As the backbone for Project Play, the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program develops insights, ideas and opportunities to build healthy children and communities through sports. Launched in 2013, Project Play unfolded in three phases, helping to organize a messy landscape.

1.     Organize the thought

  • Create a shared understanding of the sport ecosystem and its challenges

  • Develop evidence-based frameworks that can help mobilize stakeholders

2.     Organize the stakeholders

  • Top down: Connect silos across national organizations that influence behavior

  • Bottom up: Convene community leaders to source insights and solutions

3.     Organize for impact

  • Inspire our network of 20,000+ leaders to drive change in policies, practices, partnerships

  • This is where we are now – doubling down after a decade of building trust

Read Project Play’s 2024 Impact Report. Next steps are shaped by our Theory of Change, below, which we will explore at the Project Play Summit, March 24-25 in the Bay Area (Join us!).

Last updated Jan. 21, 2025

Theory of Change for Sport in America

GOAL: Youth-centered sport ecosystem that serves all

Youth and school sports form the base of our sport ecosystem, the foundation for all that sits on top — professional, college and Olympic sports — and most importantly, the health of communities. Active kids simply do better in life. So when we talk about Sport in America, it’s about getting the base right, ensuring that all youth under age 18 who want to play have the opportunity to develop as human beings through sports, both organized and unstructured.

Opportunities are often delivered by schools and local programs and are deeply influenced by broader policies, structures and incentives. See: The impact of Title IX, the defunding of school-based sports, and the rise of travel sports as an engine of tourism that has reshaped sports since the 1990s, promoting early specialization while limiting access to low-income youth.

The below Theory of Change for Sport in America was developed by the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program based on learnings from a decade of convening leaders, studying the landscape, and researching the world’s leading sport systems. The five pillars guide our efforts to support stakeholders and serve as an invitation to collaborate through Project Play and other venues.

Establish sport as a human right of all children

  • Create a cultural consensus that every child should have an opportunity to play sports

  • Identify the minimum conditions under which children should be engaged

  • Recognize and address gaps with underrepresented populations

So that … more local, state and national policies can be developed to deliver the benefits of sport

BUILD PROGRAMS THAT MEET YOUTH NEEDS

  • Center the voice of young people in the design of activities

  • Embrace best practices in youth and athletic development

  • Embed health and safety protections

So that … children don’t quit sports as early as they have been (average age: 11)

Grow Access to Safe Places to Play

  • Identify gaps in nearby facilities (parks, gyms, etc.) available to youth

  • Educate stakeholders on funding, collaboration opportunities to fill gaps

  • Encourage cities to ensure equitable use of public spaces

So that … transportation and cost barriers to participation are reduced

    • Educate policymakers via Youth Sports Policy Agenda

    • Engage grant-makers via Project Play Communities Council

    • Source ideas via diverse community State of Play task forces

    • Facility operators: Leverage field use permits to address gaps

    • Foundations: Learn how Aspen conducts local State of Play reports

    • State leaders: Prioritize access to sport in distribution of facility grants

    • School leaders: Expand community access to your spaces

    • Policymakers: Create incentives to build recreation spaces.

Improve governance of sport

  • Create venues for stakeholders to balance competing interests

  • Foster collaboration across the disjointed youth, school sport systems

  • Develop incentives for sport providers to embrace best practices

So that … more of the energy and investment in the space serves the interests of youth

Rally around a time-bound goal: 63X30

  • Encourage stakeholders to focus their efforts on a North Star

  • Align the interests of the public and private sectors

  • Help the nation get 63% of youth playing sports by 2030

So that … the supply of quality sport experiences better meets the demand for them

Let’s go. Join us?

Send us a note at sportsandsociety@aspeninstitute.org