Leading in Your Community

Hello, everyone.

My name is Daniel Boateng.

I play soccer for Notre Dame, and I co-founded a nonprofit called Changing Lives GH.

Changing Lives GH is a nonprofit that aims to promote education for young people in Ghana by tapping into passion for soccer.
Community is very important to me,

and my original community is in Accra, Ghana.

Soccer has been another place I have found community

and one of the biggest influences on my life.

I grew up playing the game,

and it's led to huge opportunities like moving to the US,

playing for the Santa Barbara Soccer Club and Notre Dame.

It has helped me meet amazing people.

I learned at a young age that there was an economic divide,

and I promised myself that if I was ever in a position where I could support
kids from my community,

that was what I would do.

One early lesson was that problems are often more complex than they seem.

So we started by just giving out books

and thinking about putting these kids back to school and making them feel like
they've got everything they need to be in school.

And we did.

We felt like that was it.

These kids were in school.

Everything was fine, but in a few weeks, and they were back home,

and that was when I realized there was more to

school and having these kids in school than just buying them books.

But I'm someone that doesn't believe in giving up,

so I told myself, I'm gonna find ways and means to solve this problem.

We use soccer as a tool to bring these kids together because whether it's
like a soccer tournament

or anything related to like soccer, these kids are gonna come over,

and when we bring them around and talk to them about why education is important
and why we wanna do what we wanna do for them,

it sort of like helps them understand the world in which they wanna live in.

We've given these kids a sense of belonging and true community,

which is so important to helping them stay on track for bigger goals.

When you feel like you belong,

you are inspired to take care of yourself and others.

Investing in community helps foster a community.

A good leader is involved in their community,

so it's best for you to be a part of the community,

to know the problem and solve the problem.

You can get involved today by thinking about the communities you are a part of.

Start a club with a friend,

go to a game or pick up basketball, soccer, anything that gets you involved.

If you don't make mistakes, you're not doing it right.

Hard work will pay off at the end of the day.

Just believe in what you're doing.

Keep striving for the best.

Make those mistakes,

get up and keep moving.

Don't stay there and tell yourself you can't do it.

You can do it no matter who you are.