Crossroads News
Staff Member Lends Talents to Coaches Across Continents
Crossroads staff member Kevin O’Donovan volunteers for Coaches Across Continents, helping document social change in developing countries.
Kevin O’Donovan, a senior event support staff member at Crossroads, plays a part in almost every School event that involves lighting and sound equipment, ensuring that student and guest performers can be perfectly seen and heard. For the past three years, Kevin has also put his audiovisual skills to use volunteering for Coaches Across Continents.
Coaches Across Continents (CAC) is an organization that uses soccer as a vehicle for social change in developing countries. Each year, the CAC team travels to a different country, where they partner with a local organization and develop games that are hand-tailored to help combat issues in that specific area. Kevin’s job is to document this change on camera.
Through the games, young people learn:
- Life skills for a better world;
- Conflict resolution for peaceful decisions;
- Health and wellness for educated communities; and
- Female empowerment for equal societies.
“The program gets past the myth and folklore surrounding issues like AIDS awareness because it connects with kids on the field instead of in the classroom,” Kevin says. “Football, or soccer, connects with them.”
Part of the partnering process for CAC is to ensure that its efforts won’t be lost after the organization leaves a country. One of Kevin’s favorite parts of working with CAC includes watching young people—particularly young women—turn into natural leaders and then hearing of their continued success months later.
“In these countries, women are not in sports,” Kevin says. “You have to get the guys on board and explain to them that allowing women to be leaders benefits them, too.”
So far, Kevin has traveled to Uganda, Kenya and Nagpur, India with CAC; later this year, he’ll be traveling to Cambodia, where he’ll meet up with the CAC team.
Go here to view Kevin’s videos and learn more about CAC.
