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From Homeless Shelters to Playing for Team Canada at The Homeless World Cup | Michael Fredson · Behind The Village Podcast

• 0:02
  You're listening to the Behind the Village podcast,
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  where we invite you to join us on a journey to
• 0:07
  understand how to live a life worth living. You
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  may know Michael Fredson as the owner of Manticore
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  Books. What you may not know is how passionate
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  he is about the Homeless World Cup. When we spoke
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  a few months back, he mentioned the incredible
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  organization that supports marginalized communities
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  through the power of sport. We call ourselves
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  the Canadian Street Soccer Association. And we
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  are a group that what we aim to do is we aim
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  to bring soccer programs to people kind of like
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  we sort of use the term like marginalized people.
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  So homelessness being one of the big ones, but
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  also each one of our programs and kind of different
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  and in the different communities focuses on different
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  things. You know, sometimes one of our communities
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  is almost solely mental health, you know, like
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  working closely with like the CMHA and people
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  in that. Another one of the group that is one
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  of our bigger ones is on Vancouver Island and
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  deals really predominantly with the First Nations
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  people there. So it varies, but it's just kind
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  of all these marginalized groups. And we just
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  go out and, you know, it's a simple premise,
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  but it's just we just go up and kick a ball around
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  and have some fun and try to build a little bit
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  more community and get people just, you know,
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  something to do that's not their problems. You
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  know, we don't operate like we don't operate
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  as a league. You know, like we're not we're not
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  a soccer development program. We're not a league.
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  We are we use sport as a social tool. We use
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  it as a tool to bring people together and to,
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  you know, just kind of structure their lives
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  a little bit differently. So it's not the focus
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  is in the soccer. The soccer is just the tool,
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  you know, and we're really focused on building
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  community and just giving people a different
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  voice, a different different thing to do. Um,
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  and, and so it, it changes when, when you're
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  not looking at the sport, when you're just literally
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  like, Hey, let's go kick a ball around. Um, you
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  know, that, that it changes what, what you're
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  kind of trying to, trying to get, we're trying
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  to get out of it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So that's
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  mainly it. And it's open to everyone. It's, it,
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  they're free programs. There's no cost to like,
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  we, we, as the organization get to raise the
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  money and everything to like, to, to pay for
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  everything. So there's no cost to the participants.
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  You know, when, when people are, When a lot of
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  people are either in homeless shelter programs,
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  addiction recovery programs, all those kind of
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  programs that we have, most of the focus is always
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  on job skills. Job skills, job skills, employment,
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  employment. It's really the main focus of a lot
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  of these programs. I'm not saying that there's
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  a lot of great people working and really trying
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  to help people and everything, but not about
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  the individuals, but about the system and the
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  program. The goal is the jobs and employment
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  kind of thing. So, um, we, it's funny because
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  we kind of think that it's like, we actually
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  provide those as well. Teamwork, you know, uh,
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  individual responsibility, you know, improving
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  yourself, all those kinds of things, but we don't
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  do it through the same terminology and we don't
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  do it in the, it's almost like a, uh, uh, a side
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  effect rather than the main goal of what, of
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  what we do. Right. But we absolutely develop
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  those kinds of skills and a lot of the, uh, One
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  of the really great things too about our program
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  is that this is a worldwide thing. Like there's
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  these programs all over the world in like 70
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  different countries. Some of the programs, it
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  really is, it's incredible the way that the Scottish
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  program has actually just integrated with their
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  university and college systems. And so people
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  now are kind of like going through the soccer
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  program and they're actually able to start going
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  and looking at like university credits and stuff.
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  And so it's... Cool. It's all these skills that
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  come from, yeah, like from the power of sport.
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  And it really is the power of sports put to its
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  ultimate use. So what we sort of look at ourselves
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  almost as like this three tier kind of thing.
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  At the main level we have and the bulk of our
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  participants and everything is our weekly programs.
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  And our weekly programs are just like we've talked
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  a little bit about already. They're open to everybody.
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  We usually partner up with different organizations
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  in our communities. And then kind of our mid
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  -level, like the next level up is sort of like
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  our national tournaments and our like regional
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  tournaments and that kind of stuff. A little
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  bit more like soccer than our weekly stuff. And
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  then at our top level is we're the partner organization
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  for Canada for the Homeless World Cup, which
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  is an amazing organization, an amazing tournament
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  that has been going on for 20 years. And it is
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  a tournament, an international soccer tournament.
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  for homelessness to raise awareness. But all
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  the participants are probably the better terminology
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  is unhoused because homelessness, the way that
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  they categorize it is quite a broad category.
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  It's not just a shelter. It's like, you know,
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  different levels of unhoused kind of idea. And
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  the goal of our organization and what we're slowly
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  getting into is, yeah, everybody in the organization
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  will at some point be lived experience. so they
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  will have gone through the programs they will
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  have um you know like taken different steps up
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  through the pyramid of of jobs and positions
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  and everything and yeah and eventually we'll
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  we're hoping to put ourselves all of a job we've
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  got um two uh two people that went to our uh
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  the the oslo tournament we've got two of them
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  now working and running uh their local programs
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  and a couple more kind of involved in different
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  ways now, like in the organization and kind of
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  a little bit more like promotion or social media
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  type stuff. So we're starting. We're kind of
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  slowly building up to that now. That's really
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  cool. Yeah. So you're in B .C., you're in Alberta,
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  Quebec. We've got two in B .C. now. We've got
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  Vancouver Island, Victoria, Calgary. We're in
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  Alberta. And then we're working on the other
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  prairie provinces, but we have to jump all the
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  way over Ontario now. We've got Brampton program,
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  Mississauga, Toronto, and then we go into Montreal.
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  And Montreal is probably our biggest and then
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  followed by Vancouver Island. There's a power
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  in sport. You know, I mean, it's huge. I mean,
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  sporting as an industry, as a business is huge
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  and it's massive, but it's because we love it.
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  There's something at its core that is just quite
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  amazing about it. And when you harness it like
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  we're trying to do. to use it to kind of just
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  bring people along, you know, it, it, it's amazing.
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  There was a story of a gentleman. He is, he's
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  actually a Canadian. He, he, he's told the story
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  in multiple places. That's why I don't feel bad
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  telling it. But he, he's now, he's actually one
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  of the head refs for the homeless world cup.
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  But he started out as a participant in the original
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  street soccer Canada program. And he had just.
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  you know, kind of had a mental breakdown and
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  a whole bunch of issues from, um, he was a refugee
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  and just dealing with a lot of those issues and
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  ended up in a homeless shelter. And, you know,
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  he was, he was saying he was at that point where,
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  uh, you know, I'm, I'm going to commit suicide.
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  I don't want this anymore. I'm done. There's
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  nothing for me here. I I'm, I'm done. And then
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  somebody came into the shelter and was just,
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  Hey, you want, you want to come get Kabara? It
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  was kind of like a nod. no i don't have any shorts
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  or whatever he's like yeah it doesn't matter
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  come on i got i got some shorts for you come
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  on come kick a ball so you know he's telling
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  the story he's like he was like okay fine this
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  guy's bugging me fine i'll just give him i'll
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  go kick a ball around and then so he went and
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  he played soccer and he's like of course it made
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  me feel more alive than i had for months and
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  months and months but just as he was leaving
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  the guy was just like great i'll see you next
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  week okay And he said that simple sentence was,
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  you know, when he got back to the shelter, it
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  was like, well, maybe I don't want to let him
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  down. He said he'd see me next week. And then
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  he went next week. And then same thing happened.
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  See you next week. Hey, that was a great game
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  today. I'll see you next week. And he's like,
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  it just kept going. And it just gave him something
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  to kind of hold on to all the time. And, you
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  know, there was no... There was no magic. There
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  was no, there wasn't really even anything that
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  was like, oh, this is like serious training of
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  how to deal with somebody. It was literally just,
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  let's go kick the ball around. And that was fun,
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  wasn't it? I'll see you next week and we'll do
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  the same thing. Okay. And that simple act, you
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  know, changed his life where now he's, you know,
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  and he owns his own business and he runs it.
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  And now he's a referee for the homeless world
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  cup every year. And he travels all over the world
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  doing this. And it's from just a, let's go kick
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  a ball around. There's a simple power in sport
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  that we've never used, probably to its full capacity.
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  And it's amazing. It's why we all play sports
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  as kids. And sometimes it's the toxicity of it.
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  That's why we get out of it. But we all kind
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  of miss that. We miss that enjoyment of that
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  sport when we were just kids kicking a ball around.
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  Yeah. You know, and so we're simply just trying
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  to do that. We're simply just trying to bring
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  that back to that love of let's just go kick
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  the ball around and let's just have some fun.
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  And the power of what that can do is it's been
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  it's been crazy. It's been mind blowing to be
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  a part of to see what that could do when the
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  sentence seems like, how's that going to make
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  anybody change? After understanding more about
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  the Canadian Street Soccer Association, I needed
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  to hear more about the Homeless World Cup. It's
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  headquartered in Scotland and it started through
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  the founder, Mel Young. And just as that idea
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  that, you know, sport and soccer as a social
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  as a tool for social change. And he started the
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  tournament and it's grown into something amazing
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  and huge. Like I think I said before, there's
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  70 member countries. Not every country is always
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  able to go to. each version of each year of the
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  Almost World Cup, which, sorry, it happens every
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  year as well. And it moves around from place
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  to place. They kind of move it in different locations
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  of the world to make it so that, you know, it's
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  a different opportunity for anybody else to come.
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  You know, like last year was in Oslo. A lot of
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  the South American countries couldn't afford
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  to go up to Oslo, right? Next year's in Mexico
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  City. So probably some of the European countries
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  now won't be able to go to Mexico City, but now
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  all the South American countries will hopefully
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  have the chance that they can afford to go to
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  it, right? So it's an amazing organization. The
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  member countries do have to kind of fund their
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  way to it. But when they're there, the Homeless
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  World Cup takes care of everybody. Oh, that's
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  cool. Once you're there, you know, like they
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  house you, they feed you, they do all that kind
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  of stuff. And they work with a lot of groups
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  locally and everything. So it's an amazing organization.
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  But it's also just this amazing sporting tournament.
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  It's phenomenal. It is unlike, you know, being
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  involved in sports and soccer my whole life.
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  It is unlike anything I've ever, ever been a
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  part of and seen. And, you know, even in the
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  way that they set the tournament up is that,
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  yeah, there's the big trophy of the homeless
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  World Cup. There's, I should actually probably
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  start and say that it's like there's a women's
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  division and a mixed division. men's division
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  um and um then each of those divisions there's
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  the the homeless world cup but then there's also
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  multiple tiers of trophies afterwards as well
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  so that you don't just show up and play your
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  first three games and and then you're done you
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  sit around for like seven more days doing nothing
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  they actually what the way the tournament works
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  is that you play your first group stage and then
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  you get sorted again and you kind of break out
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  into the next tier and then you play that group
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  stage and then those teams get sorted out again
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  and so you keep you kind of start by the like
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  second or third group stage you're now starting
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  to play teams that are more at your your your
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  actual skill level and your development level
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  and everything so it it really changes the way
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  that the sport happens is that you know typically
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  in a tournament a lot of times it gets worse
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  and worse and worse and you're just sitting there
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  on your hands going like i guess i'll watch the
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  rest of the game it's great yeah whereas in this
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  tournament you're you're playing now you're playing
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  the entire tournament so you play every day for
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  the whole 10 days and then you're you're playing
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  teams by the end of it you're playing teams that
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  are actually kind of at your level like you're
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  now competitive you're actually having really
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  competitive games and and so it's such a confidence
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  builder like it just feels really good being
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  in that tournament that yeah i mean the first
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  couple days it's like you know 20 to nothing
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  20 to 5 10 to 2 you know like oh you're okay
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  that's a little bit painful but then by the end
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  by the end it's you know the games are three
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  or four uh you know five against three you know
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  like it's it's it's really it they become tight
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  really close -knit games and you just feel really
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  good like the the players just felt better about
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  themselves they feel that like oh yeah like i
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  am competitive i can do this you know it it's
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  just such a phenomenal tournament and such a
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  simple structure but it drastically changes the
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  whole feel of of how it works and and and you
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  know and and our players had a really great experience
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  where we were playing, I think it was the second
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  day we were playing against Poland and they were
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  very large, very good soccer players. And so,
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  you know, we kind of went and it was like, Hey,
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  like we're from Canada. Like we haven't been
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  here for, you know, 10 years. Can we just, you
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  know, like maybe we're not as competitive as
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  we normally like, you know, you, you maybe want
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  to be. And I mean, they were great. They were
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  like, Oh, absolutely. No problem. You know? And
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  so then when we played them, they, They just
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  kind of gave us a little bit of space. They didn't
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  take it easy on us. They didn't make it easy
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  for us, but they just kind of gave us space.
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  When we had the ball, they would just kind of
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  come right up to us and just not tackle us and
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  take the ball. It was just like, okay, go ahead.
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  I think we still lost like 10 -2 or something,
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  but there was honestly a very great sportsmanship
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  about that game. That's really nice. Yeah, it
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  was wonderful. And then at the end of the tournament,
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  um spain spain came we because we started to
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  get our groove and like i said we start to kind
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  of play against teams that are more at our skill
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  levels and everything and so we started to win
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  some games we started to play really well after
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  this and then uh the spanish team comes to us
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  on like the second or last day or something and
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  they were kind of like hey you guys are really
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  good like do you mind maybe like bringing it
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  down a little bit can we just kind of have a
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  little bit of a friendlier game and so our players
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  just had this great experience that We had to
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  go ask a team at first to say, hey, can you take
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  it easy on us? And then at the end of the tournament,
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  we had another team say, hey, can you take it
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  easy on us? It was just such an amazing feeling
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  for them. Like, wow, okay, the tables have turned.
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  Look where we've come in five days. So yeah,
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  it was phenomenal. It was really great. Have
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  you watched any of the games or seen it on YouTube
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  or anything yet? No, I'm going to. I haven't.
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  I would love to. Like you can just go on YouTube
• 15:41
  and just, you know, look for homeless world cup.
• 15:44
  And, uh, and, and it's, you can, you can see
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  a whole bunch of games. It's really amazing.
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  It's a, it's a really different version of soccer,
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  which is why it's called street soccer. Um, it's,
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  it's a four on four within like a basketball
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  type court. Like, it's the size of a basketball
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  type court, but it's, it's more honestly, I mean,
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  as Canadians, I'm like, it's a hockey ring, you
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  know, it's got boards and everything. Um, and,
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  and it's four on four. With it being the rules
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  being a little bit more shifted to like offense
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  so that when you're defending, you can only have
• 16:16
  two of your players back versus the three attacking
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  players are in your end. So it's just it's kind
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  of it's just it's a little more geared to fast
• 16:24
  paced offensive kind of soccer. But it's very
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  different, like very high technical touching,
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  like very quick, quick, boom, boom, boom. The
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  boards are in play. It's it's changing on the
• 16:36
  fly like hockey like it. It's really funny because
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  as I'm watching it, like the first few times
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  I watched it when I got involved, I was just
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  like, did a Canadian invent this sport? Because
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  it honestly looks like a cross between hockey
• 16:45
  and soccer. Cool. Yeah. It's fascinating. But
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  yeah, it's a great version of it because it's
• 16:53
  really accessible. You know, if you're not an
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  athlete, if you haven't been playing soccer for
• 16:59
  20, 25 years, like some of our participants,
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  especially the ones that come from the shelters.
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  you can't go play on an 11 -on -11 full -size
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  soccer pitch. Like, you know, the first time
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  you run, like, that's it. I'm done. I've got
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  to go sit on the sidelines, right? Like, I'm
• 17:15
  exhausted. But this version of soccer is, it's
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  completely accessible. Like, there's seven -minute
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  halves. So it's a 14 -minute game. Very quick,
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  very fast. But you're not necessarily, like,
• 17:29
  running those massive lengths. You're just kind
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  of on the field and moving and, like, touch the
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  ball quickly and moving everything so it's an
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  incredibly accessible version of the game as
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  well which is again just this brilliance of what
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  the homeless world cup has really kind of come
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  up with they've come up with this great tournament
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  structure they've come up with this amazing version
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  of it with the rules that really kind of make
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  it flow but make it really accessible to to non
• 17:53
  super fit trained athletes and yeah it's just
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  it's and besides all that, the tournament itself
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  is not about soccer. It's about the community
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  and about the connections. And, you know, the
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  game, the night before we played England, the
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  English coach came over and said, hey, want to
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  hang out tonight? And so the two teams hung out
• 18:14
  for like three or four hours. And then the next
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  day when they played, when, you know, we'd score
• 18:19
  a goal and the English team would be cheering
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  and be like, oh, that was amazing. Like, what
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  a great shot that was, guys. You know, and they
• 18:26
  still beat us. They did say there was a moment
• 18:29
  that they were a little bit worried they wouldn't
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  be able to. So we felt pretty good about that.
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  But yeah, yeah. But I mean, it's just it's again,
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  it's an experience that you just don't see and
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  hear in a sports tournament where we hung out
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  with the team before. And, you know, and then
• 18:44
  we cheered them on the rest of the tournament.
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  They cheered us on the rest of the tournament
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  because our players had made connections, you
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  know, and then we played Netherlands. We beat
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  them. That one day. And then we went on a ferry
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  tour in the afternoon around the islands with
• 19:00
  them. You know, and because the sport is, the
• 19:03
  games are just part of it. They're not really
• 19:05
  the reason you're there. Yeah. You know, so it's
• 19:09
  like nothing you can kind of understand until
• 19:12
  you've kind of really like seen it and understand
• 19:15
  that it's like the sport is really the side project.
• 19:18
  Yeah. So we take eight players with us to the
• 19:22
  tournament. Because again, it's four on four,
• 19:26
  right? So it's kind of two full shifts of it.
• 19:28
  So we take eight players and then there's also
• 19:31
  a coach and a manager. And that's officially
• 19:34
  kind of team Canada sort of thing. And then you're
• 19:38
  kind of allowed to take as many as, you know,
• 19:40
  as many support people as you kind of need or
• 19:42
  different things. And so we took, I think we
• 19:44
  had about four or five extra people as well.
• 19:46
  So, you know, it's not quite one to one. Um,
• 19:50
  but it, it usually, you know, it kind of helps
• 19:52
  for most teams if you can do, you know, like
• 19:54
  maybe one to one or maybe like not quite two
• 19:57
  to one kind of thing, but just, just with support
• 19:58
  people, it's a, it's overwhelming. It's very
• 20:01
  overwhelming for, I mean, most of the participants,
• 20:03
  I mean, they've never been on a plane for a lot
• 20:05
  of them, right. Then to travel to a completely
• 20:08
  different country and to participate in this,
• 20:10
  it's, it's, it's emotionally. big for them as
• 20:14
  well as as just you know i mean you're playing
• 20:16
  in a sports tournament wearing the maple leaf
• 20:18
  on your on your shirt right we set it up so that
• 20:20
  you know like we all met in the same place in
• 20:22
  in toronto and then we all um took the same flight
• 20:25
  you know and so it wasn't wasn't here and there
• 20:28
  kind of thing we all like we went as a team too
• 20:30
  and then we left as a team kind of thing too
• 20:32
  right so it really really brings it all together
• 20:34
  and yeah it was amazing to um i think two of
• 20:38
  the people yeah two of the people in montreal
• 20:41
  um they they have jobs now they've moved out
• 20:44
  of the shelters um they've gotten their own apartments
• 20:46
  and all that and it's you know it's not i'm not
• 20:49
  going to say it's obviously because of us and
• 20:51
  what what happened with with oslo but a lot of
• 20:55
  what they experienced there they were yeah you
• 20:58
  know what i've got this i can do this you know
• 21:00
  what what what what i just did and accomplished
• 21:03
  in that in those 10 days i can do this yeah yeah
• 21:06
  and even even for for some of them And sometimes
• 21:10
  it's because, I mean, of course, it's travel.
• 21:11
  So you have to have your passport. You got to
• 21:13
  have any visa stuff that you have to. So you
• 21:14
  have to have all this kind of paperwork together.
• 21:17
  And for a few of our participants, that was a
• 21:21
  big push for them. And a big thing for them is
• 21:24
  that it's like, you got to get your ID together.
• 21:25
  You got to get this paperwork together. You got
• 21:27
  to get this functioning. And that was a big change
• 21:31
  of like, well, I mean, of course, I'm going to
• 21:32
  spend the time doing that because I'm going to
• 21:34
  get a chance to go play for Team Canada and the
• 21:36
  Holmes World Cup in Oslo. Of course, I'll do
• 21:38
  that. The other really amazing thing about the
• 21:40
  Homeless World Cup is that you can only go once
• 21:43
  as a player. You can only go once. So the whole
• 21:47
  point is that it's meant to kind of roll over
• 21:50
  so that it's always bringing that experience
• 21:53
  to new people. It's not so that you can build
• 21:57
  your team and stack it for the next 15 years
• 22:00
  and you've got the team that no one can beat.
• 22:02
  Players can only go once. They can go again later
• 22:06
  when they're like coaches or something, you know,
• 22:09
  like that kind of thing. But they and actually
• 22:12
  a lot of the a lot of the established programs
• 22:14
  in Europe, almost all the coaches and managers
• 22:16
  were all ex -players from, you know, 10 or 15
• 22:19
  years ago kind of thing. Right. Again, that lived
• 22:21
  experience kind of piece that goes along with
• 22:24
  all these programs worldwide. But it's it's again,
• 22:28
  it's a really just powerful tool that they have
• 22:30
  that can only go once. And it's time for somebody
• 22:35
  else to have that opportunity now, right? How
• 22:37
  can, I guess, people across Canada, how can they
• 22:41
  support the organization? So our website, CanadianStreetSoccer
• 22:47
  .ca, it's, you know, there's a donate button
• 22:50
  there. There's also, you know, you can volunteer
• 22:54
  as a, sorry, put your name forward as a volunteer
• 22:56
  and everything. Like I said, we're sort of in
• 22:58
  that, we're growing a little bit slower right
• 23:00
  now as we get our framework a little bit more
• 23:02
  established. We have this pool of volunteers
• 23:04
  and people that are just ready and saying like,
• 23:07
  I'm ready whenever you guys are. So even though
• 23:11
  we might not have anything yet for wherever you
• 23:13
  are, you know, having your name in kind of the
• 23:15
  database of volunteer list is really great. Like
• 23:19
  any nonprofit charity, right? It's money. It's
• 23:23
  always the biggest help is for anybody. You know,
• 23:27
  following us on socials and everything and just
• 23:29
  kind of talking about us, getting involved and
• 23:31
  all that. It helps a lot. What an inspiring and
• 23:39
  incredibly uplifting organization. I can't wait
• 23:42
  to see their programming expand and for more
• 23:44
  people to experience the power of sport in their
• 23:47
  lives. Thank you for listening to the entire
• 23:50
  episode. All the links and info you heard in
• 23:53
  this conversation will be featured in the show
• 23:55
  notes on our website. If you'd like to know more
• 23:57
  about anything we mentioned in this episode,
• 23:59
  make sure to check villagermagazine .ca slash
• 24:01
  podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please
• 24:05
  leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify
• 24:06
  or wherever you're listening from. If you'd like
• 24:09
  to help this podcast grow, consider subscribing
• 24:11
  to our podcast channels like YouTube or Spotify
• 24:14
  so you never miss an episode. Thanks again and
• 24:16
  I'll see you next time.