Act

SOL – Free soccer club for elementary school students

Beneficiaries
530

SOL established a free soccer club for primary school students in Helsinki’s Jakomäki Kankareenpuisto as a part of the Year of responsibility acts for SOL Group companies and local districts. School is one of SOL customers.

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Purpose

The establishment of a soccer club as a part of the Year of corporate responsibility acts, in which each of the SOL companies and local districts organizes a responsibility act that has a social significance locally.

The employees have been formed into a unified team, even though they represent many different cultures and several language groups. One good reason for a good spirit is soccer. An issue that can be discussed, even thou there is not always common language. From these discussions arose the idea of ​​setting up a soccer club for children and young people who do not have opportunities to practice the sport.

Results

The main goal of the soccer club is to guide children and young people to sports. It is also important to give everyone the opportunity to play soccer who would not otherwise have the possibility to join the club. For this reason, the soccer club is free for participants.

The number of participants in the club varies from week to week, but usually about 20 enthusiastic soccer players have been involved. Next autumn, in addition to the current group of primary school students, a separate club will also be started for secondary school students. The soccer club will continue for the time being.

We offer the opportunity to participate in a soccer club to the entire school, which is 530 students. SOL enables and provides a framework for staff to organize coaching activities.

Implementation

A soccer club for primary school students is hold every Tuesday began on April 2021 at Kankareenpuisto School’s own soccer field as part of the SOL responsibility acts.

The soccer club is mainly intended for girls and boys in grades 1 to 6 who do not actively play in other soccer clubs and want to get familiar with sport. In the fall, we will also start our own club for secondary school students.

The head coach is Jasse Ryhänen, who works at SOL and coaches at PK35 soccer club in his spare time and has studied youth guidance in addition to his work. Gavin Musah is the assistant coach and works at SOL. He has played soccer all his life. Mikko Heinonen, fan of soccer and active soccer player as well, works at SOL as a service provider and takes care of arrangements.

All participants will receive a jersey. If desired, participants can bring their own soccer ball and football shoes, but they are not mandatory.

Jalkapallo yhdistää, se on huomattu. Haluamme osallistua koko porukkamme voimin tekoihin, ja antamalla omaa aikaamme aikaansaada vastuullisia tekoja. Saavutamme tällä oman henkilöstömme ylpeyttä, ja samalla annamme yhteiskunnalle takaisin jotain, josta henkilöstömme voi olla ylpeä.

Mikko Heinonen, SOL
Impact
Excitement
Replicability
Project Director, Sustainable Everyday Life at Sitra
Markus Terho
Review

When a company finds and implements projects that involve their employees and offers to local youth free of charge opportunity to participate in hobby activity that builds new ways of building inclusivity. This Planet act requires active participation from the company employees, utilization of their specific expertise and volunteerism as well as financial commitment from the company. This is partially scalable for all types of organizations that have established processes for employee volunteering.

About Markus
A corporate responsibility veteran, with over two decades in the industry. He has held several notable positions, among them, he has served as the global sustainability chief at Nokia. There he has managed global corporate responsibility activities, environmental and social responsibility, social investment portfolios as well as disaster relief and charity donations.

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