Thanks to our generous sponsors and donors, Valeo FC has now been able to establish free and low-cost leagues to serve inner-city youth in Boston’s neighborhoods.
Part of Valeo’s mission has been and always will be to provide the opportunity for anyone anywhere regardless of their socioeconomic background to be able to play the beautiful game, and learn the life lessons that come with it. Now anyone in the Greater Boston area interested in getting involved in either Valeo or just simply kicking a soccer ball around can do it at little to no cost at all.
“This program isn’t just about soccer or coaching, it’s about shaping young minds through an outlet that otherwise may not have been available to them” says Valeo FC Founder Emilio Williams.
For more information contact information@valeofc.com
Valeo Futbol Club was founded out of the inner-city with the mission to provide year-round leagues and clinics at free, or reduced costs so as to increase opportunities in youth sports participation regardless of socioeconomic status and geography. Today Valeo has grown to provide opportunity to over 800 Club and Academy players from the Greater Boston region. In addition to our work in the United States we have partnerships with youth clubs in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago to establish and support training academies in the Caribbean.
These urban sites were created to allow for maximum participation, lowered cost, and increased convenience for families in those areas. Club soccer in the United States is a costly proposition for families, typically costing thousands of dollars per year. The expensive pay-to-play model, coupled with transportation limitations, often exclude urban kids from competing at soccer's highest levels. For this reason, we created our urban programs in an attempt to do away with this notion. Half of the players rostered at the club today come from our urban training sites in Dorchester/Roxbury, East Boston and Somerville. Currently 100% of our inner-city members, and over 50% of all players at the club, receive some financial aid.
The Valeo Foundation is largely supported by corporate partners and private donations.
Valeo Inti provides young people a completely free program funded by the Valeo Foundation, and brings young people together, through the culturally relevant and familiar sport of soccer, as teammates, to foster friendships, practice English, and support assimilation into American culture.
Created in 2019 as a collaboration of Valeo FC and the City of Manchester NH, Valeo Inti serves mostly recent immigrants or refugees who are unable to join pay-to-play clubs due to financial constraints and transportation limitations.
Valeo Inti was in attendance, alongside our partners Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and YWCA New Hampshire, for the unveiling of a new mini-pitch built in Sheehan-Basquil Park in downtown Manchester, NH. The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the 25th mini-pitch that SNHU, Major League Soccer (MLS), and the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) have opened in the United States.
Between our flagship program in Newton, MA, our three inner-city programs in Somerville, MA, East Boston, MA and Dorchester, MA, as well as our partnerships in Haiti and Jamaica, we are proud to serve and provide opportunities to kids of from a variety of different socioeconomic backgrounds.
By providing access to high-level training and increased opportunities for youth sports participation to economically disadvantaged groups, VFC aims to provide a unique avenue for the development of its members.
Valeo MBU Youth Football Academy is a joint venture between Valeo FC and Montego Bay United FC, a professional club in Jamaica, aimed at providing academic and player development opportunities for underprivileged youth in Jamaica.
In an effort to support academic excellence we donated school supplies to over 1000 disadvantaged youth in Jamaica and Haiti through partnerships with a number of schools and orphanages.
Through partnerships with the Boston Parks and Recreation Department and the Boston Centers for Youth and Families, we were able to establish free and low-cost leagues to serve inner-city youth in Boston’s neighborhoods.
In an effort to encourage academic excellence and well-rounded individuals, we established a homework club for our inner-city club members to finish school work before practice.
As part of our commitment to health and wellness we place a high priority on learning. Every summer we partner with the UCAL McKenzie Foundation to promote heart health through summer soccer clinics in Boston. We take it as part of our responsibility to provide education in all aspects of the health and wellness of competitive athletes.
Valeo players participated in a number of community volunteering events including neighborhood cleanups and going door-to-door at Thanksgiving time to hand out meals to families in need.
