Fields & Futures: A Story of Restoration and Hope
Fields & Futures, OKC For Soccer
Summary
This narrative shares the journey of Fields & Futures’ mission to restore and maintain athletic fields and play spaces across 19 middle and high school campuses within the Oklahoma City urban core, supporting Oklahoma City Public Schools in a district-wide effort to grow student participation in sports – including a significant number of high-quality soccer fields. It highlights the fundamental ingredients – beliefs, partners and tactics - needed to make a needed to make a transformative difference to a city’s soccer infrastructure.
HOW AND WHEN IT CAN HELP
- When developing a strategy to create more places to play across a city.
- To map the range of partners required to make infrastructure projects happen.
- When advocating for investment in school or community sports infrastructure.
- To remind stakeholders that sustainable programming and field maintenance ensure that the value of a build project is realized.
- To inspire donors, partners, and volunteers about the long-term value of sports programs to decision-makers.
- As an example of connecting facility development to student and community outcomes.
WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT THIS RESOURCE
The F&F approach shows the value of a string unifying vision, and how that can help bring together the broad partnerships you need to get spaces built. It also highlights the necessity for infrastructure projects to go beyond the build, and to include deep and long-term thinking on programming and maintenance.
KEY CONSIDERATIONS WHEN USING THIS RESOURCE
- Who are the partners you need to make your facility a reality, and how can you inspire them to join you?
- Beyond the build, what programming will be delivered at your facility, who will deliver it, and how might it be sustained?
- Can you create structures that ensure your facility is maintained long-term?
- What impact do you intend to create for young people and communities? Do you have baseline data and ways to capture impact data as your program comes to life?
- How will you use storytelling to drive both awareness and action?
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Fields & Futures is a nonprofit dedicated to restoring and maintaining athletic fields for Oklahoma City Public Schools. Through partnerships and community support, they aim to grow sport participation across OKC’s urban core, knowing when a student finds a team, they find the classroom, with a renewed focus on grades, attendance and behavior – whatever it takes to stay on the team and benefit from the resources and relationships inherent in team sports. A driving belief: When they play, they stay and when they stay, they graduate! To learn more visit fieldsandfutures.org.
CREDITING CONTRIBUTORS
The Resource Hub is made possible by the generosity of contributors. It demonstrates the rich expertise and collective team spirit that exists across our soccer community.
All resources that have been contributed to the Resource Hub are free for users of the Hub to learn from, adapt and implement in their own organization and community.
Where relevant, we encourage users of the resources to formally or informally credit the resource creator, to acknowledge their expertise and generosity.