Blog

It is my privilege to announce Brooke Ewert as the new Director of Counseling for Soccer Chaplains United. Brooke has been with Soccer Chaplains United for over two years, serving with the different needs in the Denver, CO area. With our expanded view to grow the counseling network for Soccer Chaplains United, this represents a major step toward insuring that the development of the counseling can move at a similar pace as the chaplaincy side of things.

I am excited to take on this new role with SCU. I believe there is a great need for mental health counseling within the soccer community. I look forward to aligning these two critical ministries within SCU. 

As Director, Brooke will be responsible to help on the discovery and development of the network and speak into some of the organizational and structural pieces for the counseling. Namely, the sliding scale structure for fees and the counseling subsidy that is for the people who can least afford counseling.

Brooke will also prioritize the cities and teams where a strong chaplaincy presence for Soccer Chaplains United already exists. Many of whom, already have some local relationships with counselors and make referrals, but the goal will be to develop a more formal relationship between chaplains and counselors to address the many critical issues facing people within the soccer community.

We are already beginning to work with various chaplains throughout the county to help them to identify Christian counselors who are familiar and understand the mental health issues that affect athletes. We are currently working with chaplains in Portland, Charlotte, and Nashville to put in place a counselor to come alongside of them and to help identify athletes who need mental health support. 

I do think that in the future we will need to discern whether a spin off organization will better suit the development and unique needs for the counselors in this space, but for now it is important to continue linking the chaplains and counselors together. And Soccer Chaplains United is one of the only sports organizations that is doing this pioneering work!

Over the past two years, I have become more convinced that chaplains and counselors are necessary partners. The strategic objective is to train up our chaplains to early identify mental health needs and to have a local sports counselor available to assist. 

Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and depends upon the financial support of our partners to carry out our work of developing chaplaincy, counseling, and community service across all levels of soccer. Please consider making a contribution today to help us continue growing our work.