Jessica Yavitz – Speaker at the 21st EFDN Conference
Jessica Yavitz, Vice President of Community Relations for the Chicago Fire Soccer Club and Executive Director of Chicago Fire Foundation, is a confirmed speaker at our 21st EFDN #MoreThanFootball Conference in Warsaw from the 22nd until the 24th of April 2024.
Jessica Yavitz currently serves as the Vice President of Community Relations for the Chicago Fire Soccer Club and Executive Director of the Chicago Fire Foundation. Through her leadership, Yavitz has evolved the Foundation into one of the most successful organizations in both Major League Soccer (MLS) and professional sports with the organization being recognized for numerous accolades both locally and internationally. In 2013 she assisted in the creation of the Foundation’s internationally recognized proprietary P.L.A.Y.S. (Participate, Learn, Achieve, Youth, Soccer) Programme, tying soccer and social and emotional learning to help improve academics. Since its inception, the programme has grown more than 400% serving 1000 third through fifth grade Chicago Public School inner city students.
During the conference Yavitz will give a presentation on the Chicago Fire Foundation’s P.L.A.Y.S. programme. The presentation will include an overview of the CSR work of the Chicago Fire and Chicago Fire Foundation. There will then be a deep dive into the creation of the programme from where it started to where it is today. This will include the execution of the programme as well as the growth and challenges that go along with that growth. The discussion will also include how to align internally with the Club in order to engage corporate partners and ensure the programme sustainability.
“Throughout my career, I have seen so many youth come through our programmes and grow into amazing young adults. Seeing the smiles on their faces the first time they interact with our programmes and get the chance to be part of something bigger than they are, can’t be matched. So many people do not get to see the positive impact of their work and I get to see this first hand every day. There have been numerous accolades and recognitions provided to the Chicago Fire and the Chicago Fire Foundation. The most prolific would probably be when the Club was recognized with an ESPY as the ESPN Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year Award in 2019.”
Jessica Yavitz, about her best CSR in Football moments
