Children with disabilities often face more barriers to access sports. These challenges exist due to lack of awareness from those without disabilities to include them, lack of opportunities for training and competition, lack of accessible facilities, limited resources and perceptions about the interests and abilities of youth with disabilities to play sports. Greater promotion in schools of integrated sports — meaning pairing children with and without physical or intellectual disabilities on the same team — can help increase access to sports for children with disabilities.
One way to support coaches in Kansas City: Pass state laws requiring coach training and conduct policies in youth sports
A child’s experience in sports is often only as good as the coach. And too few coaches are trained in key areas. For instance, less than 60% of surveyed coaches have ever taken trainings in trauma-informed practices, performance anxiety, emotional regulation and how to work with parents, according to the National Coach Survey as administered by the Aspen Institute, Ohio State, Nike and partners in 2022.
Kansas City takes steps to serve youth with disabilities through sports, but opportunity gaps remain
How the youth sports community is solving Kansas City's transportation challenges
Project Play Communities Council: How local philanthropy is mobilizing to support 63% by 2030
Currently, national participation in an organized sport is 54%. Urban, suburban and rural communities across the country are coming together to share knowledge about what’s working and how to solve issues around the barriers they are facing. Two philanthropic organizations, the Names Family Foundation (Tacoma, WA) and Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation (Southeast Michigan and Western New York), and the Aspen Institute are partnering to bring together philanthropists and community leaders to reach that 63% through the Project Play Communities Council.
How regions can activate around the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports
Every child has the right to play sports and, when in the care of adults, the human rights they are born with need to be respected. This simple idea informs the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports, a resource designed to create a shared cultural understanding that all youth should have the opportunity to develop as people through sports.
10 interesting findings from State of Play Colorado: Aspen to Parachute
Ask Kids What They Want: Rural Colorado
Pilot a regional adventure club to grow social interactions among children
The Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys are filled with wonderful opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. Yet these opportunities often exist in silos based on geography, socioeconomics and culture. Community leaders could pilot a summer adventure club that samples various outdoor activities from all corners of the region.
Provide coaching education for positive youth development
At all age and competitive levels throughout both valleys, we heard a strong desire from coaches and administrators for more education and professional development. Alternatively, there are children who feel unwelcome in sports, so they turn to other physical activities such as theater and dance. Some sports coaches need a better understanding of skill development related to their sport or activity. An even greater need: Coaches must understand how to make youth sports and recreation safe places physically and emotionally for children while using these activities as tools for developing children’s social, emotional and cognitive skills. In schools, fewer teachers serve as coaches given the pressures and expectations on their classrooms, meaning schools now rely more on community members to coach.
Create a scholarship portal for underserved children to access sports and recreational opportunities more affordably
The wealth gap is massive in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys. Opportunities for children to play sports or engage in outdoor recreation often come down to costs. Many sports and recreational organizations generously provide scholarships for children to play. However, many sports and rec providers and some parents — especially those who are Latino/a — described trying to navigate a confusing flood of scholarship applications.
Improve transportation to and from sports and rec programming
Transportation is one of the most significant barriers preventing more children in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys from accessing sports and other forms of physical activity. RFTA recently began offering a $1 fare for youth 18 and under on all regional routes. As of March 2022, children under age 16 comprised less than 2% of all RFTA bus ridership, and youth ages 16-18 made up 5%. In our survey, 11% of youth from Roaring Fork School District and 9% from Aspen School District said they usually travel to their sports or organized athletic activities via RFTA — far higher than youth ridership from Garfield School District Re-2 (4%) and Garfield School District 16 (1%).
Use the power of soccer to grow educational opportunities for Latino/a youth
The Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys provide many opportunities for children to recreate. Yet only 15% of surveyed Latino/a youth in the region get 60 minutes of physical activity daily, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s nearly half the percentage of White children (27%) who meet the recommendation.
How Baltimore is improving sports access for children
Baltimore has a rich history of developing its children and communities through sports – from the childhood of Babe Ruth to the proliferation of recreation centers in the 1960s and ‘70s, from the rise of decorated Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps to the basketball successes of Carmelo Anthony, Angel Reese and many others. The Aspen Institute recognized as much in State of Play Baltimore, the first community landscape analysis from our Project Play initiative, which included findings and recommendations shaped by an eight-member local advisory board that included then-City Council member Brandon Scott. Since 2017, Scott - now Mayor - and local leaders have worked hard to make Baltimore’s children active through sports.
Maryland pioneers model that brings soccer into high-poverty schools
TAKOMA PARK, Maryland – It’s 3:40 pm on a fall afternoon, and as classes let out, about 40 children flood into the outdoor patio at Rolling Terrace Elementary School. They come for snacks and soccer and receive life lessons along the way.
On this day, many are antsy to play soccer, tying their free cleats and chatting loudly with friends rather than listening to their mentors discuss what optimism and persistence mean. Lukas Barbieri, a high school student who is the youngest of Rolling Terrace’s soccer mentors, eventually quiets the kids down.
“Does anyone remember what optimism means?” Barbieri asks.
“Helping your friends,” says one child. “Being thoughtful,” adds another.
“Sort of,” Barbieri replies. “Optimism means you have to believe in yourself.”
In a sense, this scene represents what optimism for youth sports looks like.