“Their Voices Matter”: Our Newest Staff Member Reflects on Leveraging Communications to Build Network-Wide Community

Kimberly Cazares is thinking about home. 

The Communications and Brand Manager is three months into her new role as the marketing lead for The SCORES Network, a 13-city movement that provides award-winning after-school programs to tens of thousands of young people across North America. 

Cazares is responsible for promoting SCORES’ mission to donors, partners, and stakeholders across North America, as well as supporting her SCORES colleagues in effectively marketing the program’s work in their own cities. 

However, she believes it is also her duty to provide a platform for young people in the SCORES community to share their own powerful stories. Through her communications work, she hopes to foster a community where young people can connect, share their ideas, and celebrate their identities, no matter where they are from. 

“Home was always about community and family gatherings that centered around our food, our culture, and our connection,” she says of her own childhood. “That definitely influences how I approach working with the youth now, because I understand how important it is to feel rooted and to feel supported.”

“A Beautiful Blend of Creativity and Strength”

Cazares joined The SCORES Network in August, inspired by how much the program resonated with her own life. 

Every school day, SCORES serves more than 15,000 young people through out-of-school-time programs that combine soccer, poetry, and service-learning. A reflection of the organization’s holistic, whole-child approach, SCORES participants are known as “Poet-Athletes,” defined as young people who are empowered through sports and the arts to lead healthy lives, engage deeply in school, and have the confidence and character to make a difference in the world.

“I’ve always believed that people don’t really just fit into one single box,” says Cazares, who is herself a keen runner, passionate reader, and writer. “The Poet-Athlete identity really just captures a beautiful blend of creativity and strength, and I really connect to that.”

Bringing aspects of her own identity to her work has been a hallmark of Cazares’ career. A fluent communicator in English and Spanish, Cazares draws on her marketing expertise, as well as her own Latina heritage, to create inclusive spaces for young people. 

“I try to make sure my communications come from an authentic place,” she says, “and honor all the diverse voices of our Network and of our Poet-Athletes, because I know how powerful it is for young people to see themselves represented.”

A Bilingual Communicator

After majoring in Global Studies and minoring in Writing for Civic Engagement at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Cazares relocated from her home in Central California to D.C., to serve as a City Year Student Success Coach at Powell Elementary. Powell is a bilingual public school that has been part of the DC SCORES program since 2012.

Cazares also worked as a Latinx Outreach Coordinator for Special Olympics, creating bilingual outreach materials to support the organization’s after-school programming, and as an intern for U.C. Santa Barbara’s Communications Department, researching the coping strategies employed by LatinX immigrant separated families. In her work immediately preceding SCORES, she was a  Senior Communications Specialist at Miyamoto International, where she led strategic communications for the company’s global humanitarian initiatives. 

In each role, Cazares leveraged her language skills to ensure that organizations are inclusive of the stakeholders they serve. Working in multiple languages is not so different from composing poetry; words must be crafted carefully to convey meaning. 

“English and Spanish carry very different rhythms and emotions,” she explains. “It’s not always a direct translation. Sometimes that means choosing phrases that don’t directly translate but communicate the heart of the message in a way that feels natural.”

Importantly, her bilingual work is about more than just good communication: it signals to kids that they are valued.

“1 in 4 kids identify as Hispanic or Latino in this country,” she says. “ I really just want young people to know that their voices matter and that they belong.”

Fostering Network-Wide Community

Cazares has joined SCORES at a critical time for the Network. Founded in D.C. in 1994, SCORES funded its initial expansion to new cities with a grant from the 1994 World Cup Legacy Fund. Now, much of Cazares’ work is focused on leveraging the tournament’s return to North America in 2026 to create a similarly generative moment for the SCORES program.

But, while Cazares may be looking toward the international partnerships and opportunities offered by the most-watched sporting event in the world, she is also committed to staying grounded in the local communities that are the foundation of the SCORES program. 

From her base in the DC SCORES office, Cazares attends Network programming every week to connect with staff, coaches, and Poet-Athletes. Eventually, she hopes to attend programming in every SCORES city. 

“I love seeing how communities rally around the kids,” she says of her hands-on experience in the DC program. 

Cazares hopes that her SCORES legacy will be expanding the same sense of community felt in each SCORES affiliate to the entire Network. She might work across two countries, four time zones, 13 cities, and more than 300 schools, but Cazares believes that SCORES can be a home to every child and family who participates in the program. Every one of their stories matters. 

“I hope to strengthen the sense of unity across the 13 affiliates,” she says. “Ultimately, I want the youth voices to be front and center, because when their stories are told, that’s when people really understand the power of the SCORES Network.”