Out on the fields here, a soccer camp is teaching kids something that has nothing to do with footwork.
Raygan Brown is still picking up the basics of the game, but she’s already grasped the bigger idea behind it. She and the other campers in the Play4Peace ATL initiative — part of the HWPL Georgia program — say the sport has become a shared language for something they all want: peace.
“No matter if you win or lose, they’re still proud of you,” Raygan said. “Everyday, we say our common goal is peace.”
The three-week program, timed to coincide with the World Cup’s run through Atlanta, blends soccer drills with lessons in leadership, diplomacy, and STEM. Organizers say the game itself is the hook — soccer’s global reach means kids from every background find something familiar in it — but the real curriculum is what happens between plays.
For Kiya Humphries, that’s meant learning to talk openly about mental health and to lean on the community around her.
“Mental health is something very near and dear to me from personal experiences, and from being in the program, with them showing how much they care for youth and their initiative to getting us better resources, it’s something I take on today,” Humphries said. “It’s just asking people are they okay, involving myself with community service, events that deal with mental health.”
The program has built out beyond the camp itself. In June, organizers held a peace walk in partnership with The King Center, along with a peace summit and a Juneteenth parade — folding the soccer camp into a broader push toward youth civic engagement across the metro area.
Program leader Hudson said the goal is to give kids a sense that they matter, and to trust them to carry that outward.
“If kids know they’re valuable, they’re loved and valued, their efforts are seen, emotions are validated and their achievements are supported, they can go and carry that back into the community,” Hudson said. “Soccer is the most played sport in the entire world. The beauty of this is that it taps on the zeitgeist of different cultures. This isn’t just a Black thing or White thing or American thing or Hispanic thing. This is global. Peace is something that everyone needs in every community.”
Watch the clip below:
