Youth Sports

Tom Farrey, Executive Director of Sports & Society Program, tells a story about Kobe Bryant and his commitment to youth sports.

Over the past year, Aspen Romania has used our Project Play framework to convene leaders with the aim of developing a national plan for getting more children active through sports.

This year’s Project Play Summit was an away game, venturing away from Washington D.C. for the first time in its five-year history. Detroit welcomed the convening with more than 500 leaders at the intersection of youth, sport and health – the largest turnout in the Summit’s history.

State of Play Hawai‘i is a snapshot of how well adults are serving youth through sports, including sections describing the sport ecosystem in each of the four counties.

This report offers an assessment of the state of play for youth sports, physical activity and outdoor recreation in King County

The Aspen Institute’s “Don’t Retire, Kid” campaign raises awareness about gaps in the youth sports system that cause kids to quit sports or not start in the first place – and the solutions to keep them in the game. The State of Play 2019 report released in September 2019 includes several key findings.

The Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program launched a new campaign, “Don’t Retire, Kid,” to raise awareness about declining youth sports participation and solutions to create positive experiences for kids. One of the PSAs included Cassidy Hubbarth, a talented NBA and college football broadcaster at ESPN, as a reporter at a fictional press conference for a 9-year-old boy to retire from sports.

Ask a parent what their kid wants most from playing sports, and they’ll tell you: fun. A Project Play study examines why kids quit sports.

We need to look beyond our own backyard for inspiration.