Angel City launches project to help youth gain easier access to soccer

Angel City, which has made community work part of the soccer club’s core mission, has launched a project designed to make the sport available at little or no cost to approximately 14,000 kids between the ages of 5 and 17 at more than 100 Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks sites.

The Angel City Impact Fund’s goal, the team said, is to overcome the significant challenges young girls and gender-expansive youth face in the soccer ecosystem. Over the next two years, the team said, the program will provide access to soccer, leadership training and other skills to thousands of children across the city.

The team, which created the initiative in consultation with many of its long-term supporters, announced the program Sunday in Paris, a day ahead of the team’s Equity Summit.

Since its inception in 2020, Angel City has reallocated 10% of all sponsorship revenue to community initiatives and programs, putting more than $3.5 million directly into projects affecting nearly 160,000 Angelenos. That earned it the humanitarian team of the year awards at this month’s ESPYs.

Establishing the Angel City Impact Fund as the team’s nonprofit arm will allow it to expand that work by inviting the community to inform and invest in flagship initiatives.

“We thought what could we accomplish if we went after that?” said Catherine Dávila, the team’s head of community and marketing. “This partnership could significantly expand our impact.

“This is a long-term play.”

Dávila said the initial budget for the program is $1.3 million a year over three years. The money for that will come not from the team and its sponsors but from Angel City’s first efforts at fundraising from its fans and the community.

Dávila said five supporters have already pledged $10,000 or more, but the fundraising model will allow for any size donation.

“It lets our fans invest in the club for $24 a month or $24 a year,” she said.

Among the early donors is Justin Morrow, who won two Supporters’ Shields and a league title during eight seasons in MLS and is now head of sports partnerships and programs at the USC Race and Equity Center.

The initiative will tackle issues including a lack of representation among coaches, especially those identifying as Black, indigenous or people of color, female, or gender expansive; prohibitive participation costs of $5,000 or more for elite soccer programs, a barrier that disproportionately affects families in under-resourced communities; and the absence of dedicated spaces and programs designed explicitly for girls and gender-expansive youth.