From Cleveland to Morocco: What Soccer Taught Me About Community
This spring, I traveled to Morocco for 10 days through a professional exchange opportunity — an experience made possible by a Collaboration for Community Impact Grant through the Community Solutions Program, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the United States Department of State and implemented by IREX.
I went to learn from Ahmed Amrani, a former international fellow who spent three months with Cleveland SCORES in 2025, and to support the community work he is building back home.
I expected to learn about his organization. I didn't expect the trip to change how I see my own.
Ahmed was selected from hundreds of applicants to participate in this fellowship and came to Cleveland with a clear goal: he wanted to learn how soccer could be used as a tool for youth development in his community.
Finding Cleveland SCORES was almost serendipitous. During his three months with us, he immersed himself in our programs, staff, coaches, and community and began thinking about how he could take what he learned back to Morocco.
This spring, I had the opportunity to see what he learned and what came next.
Traveling through Morocco with Ahmed, his brother Hamza — our driver and navigator — and my sister Liz, I saw the community through his eyes. I attended youth soccer programming, watched a tournament, observed students preparing for school exams, and spent time learning about the grassroots organization Ahmed is building.
Soccer is a Unifying Force
The love of the game was obvious. Children could play almost anywhere, but what struck me was the community support around them and the importance placed on giving them access to a real field and a real soccer experience.
In the communities we visited, full-size soccer fields were part of the landscape. The field wasn't simply a place to play; it was a place where children gathered, families connected, and communities came together. And soccer wasn't the end goal. It was a way to reach the whole child.
I saw how football was used to engage young people in school, connect them to their community, and surround them with adults who believed in them. That felt incredibly familiar to the work we do at SCORES.
SCORES model combines soccer with poetry, literacy, social-emotional learning, and service because we know the field is often the doorway — not the destination.
What was different was the scale of resources.
Ahmed's work is deeply grassroots. His community does not have access to the same resources, facilities or funding opportunities available in a city like Cleveland. Yet the commitment to young people is enormous.
That realization gave me an even greater appreciation for Cleveland.
Collaboration is the Key to Community Success
We sometimes talk about the challenges facing our city, and there are many. But traveling through Morocco reminded me just how remarkable our community resources are.
Cleveland has organizations, schools, foundations, universities, professional sports teams, parks, coaches, artists, volunteers, and donors all working in different ways to create opportunities for young people. Small and large NPOs can have success and different resources, and we all work within this fabric of range and scale – because we can’t have a one-size-fits-all.
I am grateful and proud that Cleveland SCORES is one of those organizations working together to serve our Cleveland communities.
I also came home with a deeper appreciation for Ahmed himself. Last fall, I saw him as a fellow learning from us. In Morocco, I saw the community leader he is — someone deeply invested in his home and determined to create opportunities for its young people and families.
Perhaps the most meaningful part of the trip was hearing Ahmed talk about Cleveland. He spoke with genuine gratitude about his time here, the people he met, and what he learned. Hearing someone from another country describe the strengths of our city made me see Cleveland differently. It reminded me that exchange isn't about one community teaching another. It is about learning from each other.
The exchange model is built around exactly that kind of lasting connection — taking professional learning beyond a single experience and turning it into continued relationships, institutional learning and community impact.
Building a Stronger Community Around The World
This trip began with a shared mission of youth development, and ended with new friendships, deeper connections, and a greater understanding of the places and communities that brought us together.
I left Morocco with new ideas for SCORES: celebrating our young people more intentionally; creating stronger community-centered experiences for families; and being more thoughtful about how we welcome staff, fellows, and interns into our organization.
But I also left with something more personal.
I feel a much deeper connection to Ahmed and the work he is doing. I want to continue supporting him as he grows his organization. And I hope this isn't the end of our exchange.
Because ultimately, this trip reminded me why we do this work.
A soccer ball can cross any border. A child can find joy on the field anywhere in the world. And when communities come together around that child, soccer becomes about so much more than the game. It becomes a way to build belonging, opportunity and hope.
From Cleveland to Morocco, that is something we can all understand.
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