30 Nations,

1 Team,

Soccer for All.

Our Community,

The Columbus Nations Cup.



The Columbus Nations Cup (CNC) is a soccer tournament and festival benefiting the Community Refugee & Immigration Services (CRIS) Mentorship Program. CNC 2018 will be held July 14 at the Easton Soccer Fields at 4475 Sunbury Road in Columbus, OH 43219.

The mission of the Cup is to use the power of soccer to promote inclusion and highlight the diverse cultures that make up our great city of Columbus. With teams competing in U10, U13, 14+, and 17+ age groups, there will be plenty of action on the field to see.

Save The Crew is proud to support CRIS in their efforts to welcome our new neighbors into our community. CRIS is one of Save The Crew’s partners in the Community Assist ticket donation program, enabling Crew supporters to welcome new Americans to Columbus Crew games in the 2018 season. Save The Crew volunteers, including the Crew supporters group GCGBAG, has been instrumental in welcoming CRIS ticket holders to the stadium and also serving as mentors.

For those who are playing in the tournament, we wish you many goals, much health, and most important of all, fun. May the joy of soccer be contagious, and may you make many friends both on and off the field. For those not participating, feel free to stop by the fields to cheer on your favorite team, or follow the event online via columbusnationscup on Instagram, CbusNationsCup on Twitter, or columbusnationscup

on Facebook.

Interested in supporting CRIS without taking the field? Gear up at the Columbus Nations Cup Team Store or consider making a 100% tax-deductible donation to the CRIS Mentorship Program so they can continue their important work in Columbus’ new-American community. 100% of all donations goes directly to the program.

ABOUT CRIS:

CRIS is a local non-profit whose mission is to help refugees and immigrants reach and sustain self-sufficiency and achieve successful integration into the Central Ohio community. Housed within CRIS is the Community Connectors Mentoring Program.

Community Connectors is a state grant-funded program that matches suitable adults with local middle/high-school new American youth from Columbus and Westerville City Schools, which is going into its third year and has already served more than 200 youth.

The goal of the program is to provide wrap-around support for youth navigating Columbus. The program focuses on three main areas: Academic, Employment, and Social Engagement. Academic support means providing youth with homework help, assistance in learning English, providing a pathway to graduation and showing what next steps could be after with secondary education or the next pillar. The Employment pillar focuses on the mentoring relationship, in which mentors assist with soft-skills like resume help, interviewing skills, transportation navigation, and also finding employment. Finally, the social engagement aims to connect the youth to the community. These activities could be as simple as going to a Crew game, playing soccer in a park, or simply exploring new parts of Columbus.

During all of these activities, relationships develop as the mentors show mentees that they belong in Columbus. In the same way, all Crew fans belong at Mapfre stadium supporting our team regardless of their background. The next time you are at a game, consider extending an extra warm welcome to our friends from CRIS.