Tommy Clark (CEO and founder), Chris Barkley (Mental Health Advisor), and Charmaine Nyakonda (Mental Health Specialist) describe how Grassroot Soccer uses sports, play, and mentorship to promote adolescent health and behavior change. The organization began over two decades ago in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, applying social learning theory and the popularity of soccer to make health education engaging and memorable. Today, its programs focus on helping adolescents manage their thoughts and emotions, maintain healthy bodies, and build strong support networks.

At the heart of the model are near-peer coaches—young mentors from the same communities as participants—who create safe, stigma-free spaces for open conversations about mental health. “Young people are the experts of their own lives,” says Barkley, emphasizing the organization’s belief that youth perspectives must shape every stage of design and delivery. Programs are co-developed with adolescents, powered by play, and built on strengths rather than deficits.

Their work includes:

• Training non-specialist coaches to deliver mental health and life-skills sessions.
• Running a global Youth Advisory Committee, whose members co-design curricula and evaluate impact.
• Embedding meaningful engagement so youth ideas are not only heard, but implemented and funded.
• Supporting coaches’ own wellbeing through monthly debriefs, peer support groups, referral partnerships, and wellness activities tailored to local contexts.

Grassroot Soccer’s model has influenced policy and programming across Africa. In Kenya, the MindSKILLZ pilot showed how coaches could successfully engage adolescents living with disabilities, while in Zambia, youth coaches helped adapt the curriculum to make sessions “more fun” and more responsive to participants’ needs. In 2024, governments in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa began naming adolescents and youth in national mental health strategies and invited Grassroot Soccer to join technical working groups focused on adolescent wellbeing.

Mental health still receives only a small share of the national health budgets in the countries where the organization works, with most resources directed toward specialized care. Persistent social and economic pressures—poverty, violence, limited education, and few employment opportunities—continue to affect young people’s mental health. Grassroot Soccer addresses these realities by working alongside communities and adolescents to co-design programs that are practical, strengths-based, and rooted in play, connection, and youth leadership.