The following article comes from the Aspen Institute’s State of Play Baton Rouge report. The report assesses the opportunities and barriers for more children to access sports and physical activity in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

Very few children or parents we spoke with said children play outside on their own. That’s a shame. The loss of free play costs children opportunities to exercise creativity, set and achieve goals, learn interpersonal skills and develop a love of physical activity for its own sake. Baton Rouge is not unique. There are many reasons for this shift in recent decades, starting in some cases with legitimate safety concerns. Other reasons include overscheduled children, family responsibilities, extreme weather, cell phone and social media use, and other factors.

East Baton Rouge Parish residents identified park vandalism and inappropriate use of park facilities as a deterrent to visiting BREC facilities, according to a BREC survey. Media have reported on criminal behavior, including murders and sexual misconduct, at BREC parks. BREC recommends creating a safe parks design pilot program that includes guidelines on improved lighting, clear sightlines, well-maintained landscaping, and the presence of security personnel or park ambassadors.

In a focus group, Baton Rouge parents from middle-to upper-class households told us they want their children participating in structured activities so they can feel comfortable that they are safe. That means playing outside only through organized sports teams or within their neighborhood with families they know.

“It’s a necessary evil,” said one father. “When we were growing up, you knew where to go and not to go, and as long as you stayed away from where not to go, you were going to be safe. Society has changed. Those lines are blurred a lot. It’s like the only place as parents that you feel comfortable is in this kind of structured environment like organized sports.”

Said another parent: “In 2024, you hear of every kid abducted and it’s to the point where parents need to know where kids are at all times. I don’t know if in reality there’s more crime than there was when we were kids. I think fear was much higher in 2024 than in 1994. You hear about everything now.”

The murder rate in Louisiana has declined significantly since 1994, when the state had 856. But Louisiana’s murder rate in 2023 was almost three times higher than the nation’s. Baton Rouge had almost six times more murders and four times more burglaries than the national average. One Baton Rouge teenager died and a woman was injured during a 2023 shooting at a Port Allen High School football game. Police planned to employ a larger law enforcement presence at 2024 football games.

Police presence alone isn’t enough to make people feel safe to play outside. Hollins, the Louisiana Youth Sports Network director, said he is proud that his organization safely offers sports programs without police.

“I don’t like having police there because I don’t want kids involved in our program to believe the only way we can behave is if there’s a police officer standing around,” Hollins said. “Yes, we need safety. But I fear we inadvertently are teaching a generation involved in sports that there’s no good behavior unless a guy with a gun is standing over you and making sure you behave.”

Solution: Build safe places designed for free play

Organized sports programs obviously are valuable to communities. Research shows that sport-based approaches may offer an effective way of engaging youth that reduces risk factors linked to crime and violence. When high schools have strong interscholastic sports participation rates, they report lower levels of major crime and fewer suspensions, according to a University of Michigan study. In 2019, the United Nations recognized the value of integrating sports into youth crime prevention and criminal justice strategies.

Children need to feel both safe and excited to play sports on their own terms. There are emerging models to draw upon. In Port Huron, Michigan, city leaders, with the help of private and public funding, are designing what they say is the first free-play park anywhere to engage children outside of organized sports. The park will include a Wiffle ball court, renovated basketball court, small football field, soccer field, bike trail and 40-yard dash track. The small-sided fields and courts are not intended for organized teams to use. They are for the six in 10 children who don’t make their school team and just want to play. Given the excessive heat in Baton Rouge, local leaders could apply this idea to a rec center or another indoor facility.

Much of the free play park funding in Michigan came from a $500,000 state grant. In Louisiana, BREC identified exploring new funding sources as a goal for the next 10 years, with a focus on increasing access to parks where there are equity gaps. BREC said it pursues a range of federal funding, from sources such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund, HUD Community Development Block grants, and the National Park Service Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership grants program.

In addition, Baton Rouge could adopt a free equipment-sharing program for children to use at parks. Project Play Southeast Michigan created Sport Port, which allows children and parents/guardians to borrow sports equipment just like borrowing books from the library. Equipment can be found at certain libraries, community centers and rec departments in Michigan.

Police could also be used to hand out equipment to children. That’s what the Colorado Springs (Colorado) Police Department does through its Play COS program, which tries to create more opportunities for positive interactions between officers and community members. Through donations, each of the police department’s patrol divisions is supplied with sports balls for officers to keep in their cars to give to children during their shifts. Every free ball or pickup game between an officer and child is a positive interaction they otherwise would not share.

Jon Solomon is Community Impact Director of the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative. Jon can be reached at jon.solomon@aspeninstitute.org.