Two students from the University of Ottawa (U of O) are giving street soccer players a chance to become referees.
With the help of Enactus uOttawa, the school’s entrepreneurship club, first-year business students Wendy Liang and Tanveer Mostafa are the project managers of Ottawa Sports Officials (OSO). This program aims to train players from the city’s street soccer team to become certified soccer referees. These players come from a wide range of backgrounds—many are new immigrants, homeless, or have mental health issues.
The program will consist of the official Ontario Soccer Association (OSA) Referee Certification, which will be awarded through the completion of the clinic; an essential workplace skills workshop, where individuals will learn essential skills for the workplace—including leadership, teamwork and communication; and a financial literacy workshop. Once the program is completed, OSO hopes to help the individuals find employment by fostering their newfound skills program.
Enactus is an international organization committed to empowering individuals through entrepreneurial action that focuses on economic, environmental, and social issues and startups.
“We decided to join Enactus because we both really like helping others and we want to create a way for other people to take their business interests and encompass that in other ways in our community,” Liang said.
Mostafa said they combine their experiences to help with the program.
“Through our gained experience we feel like we can do a lot to help,” he said. “Plus, it doesn’t hurt that I’m a sports guy.”
The idea began in December of last year, and the planning stages lasted until the end of January to properly form a foundation. The first clinic is scheduled to begin Feb. 28 and has an expected 13-15 participants. While it will go over the course of a month, the program in total will be an accumulative four days.
The idea was conceived by the enthusiasm of the sport already sparked in the community, according to the students.
“We came across an Ottawa street soccer team, who plays soccer every Tuesday,” Liang said. “We just think these individuals have so much potential and we want to help them reach it.”
With the help of the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association and the OSA, the refereeing program will be offered for free to all participants. They will also be donating their time to instruct the clinics, which Liang said is “a big support to the program.”
This is a long-term project for Liang and Mostafa, who said they have big plans for its future.
“I hope to see an increase in participants. By the summer we hope to have a second round in,” Mostafa said. “After the clinic, we want to create opportunities to referee games for those who participated. Once we’ve seen soccer work out, we hope to expand into basketball and volleyball.”
