Harnessing the power of sport to address inequity

a young girls sports team huddle around their coach

Campus-community partnerships can open up new opportunities for youth in the sport and development sector.

Not all ideas have the potential to make a scalable impact. Some are constrained by resources, some by limited appeal, and others by non-replicable personnel traits (such as irreplaceable employees). Whatever the case, when looking to drive social change on a societal-level or to move the needle on public health outcomes, some ideas, programs, and interventions are more promising than others. One such promising strategy is through the implementation sport-based programming, which has the ability to break down racial, ethnic, and class barriers as popularity of sport crosses both figurative and literal borders.

An ideal world would provide equitable access to sport and all the developmental benefits that it has to offer. Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in. Kids born in wealthy communities, with middle-class or wealthy parents have significantly greater access to opportunities and the corresponding benefits associated with sport participation. As a result, some kids have access to facilities, coaches, and equipment, whereas others are excluded, often based on factors outside of their control. These inequities grow as kids grow up having not had the same opportunities and developmental experiences related to leadership, teamwork, socialization, and dealing with adversity. But how can we address these existing inequities in youth sport and development?

One potential strategy is to create campus-community partnerships that initiate sport-based youth development programs. These programs utilize sport as the hook to encourage youth to join programs that seek to engage and empower them on the field, in the classroom, and in life. Through developmental education and activities targeting physical activity, life skills, nutrition, and academic advancement, these programs can provide underserved, at-risk, and underrepresented youth a greater chance to lead healthy, happy, and successful lives. Programs can be tailored to community needs, target social issue(s) as well as the primary sport used within programming. For example, a basketball-based youth development program focused on addressing gender equity and leadership development.

Campus-community partnerships take advantage of the inequitable system of higher education which disproportionately favours white males to create a collaboration that serves to empower underserved, at-risk, or underrepresented communities. These campus-community partnerships should focus on underserved communities that are much more in need of access to high quality programming and opportunities than other populations. Many funding organisations that support diversity, equity, and inclusion-based grants such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute are also much more likely to support efforts focused on these often-forgotten populations.

Now that we have identified a scalable type of program opportunity, and a target population in need, it’s time to take the approach to the next level. Campus-community partnerships should target both service and research goals. An example of a sport-based youth development service goal would be to bring a leadership development program to underrepresented middle school students in a Midwestern city; whereas the research goal could be to decrease sedentary time, increase daily light-intensity physical activity, or to increase self-esteem in participants. In the United States, program planners, researchers, and practitioners involved in campus-community partnerships will have a much larger pot of funding to apply to (by billions of dollars) if there are elements of both service and research built into the initiatives.

Beyond the approach of addressing both service and research goals, sport-based youth development programs also have the potential to address multiple levels of influence. The previous goals listed were individual-level goals, but these partnerships can also have significant effects on outcomes at the interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy level. Efforts in these areas could include equity-based education or skill-building for parents and teachers (interpersonal) or school policy implementation related to recess, active play, or curriculum (organisational/policy).

We must not overlook the opportunity presented by campus-community partnerships to initiate sport-based youth development programs. When designed with equity-based goals in mind, these partnerships connect the following: