KIM CRABBE GAME CHANGERS AWARD

BACKGROUND

Kim Crabbe is a pioneer in women’s soccer, becoming the first African American woman to play for the USWNT in 1986. Following her two-year career with the National Team, she took up coaching and went on to serve as the Outreach Program Director for the Wilmington Hammerheads Youth Football Club, where she coaches and mentors youth players in underserved communities and has made a lasting impact on the groups she works with.

Following the impact of her program, Crabbe was named the 2021 Youth Coach of the Year by United Soccer Coaches, while also earning their Black Soccer Coaches Advocacy Group Award of Excellence in 2018. She also received the 2019 Centennial NAACP Youth Services Award in 2019. She was inducted into the Virginia-DC Hall of Fame in 2016 for her achievements as a player, joining the likes of USWNT icons Mia Hamm and Jill Ellis, among other notable names in American soccer.

The Kim Crabbe Game Changers Award will be given to a member of the soccer community who has made a lasting impact in the areas of DEIB in a creative way while fostering long-term sustainability for the future of soccer. Nominations are open to anyone across the American soccer landscape who embodies the spirit of the award.

NOMINATION AND SELECTION

The Game Changers United (GCU) Advisory Board, an advisory board comprised of diverse group of current and former players as well as industry professionals within the DEIB space focused on building a culture where everyone plays and every individual is welcomed, respected and valued, will be accepting nominations for the Kim Crabbe Game Changers Award. The GCU will convene to select a recipient, and notify the winner at the Annual General Meeting.

CRITERIA

In order to be considered for the Kim Crabbe Game Changers Award, a nominee must meet the following criteria:

• Impact relating to positive changes for individuals, communities and society by addressing one or more social challenges of the local community. Impact is broken down into:
  • Reach
  • Targets social areas
  • Solution-focused
    
    
• Creativity in transforming ideas and dreams into reality by innovating to make connections that aren’t traditionally related. Creativity is broken down into:
  • Originality/Uniqueness
  • Relevant
  • Solves a problem
    
    
• Long-term sustainability and ensuring the impact has shown to continue over time based on project findings. Long-term sustainability is broken into:
  • Utility
    
    
• About soccer, and whether the awardee has positively impacted the soccer landscape to push the sport forward. About soccer is broken into:
  • Transferability of the impact