Play for Life International uses sport to engage and empower at-risk youth in underserved areas of the U.S. and abroad. PFLI believes in the transforming power of sport to uplift, connect, and build peace. Through our programs, we facilitate international athletic exchanges, run athletics clinics, fund, organize, and oversee field and playing surface construction, and coordinate equipment donation to our target areas. Using the convening power of sport, we reinforce our commonalities across culture, gender, and borders while helping children in our programs build self-esteem, foster respect and tolerance, and grow a sense of community. Through these concerted efforts, we believe we cannot only change a moment, we can change the game.

Sport is an underutilized method of bringing people together, empowering communities, and building peace. Sport helps children see their commonalities, builds self-confidence, and emphasizes the importance of teamwork. It teaches children how to lose as well as how to win. It builds self-confidence and aids in healthy development. By harnessing the power of sports, we hope to help children build stronger communities and better lives for themselves.

 

In the long term, we will identify culturally as well as economically appropriate ways to foster social entrepreneurship. This long-term goal will be realized as our social entrepreneurship solutions grow organically from our sustained presence in countries and cities. The solutions need to be tailored to the social, economic, and geopolitical realities in each of our program areas. Social entrepreneurship will be an important way in which we empower PFLI children to create their own fate and sustain themselves and their families in the long term.

 

Board Members