How the Homeless World Cup Fosters Community
Mel Young on a Powerful International Football Tournament
by Bemente Abegaz
Sport has historically focused on winning medals and competitions, however, it has the power to generate societal benefits, such as health and wellbeing. It’s important to explore the myriad of impacts that sport can have on the most significant social issues humanity is facing worldwide.
The World Economic Forum reported that over 150 million individuals have faced homelessness globally. We interviewed Ashoka Fellow Mel Young, President and Co-Founder of the Homeless World Cup Foundation, a non-profit organization that uses football (soccer) to address the challenges faced by those experiencing homelessness. He has devoted over twenty years to addressing homelessness worldwide, leveraging this experience to start the Homeless World Cup in 2001.
Q: How would you describe what the Homeless World Cup does to a general audience?
Mel: The creation of the Homeless World Cup was designed to tackle homelessness through the use of football. This tournament started in 2003 and now includes 70 Member Countries who are part of the Homeless World Cup global network.
Being homeless can be incredibly isolating, making people feel removed from society and alone. Joining a football team can be a small but hugely significant step in helping an individual to become part of a community.
When a person who is homeless gets involved in football, they build relationships; people go from being individuals, to players in a team. They have a responsibility to attend training sessions and games, to be on time, and to be prepared to participate. They feel that they are part of something larger than themselves, and part of a community that celebrates who they are, rather than defining them by what they are not.
At the Homeless World Cup, we see football as a tool which promotes fair play, creates an equal playing field and gives players a chance to have a positive interaction with authority. We also believe in peer learning and giving players the opportunity to develop their skills, whether that’s training as a referee or returning to the Homeless World Cup as a coach.
The sense of empowerment that comes from participating in football helps people who are homeless see that they can change their lives and the lives of those around them; and our global network of organisations gives them the tools, skills and platform they need to do just that.
Our tournaments, held in major cities across the globe, become places where these individuals are referred to as footballers and not just as homeless people. It’s about changing the outlooks of these players’ lives through positive attitudes. Overall, the Homeless World Cup gives homeless individuals access to health care, job training, and housing help, among other support services. At the same time, it targets the underlying causes of homelessness and involves people in their passion for sports.
Q: What would you highlight as the greatest accomplishment in the last three years?
Mel: Since 2003 we have proved the power of football to change lives, and through our annual tournament and our partnerships across the world, we are committed to tackling and ending homelessness.
As a result of the global lockdown, including the postponement of major sporting events, we were unable to hold our tournament for three years. So, we were delighted, excited and very proud to not only continue operating from 2019 to 2022 but to be in a strong position to return with our much-loved tournament in 2023, held in Sacramento, California — the first time we had visited the USA — a major accomplishment over the last three years. We have seen a huge interest in many major cities to host future Homeless World Cups which further cements the tournament as a key part of the global sporting calendar.
We introduced a new initiative as well at the Sacramento Homeless World Cup, our annual conference: Cities Ending Homelessness. It is a campaign and annual conference run with support from Catalyst 2030, highlighting global homelessness and focusing on positive global outcomes and solutions. This program aims to bring together the talents and resources of 500 cities and connect them with teams of social innovators and researchers who will help them develop creative solutions. Further excitement for the HWC in 2024 is the release of The Beautiful Game on Netflix, which will be available to view from Friday 29th March — a film inspired by the Homeless World Cup.
Another one of the many highlights is seeing the progress of these homeless players as they’re changing throughout the program and the impact of being involved with the Homeless World Cup. These players are outstanding ambassadors for their countries.
The stands at every Homeless World Cup are full with members of the public who have come to watch these players. It’s incredible seeing them applaud these homeless people. Even now the players have become footballing heroes, especially to children who are coming up asking them for autographs.
Over the years we were able to find out more accomplishments from those individuals taking part in the tournament: nearly 80% of the players have changed their lives by overcoming addiction through their involvement and finding housing and jobs. Our latest survey showed that 1.2 million lives have changed since 2003 because of the Homeless World Cup.
Additionally, 77% of the people involved say the Homeless World Cup has a major effect on their lives. For example, at the Mexico 2018 Homeless World Cup, over 167,000 people came to watch homeless people play football over the 8-day tournament. A huge percentage of them will say they’ll never look at homeless people the same way ever again after their experience of attending and watching the Homeless World Cup. These tournaments have helped to eliminate misconceptions surrounding homelessness.
Q: As you think about the next 1–3 years, what strategies will you be focusing on to expand the impact of your work, and what is the big impact that you would like to achieve?
Mel: We aim to achieve a significant impact through all our events, demonstrating how sport can be seen as a potentially effective tool to combat homelessness.
Our strategy will focus on the growth of the Homeless World Cup Foundation, using our tournament to raise awareness of the global issue of homelessness and how we can make a difference to so many lives across the world. We want to be able to talk about positive solutions to ending homelessness through our work with our Cities Ending Homelessness Campaign for example and we are always looking at ways to improve what we do.
Fundraising will play a huge part, especially after the impact of Covid. Wwe are introducing a global annual fundraising event in 2024, asking football fans and the Homeless World Cup family from around the world come together to tackle homelessness. Tthe World United 5k Run, which will make its debut on the 27th and 28th April 2024 is a fantastic opportunity for people anywhere in the world to support our vision and mission, to help end homelessness
Q: Who do you think are the critical partners to shift this narrative of sport?
Mel: Younger people get all the sort of things that we’re talking about in terms of changes. They have a critical role as part of future leadership and understanding of uprising issues. Sometimes sport is associated with young people because they’re more fit for this environment. Everyone is a critical partner, to be honest, but one of the key partners will be the governments across the world because they have a sizable budget to support initiatives like the Homeless World Cup. You also need leaders in the private sector in the business world to take notice of what we do and how we support so many people who need help. Another critical partner is the media, as it is very influential and can help raise awareness of the issue and how we are using sport and football to make a positive change across the globe.
This article is part of our “Sport for Changemaking” series — a collection of articles that examine how Ashoka Fellows around the world are utilizing sports to create impact and mobilize change. The series showcases the potential of sports as a tool for social transformation and provide insights into strategies, impact, challenges, and lessons learned. Sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date with Ashoka’s Sport for Changemaking initiative.
