OUR MISSION
Heart of the City is committed to providing an accessible youth soccer program and access to high quality programs and experiences for our athletes.
Our Vision: Recreational and competitive soccer is the pathway to personal success.
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT & SUPPORT PORGRAM
Our positive youth development pathway is focused around our pillars of:
- Health & Wellness
- Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
- Post-Secondary Readiness & Workforce Development
- College Soccer Recruitment
- Family Engagement
WHY WE DO IT
Heart of the City helps underserved and at-risk youth develop critical life skills and lead safe, healthy, and productive lives. Sports leverage and enhance the social, emotional, and physical development of youth. It helps them develop strong foundations to understand their emotions and behaviors, solve problems, gain confidence and self-esteem, build positive relationships, and increase resilience. Sports serves as a solution to the barriers that youth in low income and underserved communities face. It helps them develop “grit”, a combination of perseverance and passion, to overcome everyday challenges and socioeconomic difficulties. Studies show that physically active children get up to 40% higher test scores and are 15% more likely to go to college.
- 77% of kids living in low-income households don’t play sports on a regular basis and 70% of predominately Black and Hispanic communities lack recreational facilities.
- 57% of parents do not enroll their children in afterschool programs because they are too expensive.
- The cost of youth sports has increased by 46% since 2019.
OUR VALUES
At Heart of the City, our core values are the heartbeat of everything we do—they shape every step as we grow, play, and lead—as an organization, as student athletes, and as a community. They inspire us to dream big, overcome challenges, and reach our highest potential.
- Health & Wellness
- Empowerment
- Access
- Resilience
- Teamwork
OUR HISTORY
Founded by community members in 2014, Heart of the City was formed to address the lack of access to quality youth development soccer programs for families in Waukegan, IL and surrounding communities. The charitable organization coupled its existing recreation program with a competitive travel and college preparatory program in 2018.
In 2019, Heart of the City directors recognized a need to expand our college and career-readiness programming even further, due to low graduation rates and limited resources in our community, resulting in youth being significantly underprepared for life after high school.
Recognizing that a four-year college experience is not for everyone, in 2020 we started diversifying our post-secondary readiness programming in order to expose youth to other viable post-secondary pathways, including trade schools and apprenticeships, the U.S. Armed Forces, and the U.S. Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. We are amplifying our social support referral services to connect youth and families to the resources they need, including mental health, crisis support, food, housing and more.
Click our 2024 Impact Report to learn more about what we do!
