- Welcome to "Inland Edition," where this season we're having conversations with people who represent nonprofit organizations, [light background music] working to make the Inland Empire a better place.

My name is Joe Richardson.

I'm a local attorney, Inland Empire resident, and your host.

And today, we're going to chat with Patty Godoy, co-founder and CEO of ELLA Sports Foundation.

The ELLA Foundation was started by Lilly Travieso, a passionate softball player, after experiencing inequalities within the sports community directly tied to the economic status of a player.

ELLA's mission is to support young female Latina leaders through sports and academic excellence.

The foundation develops leadership in Latina athletes through education, training, mentorship, and advocacy in the sports community.

After Lilly faced obstacles and misconceptions while seeking a sports scholarship to college, Patty Godoy supported her daughter in creating the ELLA Foundation.

She firmly believes in her daughter's mission to provide guidance and resources for Latina and other female athletes seeking to play sports at colleges and universities today.

Let's meet her, and learn more about how ELLA is affecting the youth in our community.

[soft piano music] ♪ [gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Joe] And so, from the ELLA Sports Foundation, we have the CEO, Patty Godoy.

Welcome to "Inland Edition."

- Thank you so much for having me here this morning.

- I'm glad that you're here.

So, we always build the house a little bit and figure out how you got to doing what you're doing.

And, talking in the green room, you were talking a little bit about your background and how you came across sports as a help.

And, it was the beginning of an idea.

You didn't necessarily know that it would end up with this, but talk about your background and how it connected you from a sports standpoint and how sports was a lifeline for you.

- So, I came to this country when I was 12 years old, undocumented.

I lived here in LA for nine years, undocumented.

And, when I went to play high school or when I went to high school, I wanted to play softball.

And, it was through softball that I got away from the whole feeling of being undocumented.

I felt like I belonged to something.

And so, sports was like an outlet for me, not only mentally, because it got me distracted, but it also made me belong and become part of a team.

And so, it created that sense of unity of like, I have a purpose here.

- Right.

- Even though at home I could only walk home and to school and back-and-forth.

Or, to church because we couldn't go anywhere, 'cause we were afraid of being deported.

But, yeah.

So, sports at an early time gave me that outlet.

- So, you do that.

And, fast forward: You become a nurse.

Like, a success story in every sense of the word.

So, how do you get to the point where you are actually starting this incredible foundation?

How does it happen?

- So, one of the things as a nurse that basically also has helped me, or helped me with ELLA, is the fact that I had to learn the hard way how to become, like, a leader.

- Right.

- As a nurse, even though it's a great opportunity for me to take care of patients and all that, but as you start getting into your profession, you have to be able to develop skills or be able to be at those leadership roles.

- Right.

- And, at one point for me, I was passed on for a supervisor role because they said I was too quiet.

And, yes, I think being the last of seven children in the family, I was very introverted.

And so, it was one of those things that it didn't come out naturally for me.

And so, I had to develop my leadership skills.

- Sure.

- And so, that was one of the things that I had to learn.

And, I felt like women need to be more out there.

They need to really put themselves out there and I think sports kind of tied it back with my kids.

I didn't want them to be as shy and quiet as I was.

So for me, I pushed them in sports really early in life.

- Right.

- And so, that created their leadership skills in the field.

But, I also-- I feel that we need to explore or expand that further.

Because I know that at my level, I'm at the executive level.

I'm the only Latina and the only woman at that level.

I have men-- I work with, like, 80% men - Wow.

- in my own job.

And so, it's really-- it's something that is my passion as well to develop young women.

- Sure.

So, tell me about what ELLA Sports Foundation actually does.

- So, first of all, I wanna-- ELLA, so, it's an acronym: Empowering Leadership in Latina Athletes.

- Yes!

Yes.

- And, Ella in Spanish means she, her in Spanish.

- Yeah.

And, it's basically, our goal is to level the playing field for Latina athletes and women of color.

And when I say that, it just means that we wanna see more women being represented or our color at that level.

- Right.

- My daughter is at Cornell and she is the 1%!

- Right.

Ivy League!

Hey!

- Ivy League.

- Come on, now!

- And, it's one of the things that, for us, because through sports is how she got there.

- Right.

- Here she is, we put her in sports when she was young, very young, six years old.

She had to play baseball because there were no organized women-- or softball at the age of six, 'cause girls usually start playing later.

And, there's research out there that girls (ahem) start later in sports and they drop out of sports earlier than boys.

- Wow.

- And so, at six years old, she played with the boys and she liked it!

She liked that.

And so, for us-- We put her there, she played softball, volleyball.

She played basketball.

And then, at 10 years old, she tells me, "I wanna play college sports".

'Cause she was watching at that time Lisa Fernandez, or- - Sure!

- Girl...Women that looked like her in the Olympics.

- Yeah, right.

- And so, at that point I decided, I'm like, "How am I gonna do this?"

I've gone to school; I'm a nurse.

But, I don't know what it's like to help someone to use sports as a vehicle.

And so, I always say that "we" went through the journey.

"We", 'cause my husband and I helped her, my husband on the athletic side, because he played baseball in college.

And so for me, it was, again, one of those things.

I'm like, "Okay, I need to find a way."

And so, we were able to find a way; find "the formula".

- Right.

Sure, sure.

- Because there's a formula for everything.

And, there's a lot of money for girls in sports in colleges.

- Right.

- And- But, the day that we went to Cornell University and they gave her an amazing award- - Right.

- is when we decided.

And, the flight back, my daughter and I were just sitting there in the flight and just thinking about how, you know, what got us here.

- Right.

- And, what made her different.

What made her stand out.

And, how can we go back and share this with our community?

- Right.

- How can we get more people, more little girls, to dream of going on Ivy League school and get there?

- Right, right.

- And, every time that I go watch her play softball, I always feel like everybody knows who her mother is, 'cause I'm the only one that looks like this.

- Right.

Sure.

- And so, it's like, how can we get that?

How can we bring more awareness?

And, that's basically what inspired us with ELLA.

- And, you say "Us".

You and your daughter actually founded this organization together!

- Yes.

- Wow!

So, tell me about the day-to-day of the organization.

We see that the encouragement is for sports, but there's a lot of different involvement, opportunities, and a lot of different things that you do and you actually have a wide ranging area, too.

- Yeah.

So, we actually are out of Los Angeles, but we go everywhere.

Out of state; we've been everywhere.

ELLA basically works on three "pillars", that we call it.

We have the athletics component, whereas we want girls to play sports.

- Right.

- And, we want them to start early and to start developing themselves.

We provide free camps, free opportunities, 'cause we know that money is tied to opportunities.

And, when people don't have the opportunities-- When they don't have the money, they won't have the opportunities.

- Sure.

- And so, we provide free camps, free skill sessions for all different sports.

The other component, and we want girls to use sports as a vehicle to go to college, because in a lot of our communities, that's gonna break the cycle.

- Mm hm.

Right.

- of-- You know, a lot of the girls that we're helping are their first generation going to college.

- Sure.

- And so-- And, that inspires other girls in their communities as well to do the same.

Then we do the education component, which is we have empowerment workshops and this is where the leadership component comes.

This was - Gotcha.

- my passion as well because, again, I wanna develop leaders.

We say girls want to-- We wanted them to be leaders in the field, but also outside the field.

- Sure.

- And so, we want them to take those skills because sports teaches that.

And, they just need to practice it.

- Right.

- And so, we do a lot of workshops.

We go-- We go everywhere to do workshops and we do it for little girls as young as eight to ten, to even college girls.

- Sure.

- Because a lot of times what I found out too is that with girls that have been in sports from a very early age, that's all they've done.

- Right.

- So, what happens when they're done?

When they finish?

Like, what happens when they're, "Okay, I went to a D-1 school in Ivy League.

- Right.

- "Played the sport."

It's a job when they're in college.

What do you do now?

So, they need that professional guidance.

And so, that's something that we also do with ELLA.

We mentor girls.

I connect girls to, like, professionals that we have contacts with- - Yes.

- and possible mentorships, as well.

Where, they can-- I know that I mentor nurses.

I'm always looking for nurses out there.

It's like, "Who want to be a nurse?"

I guide them through what to do.

I connect them with other resources.

Because, one of the things that we wanna do is we wanna make sure that they go back to the community themselves and do the same thing.

Basically, I'm helping you, and then you're helping somebody else.

- Right.

- So then, the third pillar is community.

And with community, we do a lot of equipment, donation, to underserved communities.

I donated, well, ELLA donated equipment to my high school.

- Right.

- I went back two years ago and they're still playing in tennis shoes.

- Wow.

- It's still-- That was-- It was kinda like a sweet and sour moment for me because I'm thinking, "Oh no, things are different."

I mean, I live in Burbank, which is 10 minutes away from Hollywood and you're thinking, "How can this still be that disparity?

"How can there be that inequality of the opportunities "and access that girls have to sports?

How can that be?"

And so, it kind of gave me kind of like one of those things where you're just like, you have to keep going.

You have to keep doing this, because there's still that need for that.

- Right.

- And so, we do that and we also have our ambassador program, which is an area where we get girls to become-- What I say, is I want them to become little minions of my daughter Lilly, and my husband and I.

Because, we know that a girl cannot do it by themselves.

- Right.

Sure.

- They need their support of the parents, whether it is to take 'em to practice, whether it is to take 'em to a workshop, whether it is to find ways to fundraise to take them to the next tournament.

- Right.

- Find ways 'cause it's very expensive.

Everything is tied to money.

I know for us, we gave up a lot of family vacations- - Sure.

- because we wanted to support our daughter.

- Yeah.

- And so, our vacations would happen where her tournaments happen.

We had to drive up my youngest daughter with us everywhere.

So, there's a lot of things that families end up having to give up.

So, we have to make sure-- So, the ambassador programs, basically, we support them and we also wanna know what the needs of their communities are.

'Cause I don't know what the community, what the needs in Hayward is.

- Right.

- What the needs in, you know, like Yucaipa- - Right.

- or Jurupa Valley or what the needs are there.

So, we need ambassadors that can be our eyes and say, "I have a need.

There's a need."

And, it gives them that exposure too with, like, leadership and project management.

- Yeah.

- Because you think about it, you have an idea.

Like, our little ambassador that's 13 years old from here, from Riverside, she wanted to do a boxing clinic for the community.

And she's like, "There's not many rings out there."

And so, we were able to support her with that.

We had over 50 little girls that showed up.

- Wow.

- And, we had two boxers, it was her and an older boxer.

La Cobra, her name is, you know, panterita.

- Right.

- But, they can carry that at the clinic.

And, we provided free gloves, free boxing gloves for girls.

So, to be able to do that and to see, I mean, just the fact that this 13-year-old girl put this together is incredible.

And now, she's giving back to the community and saying, "Yeah, you wanna look like me.

You wanna play, you wanna..." So, those are the things we do with the community component of it is bring all that together.

- So, I hear you talk about the importance of sports and how it made you feel like a person, being a teammate, feeling equal, not having to have your guard up.

Right?

Being able to be free.

I remember feeling that way as a child.

I played at the YMCA and I remember going through things as a family, but whenever I stepped on the court, I was okay, and I could dream.

And, I remember one summer in particular, we won a championship.

And, when you get a chance to be a champion and to have your teamwork work out, it's invaluable and those lessons I've never forgotten.

So, I'm thrilled that you're doing this.

I'm interested though in how-- I see a connection between what you-- between being a nurse!

Right?

(she chuckles) And, the things that come out of you being a nurse and this involvement.

And, what ELLA actually does and its mission and how it comes through, particularly when you're talking about the health benefits of being involved in sports.

Can you talk about that some?

- Yeah.

So, actually one-- Our workshop that we do for young girls, the eight and ten year olds is called Embracing Girl Athletes.

- Right.

- And so, this workshop, I usually like to invite parents as well, to come and listen to this, because, you know, playing sports has a lot of physical benefits.

- Right.

- You keep people active, kids active, moving.

But it also has a mental health component, as well.

- Right.

- And, there's research out there too that says that girls that participate in sports are less depressed, 'cause even depression is a huge thing that we talk about right now.

- Right.

- But, also it helps with that connection with people; having a team, having someone besides your parent that you could go to.

I know coaches are sometimes that person that are the ones that are gonna be your-- you know, someone that you can talk to.

- Yeah.

- So, being a team player, all that, it has a sense of purpose in your life, and it can give you that distraction and that sense of security from the mental health perspective.

- And, maybe this leads into this next thought is that, you know what it was like growing up for you playing in sports.

You've been able to look in the window and be part of the process with your daughter.

How have you seen that change over the years?

And, what do you see as some of the related challenges?

Where are we going in terms of kids being involved in sports?

Economics is still a thing, right?

Still an issue.

What are some of the things that you see that way?

- So, I have seen the opportunities for sports for girls evolve over time, definitely.

I know that I talked about going back to my high school and still seeing the same issues.

I think a lot of counties check boxes: "Oh, we're gonna have a sports for girls.

We're gonna do this."

But, a lot of times they don't take the opportunity to really invest.

- Right.

Sure.

- Just like high school sports, too.

There's some high school coaches that are just there to check the box; maybe they've never even played that sport.

- Right.

- They have men teaching girls how to play softball, where they maybe never even played baseball.

So, I think there's a lot of work to be done.

There's, like, you know, with Title IX, there's been 50 years of that.

And, my daughter actually got the opportunity to introduce, to give-- to go to the White House- - Oh, my gosh.

- next to our VP Harris, and she introduced Billie Jean King.

- Wow!

- A month ago, it was Women's in Sports Day.

- Oh, wow.

Great.

- And, they talk about how Billie King was one of-- is one of the pioneers of that, Title IX.

But at the same time, there's still so much work to be done.

Because, yes, there is, if you look at research, our numbers are going up, but they're still way below boys sports.

- Right.

- And, you can still see it even at the college level: boys sports have more funding than girls sports- - Right.

- and, there's all these things.

So, I know that there's a lot of work to be done.

There's still, I mean, my daughter said it herself.

She's grateful that she's able to be where she's at, playing college softball, but at the same time, you know, 'cause there's women that couldn't.

They never had that opportunity before.

And so-- But, where are we going now?

Like, what else can we do?

- Right.

- And, this is where with ELLA, we're also looking into trying to bridge that gap.

'Cause right now, the way that-- And, actually when I went to donate equipment at the high school that I went to school, I realized something was so evident for me.

So-?

And one little girl, I asked-- There were 24 girls there; 20 were Hispanic, 4 African Americans.

And I asked them-- They were 14 to 17 years old, 14 to 18.

And I asked them, "How many of you play travel softball?"

None of them raised their hands.

- Hmm.

- So, if you're not playing travel softball, by the time you're 14 years old- - Right.

- or club ball?

- Right.

Somethin'.

- There's no opportunity for you to even try to go to college, even junior college.

Might not even-- You're not gonna have that opportunity.

So, why is that happening?

- Yeah.

- So then, after the whole thing, this young lady came to me and she goes, "You know?

I tried to--" 'Cause you have to try out for a travel team.

She says, "I tried out when I was 12 years old but I was competing..." She goes, "I started playing when I was 10 "and I was competing with little girls-- "with girls that had started playing softball when they were six."

- Right!

- So, their level of play was way off.

- Yeah.

For sure.

- And so, here you have a 12-year-old that started playing at 10 and then you have a 12-year-old started playing since six.

So, where's their level of play gonna be?

- Right.

- So, what gets-- 'Cause I know for my daughter, we had to-?

Like, Park and Rec wasn't what was gonna get her there.

- Right.

- Because they were teaching her basic-- and I'm not saying that.

You know, she learned that.

But it's like, what's next?

- Right.

- The quality coaching is so important.

- Yeah, sure.

- So, we had to pay you know, a fielding coach, a pitching-?

Everything!

Batting coach, because she wasn't getting it at the Park and Rec level.

- Right.

- And so, that's one of the things that needs to change.

We need to have more opportunities.

Not only, "Oh, yes.

$25 for girls to play", but what are they playing?

Are you really preparing them to go, and go to this travel softball - Right.

- event?

And, that's one of the things that we're-- with these free clinics and free camps, that's what we're trying to do is to elevate their quality of play so they can compete at that level.

And, they can be-- Because if they compete well, they're gonna have more opportunities, 'cause people are gonna open doors for them.

- So, connected to that, how do you come across the kids that you serve?

Is it-?

Are you working through parks?

Working through the schools?

How do the kids know, where they become that first touch point with the program?

- So, I always say that ELLA is a community.

- Right.

- And, I always tell people ELLA can be anyone.

It could be a coach.

It could be a teacher.

It could be anyone.

And so, the way that we-?

We have our website and we also have Instagram where nowadays, social media's pretty-?

We get a lot of our girls that participate in our camps through social media.

- Okay.

- But, they can also reach out to us via our website, there's an email.

Sometimes we have people individually that reach out to us.

Sometimes we have college-- I mean, you know, high school- - Okay.

- coaches that reach out.

- Great.

or like community leaders that-?

Or, then we go as well to them.

I know that we recently had an event with L.A. County Parks.

- Okay.

- It was Girls in Sports Day.

- Right.

- We were running the softball clinic, but we also donated equipment for-- 'Cause even though it's L.A. County still-- They still lack resources.

- Yeah.

Sure, sure.

- It's not they don't have- - Of course.

There's haves and have nots.

Right?

- Yes.

Right?

And so, it was amazing.

They had over 200 girls that participated in that event.

And, it was amazing to see little girls try to play sports that they've never tried.

And, they would rotate 'em.

They had soccer stations basketball, softball, and volleyball.

- Tell me about your resource wish list.

We're always talking about resources.

Listen, nothing gets done unless something gets donated, something gets paid for; however it happens.

From a resource standpoint, fill in the blank.

"If I had more resources, this is what we would do more of.

"This is what we would get into 'that we're not quite into yet.

Here's what we think is the next frontier."

What would be your priorities that way?

- So, as far as with resources, the organization started with my daughter that was at college, my husband and I.

Literally, that's-- And then, my young daughter that I'm-- I made her help us!

(both laughing) In the "administrative component!"

And so, that was it.

And now, we have a team of about 10 people.

'Cause, now we have a board.

- Okay, sure.

- And, we have also people that we-- staff that we pay, that we hire to do.

So, it will be-- The workshops alone, I am the one that runs them.

- Right!

Sure, sure.

- So, I don't charge.

So, it's like-- But, yeah.

It would be great to have more resources for staff.

- Yeah, sure.

- Even if it's like internships for like marketing, or- - Right.

- social media.

'Cause even that, It takes a lot of time.

I have a full-time job, So, I was doing the social media initially.

- Yeah, for sure.

- I was doing the newsletter.

- Doing it all!

- We have to write newsletters every month to see where we've been.

So, support in that sense would be great.

We'd love to be able to expand our staff and- - Right.

Sure.

- so we can reach more people.

- So, what is the one message you'd want to give us for people to know about the ELLA Sports Foundation?

- So, one message that I wanna get across is for the parents.

I wanna make sure that they understand the importance of putting girls in sports early in their lives.

The research out there, it just talks about how girls start later in sports.

And specifically in our communities, in the Latino community, the communities of color, sports is not something that parents prioritize or value.

So, the message that I wanna say is value that.

Value that because not only is it gonna get your girls exposed to better physical health, better mental health, but it's also gonna open doors where maybe college wasn't a thing because you didn't think you could afford it.

But, through sports you can get there.

And so, your girls can get there and just use that as a vehicle that could later open doors for them, as well.

Because once they graduate from college, now they're gonna have other doors that are gonna open for them.

And so, truly, truly, the message is value sports.

Prioritize it, especially in our Latino community where it's not valued highly right now.

Support your daughters if they wanna play sports.

Do everything you can.

And, reach out to us, 'cause we are able to facilitate and help you and guide you.

- That's what we want!

Give us the homework on how we follow up this amazing, unique organization.

How can people get in contact with you?

- So, first of all, you can go to our website: EllaSportsFoundation.org There's all the information about our programs, our calendar of events, things that are coming up, things that we've done in the past, people you can contact.

There's also our email is there: info@EllaSports.org And, you can also follow us on Instagram.

And, it's @ellasportsftn.

Those are our social handles for Twitter, for Facebook, and Instagram, as well.

And, those are the ones that are actually-- Those are the-- that have all the day-to-day things that are happening.

All the announcements are there.

So, yeah.

That's how you can contact us.

- Patty Godoy, this is extremely inspiring.

I thank you so much and wish you all the greatest success with the ELLA Sports Foundation.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me here.

- And, I want to thank each and every one of you for joining us.

Once again, you got another wonderful organization that's doing things in Southern California, including the Inland Empire to help make a difference.

Let everybody know!

Watch the show, go to YouTube.

You'll see outtakes.

Not only the shows themselves, but additional information.

So, make sure that you check it out.

And, we're gonna continue going down the road like we always do, building bridges and uncovering treasures that are helping this Inland Empire area.

We'll do it one conversation at a time.

Until then, Joe Richardson, for "Inland Edition."

See ya next time.

[uplifting music and vocals] ♪ ♪ [softer music and vocals] ♪ ♪ ♪ [music fades]