EQUITY
Park and recreation professionals should center equity-based best practices in their youth sports programs, facilities and policies to ensure all children have access to a safe and welcoming youth sports experience.
Creating Awareness About Youth Sports Equity By Teresa Morrissey and Rachel Banner
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t NRPA, we’ve spent the past year researching the youth sports landscape to learn ways we can support park and recreation professionals as they ensure that all kids have a fun, safe place to play sports — a place where they feel like they belong. The research was clear that when children play sports, they increase their chances to grow up healthy; feel good about themselves; build friendships; develop skills like teamwork, kindness and respect; and are more likely to succeed in school and in their future careers. At the culmination of our research, NRPA developed goals and principles that guide how we collaborate with park and recreation professionals to ensure all youth have the opportunity, motivation and access to play sports (tinyurl.com/475vzyvp). Because park and recreation professionals are community leaders experienced in working with youth, parents and partners to deliver youth sports, NRPA looks forward to working
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Parks & Recreation
together to increase youth sports equity at park and recreation agencies, ultimately creating conditions that welcome all youth into sports and provide community-wide access to youth sports opportunities that are safe, fun and affordable.
Centering Equity in Local Youth Sports This fall, NRPA transitioned into its first year of action. We started by
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selecting 16 communities to serve as leaders in NRPA’s Youth Sports Strategy — providing grant funding to these park and recreation agencies to test approaches that increase youth sports equity. As we read grant applications, we found the following excerpt from a letter written by a little leaguer to Mayor Jane Castor in Tampa, Florida: I’ve been playing softball for four years and recently noticed a problem. My home little league...only has ONE softball field and at least FOUR baseball fields. I understand baseball was invented first, but softball needs a little more attention. I am aware boys usually play more sports, but it’s not the [1800s] anymore. Girls are starting to play sports now, in particular softball. At softball, some of my practices have been getting cancelled because there’s a [baseball] game taking place on the field and there’s nowhere else for the game to go. I’m writing to you to get more softball fields EVERYWHERE...
