This document discusses the Up2Us coalition and its goal of advocating for youth sports programs. It aims to support organizations, build the youth sports workforce, and serve more kids. Up2Us initiatives include a coach training program, quality metrics, and conferences. Research shows youth sports can have positive physical, social, cognitive, and lifestyle benefits. However, budgets cuts are threatening sports. Up2Us is launching the Get:Set program to create a resource platform and make the case for investing in youth sports by highlighting the links between sports and health, education, pro-social behavior, and avoiding risky activities. It calls for more evidence and evaluation to prove the value of youth sports.

1. Redefining Sports as a Tool to Address the Critical Issues Facing Today’s Youth ISDPA Power of Sport Summit Northeastern University, June 2010

3. Rooted in practice- a project created at America SCORES; developed by leaders in the youth sports field

4. Goals:

5. Support organizations so that they can improve the quality of their programs

6. Build a workforce in sports-based youth development; raise the human capital

7. Make the case for youth sports- advocate for resources

9. Youth Sports “Revitalizers”

10. Quality Metrics

11. Regional Conferences

12. Member Services

13. Insurance

14. Job Bank

17. In New York City, enrichment and afterschool activities were a major target of a $405 million cut for the 2009-2010 school year.

18. In Los Angeles, a proposed $1.3 billion budget cut across the district between 2009 and 2011 targets extracurricular programs outside of the regular school subjects.

21. Key collaborators: Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Hands On, Women’s Sports Foundation, America’s Promise and…

22. Get:Set is charged with motivating an investment in youth sports by:

23. Creating an efficient and effective resource platform: Get:Set Sport Exchange

26. Youth who play sports are more than eight times as likely to participate in sports activities as adults than youth who do not.

28. Another recent study also showed that not only does exercise have positive cognitive benefits, but that the benefits actually increase as the amount of exercise increases. In this study, students in Augusta, Georgia, who had the greatest improved scores in academic tests and executive function were the children who exercised the most.

30. Girls in the Game found that after one year of participation in their program, participants had a healthier body image and better social skills than their peers who did not participate.

31. When comparing the benefits of sports to other extracurricular activities, researchers have found that sports are better suited to help young people acquire emotional control, teamwork skills, and initiative

33. Sedentary adolescents are more likely to get pregnant. Additionally, the Women’s Sports Foundation found that the rate of teenage pregnancy in non-athletes was 11%, over twice the pregnancy rate as for adolescent female athletes, 5%.

34. Multiple studies show athletes are less likely to smoke cigarettes or marijuana.

36. Value vs. Priority

37. Making the Case…Better What evidence is missing? What can the research community do to prove the value of sports? What should research studies of youth sports look like? What can practitioners and organizations do? What should programs be doing to evaluate themselves?

38. Get: Set…Go! Want to help make the case for youth sports? Join Up2Us! Contact: Megan Bartlett Director of Research and Training mbartlett@up2us.org www.up2us.org