This blog post explores the importance of community sports and the challenges they face, as highlighted in a recent report by Brock University researchers. The report emphasizes the need for provincial support and policy reform to ensure the sustainability and growth of grassroots sports organizations. Key insights include the increased responsibilities placed on these groups, the difficulties in implementing new policies, and the fragmentation within the sport system. The post examines the recommendations made in the report, such as creating a provincial amateur sport plan, building a collective voice, and leveraging provincial expertise and resources. Community sports play a vital role in enhancing community engagement and public health, and this blog post sheds light on the need for better provincial support to help them thrive.
Community Sports are Essential
From youth soccer leagues to adult hockey teams, community sports programs are key to fostering community involvement while also improving public health. Local community and grassroots organizations give people of any age the opportunity to be out there, meet new people, while cultivating a sense of belonging in their home town.
But a new report by Brock University researchers has drawn attention to the struggles of these community sport groups and the case for provincial-level assistance. Published in September 2016, Provincial Sport Policy in Ontario: Trends, Issues, and Ways Forward is a report brought out through three years of qualitative research with the sport sector: that is conversations with organizers across sectors of the sport system and with provincial associations.
Problems Community Sports Groups Encounter
According to the report, community sport is being asked to do more, and promised a central role in building back better after lockdown — yet has had insufficient resources, skills and capacity of its own. One such example, the report said, is safe sport initiatives “intended to ensure that athletes can participate in sports environments that are free from harassment or abuse and supported by the same positive values which benefit other participants.
Community organizations, which are often volunteer- or parent-led, can have a particularly difficult time with the new policies and regulations (Rich is one of the co-authors of the paper). “Some of those community groups are school parents or they might be grandparents doing it because they want their kids to have somewhere to play — they don’t necessarily have the resources, skills or capacity to navigate these new policies, rules and regulations,” he said.
The Need for Per Provicial Demands and Policy Editats
Key Findings and Recommendations from the Report The report’s key findings and recommendations underline the need for provincial supports and policy reforms to mitigate some of the challenges faced by these groups in community sports. Recommendations include the following: develop a provincial amateur sport plan or framework, establish a unifying voice for amateur sport, and collaborate with other sports stakeholders to leverage their resources and expertise.
The timing of release of the report is very important as the Government of Ontario has recently established the Ministry of Sport created for the sole purpose to build a strong sport system province-wide. This province needs sport policy reform and we have created the structures to improve sport development in Ontario,” Rich said.
The first was to provide community sports groups with the support, resources and policy guidance that allows them to operate efficiently, deliver important initiatives such as safe sport and equity in sport, while continuing to serve as a critical development system for high-performance athletes.
