a> recently helped recognize a unique group of athletes: residents at the Monterey County<\/a> Juvenile Hall. Through a new pilot program, the Major League Soccer club is using the “beautiful game” to teach life skills to youth who are in detention for various offenses.<\/p>\n The Twinning Project: From the U.K. to California<\/p>\n The initiative is modeled after the “Twinning Project,” a movement that began in the United Kingdom to link professional U.K. soccer clubs with local correctional facilities. Every week, for the past 10 weeks, the Earthquakes sent a coach to the Salinas-based center to work with the detainees.<\/p>\n Coaches and administrators say the skills required on the pitch\u2014communication, strategy, and resilience\u2014are some of the same ones needed to succeed in the outside world.<\/p>\n “There is a lot that you can learn from sports connected to life,” said Josue Salgado, a youth coach working on behalf of the San Jose Earthquakes. “There are a lot of life lessons that are woven interconnectedly with sports. Being part of a team is the same as being a functional, positive member of society.”<\/p>\n Building Accountability and Leadership Skills<\/p>\n For participants like Chris, who has lived at the facility for four years, said the program helped him develop a sense of personal responsibility.<\/p>\n “I think the two main lessons are accountability and leadership skills,” Chris said. “Accountability is saying, ‘Why can’t I make that goal?’ instead of blaming others. I can learn from my mistakes, take it upon myself, and help others as well.”<\/p>\n Chris added that leadership is about “getting everybody together and making sure everybody is uplifted to keep going.”<\/p>\n Preparing Incarcerated Youth for Reentry<\/p>\n The program culminated Monday with a formal graduation ceremony. Participants received certificates and shirts to mark the successful completion of the project.<\/p>\n Michael Palmer, director of Monterey County Juvenile Hall, believes these extracurricular programs are vital for preparing its youth residents for the future.<\/p>\n “The ability to work in a group of people that maybe you don\u2019t always understand or get along with is just like being on a job site,” Palmer said. “You have your team and you have your goal, whether it is on the soccer field trying to score a goal, or when you get out of this facility and you have the team you are working with at a job.”<\/p>\n As the pilot program concludes, organizers hope the lasting impact will be seen in the lives of the youth once they leave these walls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief The San Jose Earthquakes worked on a unique pilot program with residents of a juvenile detention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[113229,113230,858,28003,88,1084,90,89,113231],"class_list":["post-255728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-juvenile-detention-center","tag-lessons-learned","tag-monterey-county","tag-pilot-program","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-earthquakes","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-twinning-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}