Youth soccer hub Starfire Sports on Thursday announced the launch of Kickstart, a free after-school program that blends athletics, academic support, and healthy eating for students in South King County communities where access to after-school programming is limited.
Participants receive free soccer training and games, a full set of personal soccer equipment, mentorship from trained coaches, academic support and STEM-enrichment activities, healthy snacks, and transportation to Starfire’s 54-acre campus in Tukwila. The program is specifically designed to serve youth from low-income families and marginalized communities, the nonprofit said in a news release, hoping it can get help expanding the program to more schools.
Starfire is launching Kickstart with three partner schools — Puget Sound, Salish Sea, and Black River elementary schools in Tukwila, Seattle, and Renton, respectively — and plans to add schools and communities as resources allow. Starfire is seeking community partners, sponsors, and donors to help expand Kickstart to more schools across the south county, noting sponsorship opportunities can support individual students, teams, or entire grade levels for a full school year…