The idea for a soccer program to serve low-income children came from many months of discussion with parents, community leaders, school district personnel and soccer supporters in the Allied Drive neighborhood. Through the discussions, it became clear that the typical model for soccer programming made it difficult for low-income children to participate because of the twin barriers of cost and transportation.

To address these issues, the parents and community leaders embraced a plan to offer a soccer program structured so that the children could walk to nearby Belmar Park to participate.  In the spring of 2001, more than 60 neighborhood youth in grades K-6 showed up each Saturday morning for six weeks to work on developing basic soccer skills and to have an opportunity to play in small-sided games in the Millennium Soccer Club’s first program.

Since then, Millennium has expanded to provide soccer programs for low-income elementary school age youth at three sites on Madison’s south side and to offer our middle school students an opportunity to play on traditional soccer teams in leagues organized by the Madison Area Youth Soccer Association