The gender gap for sports participation in D.C. is real and problematic. Only 53% of District girls participated on a sports team of any kind in 2022 and 2023, compared to 70% of boys. That’s the largest gender gap for U.S. states, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. Our youth survey also showed that D.C. girls are less physically active than boys, according to CDC- recommended levels.
More trained coaches are needed to create youth-centered sports experiences
Simply finding coaches is increasingly challenging in D.C. Less free time, longer work hours, limited pay for coaches and hassles with parents are among the reasons it’s hard to find coaches, who are the backbone of youth sports. The best coaches are mentors, role models and inspirations for generations of young athletes — some of whom will grow up to coach as well.
Youth sports investments in Washington D.C.
How sports can help Washington D.C.’s absenteeism challenge in schools
The Aspen Institute’s State of Play Washington D.C. report, released in 2025, explored the role sports can play to reduce student truancy in schools. High levels of involvement in school sports are one of the strongest correlations with lower risk of cutting or skipping class and school misbehavior, according to a study by the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Charter schools struggle the most to grow sports access
Charter schools comprise 36% of Washington, D.C.’s high school population, but only 22% of high school sports participants. Similar challenges to grow sports participation occur at the elementary and middle school levels for charters, which struggle more than any other school stakeholder to access facility space and financial investments for sports.
Project Play survey: Family spending on youth sports rises 46% over five years
Participation in youth sports is getting more expensive – and there seems no end in sight.
The average U.S. sports family spent $1,016 on their child’s primary sport in 2024, a 46% increase since 2019, according to the Aspen Institute’s latest parent survey in partnership with Utah State University and Louisiana Tech University. The rising commercialization of youth sports impacts who can access quality sports opportunities or whether some children play at all.
How Gardere Youth Alliance builds social trust
How Front Yard Bikes builds social trust
Ask Kids What They Want: Baton Rouge
Girls play sports and move their bodies less than boys
Families lack information about available sports programming in Baton Rouge
Sports offerings are only as good as the ability to market them. Families need to know how and when to register, costs to play, scholarship opportunities, locations of practices and games, and much more. We heard from parents who say they don’t have enough information about available sports programs, including costs.
Free play has all but disappeared in Baton Rouge
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.
How Oakland is mobilizing for kids
Oakland’s passion for sports was recognized by the Aspen Institute in “State of Play Oakland,” the 11th community report from our Project Play initiative. Two data points stood about above all: only 14% of Oakland youth received the 60 minutes of physical activity per day recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (below the U.S. average of 23%). And just 9% of Oakland girls were sufficiently physically active. The good news is many organizations and leaders in the city saw the numbers and got to work.
Baton Rouge youth are socially isolated and struggling with mental health
Too few quality indoor play spaces exist in Baton Rouge, especially for children in low-income areas
Transportation is limited for children in Baton Rouge to access sports
East Baton Rouge Parish Schools offers magnet programs to retain students, but that has consequences for extracurricular activities: Thousands of students don’t attend schools near their homes and are transported right after school back to their homes. For many children, their only way home is the school bus, which can be a long ride across the parish.
Climate change is impacting how children play sports
Changes in the climate increasingly expose football players (and all athletes in outdoor sports) to higher temperatures and dangerous levels of humidity that surpass recommended safety thresholds. Not only football is being affected, of course. How, or if, children play sports and recreate outdoors continues to be impacted by climate change, and the challenges are not going away.
Distrust in government has contributed to the privatization of sports, leaving behind children who lack access
Many youth sports providers in the public and private sectors don’t communicate much with each other, in part due to distrust of each other. There is a belief by some that no intersection exists between people who strive to use sports as an economic engine and people who focus on providing affordable, quality access for all children. The divide between the haves and have-nots in youth sports within East Baton Rouge Parish resembles that in the educational environment.
2024 Project Play Impact Report
The coming decade in sports will be the most consequential in history, or at least since a Teddy Roosevelt-era coalition of cross-sector leaders installed sports as a tool of youth development and nation-building more than a century ago. Over the next 10 years, the U.S. will serve as host of an unprecedented series of international events, from the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup to the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, two Rugby World Cups to the 2034 Winter Olympics.
What story will we tell the world?
Baton Rouge youth need more, better sports options
Washington, DC –– Not enough Baton Rouge children can access sports to enjoy the associated benefits, including notably lower participation rates among girls and children in North Baton Rouge, according to a report released today by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative. “State of Play Baton Rouge” offers solutions on how to grow sports opportunities.