December 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 18

RESEARCH
Looking at the Barriers to Youth Sports
By Kevin Roth

outh sports are a critical starting point in a person's lifelong
journey toward an active and healthy lifestyle. Children and
teenagers who engage with sports not only grow up more physically active and confident, but also gain physical and mental
health benefits that follow them throughout their lives.
Park and recreation professionals
and their agencies are major providers of youth sports opportunities
across the nation, serving all members of their communities. Equity
is at the heart of access to youth
sports. Unfortunately, there are significant disparities in who has access to youth sports.
Today, many park and recreation agencies face limiting funding challenges and stout competition with travel sports leagues and
other providers that hinder equity
in youth sports. The coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic and resulting economic recession have greatly
exacerbated these funding challenges, impeding park and recreation
agencies' mission to deliver low-cost
youth sports programs to everyone.
In July 2020, the NRPA Research team asked park and recreation leaders about the current
state of youth sports programming
at their agencies. The 22-question
survey queried about youth sports
programs, focusing on agency partners, fee structures and activities
that park and recreation agencies
use to promote greater access.
Among the key findings is that
relatively few park and recreation
agencies " go it alone " when delivering sports opportunities for their
communities' youth. Instead, they
develop and nurture partnerships

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with third parties. Common partners
include:
* Private sports associations (52
percent of agencies)
* School systems (46 percent)
* Nonprofit organizations (42
percent)
Registration fees are a major
source of funding for park and recreation agency youth sports offerings,
with more than 9 in 10 agencies
charging fees to sports participants.
At the same time, registration fees
may deter access to youth sports for
many lower income residents. One
method that agencies use to expand
access is offering reduced fees or
discounts to lower income residents.

Challenges to Delivering
Youth Sports
Virtually all survey respondents report that their agencies struggle with
challenges in their mission to deliver
youth sports activities to all community members. Three in 5 park and
recreation professionals report difficulty in recruiting enough volunteer
coaches. Forty-five percent of survey
respondents indicate their agencies
lack a sufficient number of sports
fields and courts. Nineteen percent
of survey respondents report that
their agencies need more administrative staff or resources, while 14
percent of agencies do not have sufficient funding to ensure fair and just

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access to high-quality youth sports.
Competition is another challenge
faced by many agencies. Privatesector sports leagues have the option
to target anyone (e.g., by location
and ability to pay registration fees). A
park and recreation agency unable to
successfully compete may find itself
struggling to generate needed revenues. Among these competitors are:
* Private travel sports leagues (cited
by 49 percent of respondents)
* Nonprofit community leagues
(21 percent)
* School-affiliated leagues (21
percent)
Agencies have faced a wide
spectrum of challenges due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and resulting
economic downturn, including budget cuts; restrictions on when, where
and how groups of people can congregate; and training staff and volunteers on safe distancing practices.
Ninety percent of park and recreation
professionals report that the pandemic negatively impacted their agencies'
youth sports programming.
By centering sports programming
around youths' needs and laying a
foundation for long-term participation, park and recreation agencies can
help sustain engagement in sports and
benefit the long-term health of our society. A mix of greater support - in
the form of sustainable governmental
tax support and the nurturing of partnerships - will ensure every member
of our communities enjoy the many
benefits of youth sports.
Kevin Roth is Vice President of Research,
Evaluation and Technology at NRPA
(kroth@nrpa.org).

December 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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