youth sports

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.

July 2024 newsletter

Featured highlights:

  • Watch philanthropist and new Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein interview our Tom Farrey on how the country can lift youth sport participation rates to 63% by the end of the decade

  • Read about the NCAA league that could save the Olympic sport pipeline

  • Dive into insights about how school coaches prepare for and experience their roles, from our recently published National Coaching Survey

  • and more…

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%).

June 2024 newsletter

Featured highlights:

  • Read the 63x30 press release and learn about our national roundtable’s plan to raise youth sport participation to 63% by 2030

  • Watch the 63x30 Project Play Summit session where our panel explored the value of organizations mobilizing at all three levels — national, state and local

  • Embrace the Ripken Way as Cal Jr. and son Ryan offer guidance on how to be a sports parent

  • and more…

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.

Project Play Summit 2024 Recap: Children’s rights, youth sports policy take center stage

BALTIMORE, Maryland – Maryland became the first state to sign the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports after Governor Wes Moore endorsed a framework that all youth should have the opportunity to develop as people through sports.

“Some of my earliest memories are on a basketball court in the Bronx, where it was a place of escape,” Moore said May 15 at the Project Play Summit, the Aspen Institute’s annual youth sports conference. “It was a place where you felt safe. It was a place where you met some of your lifelong friends. It was a place where you learned all the beautiful things you can learn from team sports – how to win properly, how to lose properly, the importance of being able to trust the people to your left and right and make sure you’re practicing so they can trust you back.”

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How Baltimore is improving sports access for children

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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.

February 2024 newsletter

Featured highlights:

  • 1,860,000 quality years of life gained if we lift sports participation rates from 51 to 63% by 2030

  • UPCOMING EVENT: Future of Sports: College Sports Reform in the Public Interest

  • Christine Brennan joins Project Play Summit 2024

  • Last chance for early bird ticket prices!

  • and more…

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Maryland pioneers model that brings soccer into high-poverty schools

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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.