News - Project Play

Aspen Institute

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Baton Rouge youth need more, better sports options

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Washington, DC –– Not enough Baton Rouge children can access sports to enjoy the associated benefits, including notably lower participation rates among girls and children in North Baton Rouge, according to a report released today by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative. “State of Play Baton Rouge” offers solutions on how to grow sports opportunities.

Child Rights and Sports Alliance Launches Ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026™

Tampa, FL – A group of leading organizations today announced the creation of the Child Rights and Sports Alliance (CRSA) in the United States. The goals of the Alliance are to elevate child rights, center youth voices, and use the sport as a vehicle for youth development in the planning, execution, and legacy building of the FIFA World Cup 2026™.

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Project Play Communities Council: How local philanthropy is mobilizing to support 63% by 2030

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Currently, national participation in an organized sport is 54%. Urban, suburban and rural communities across the country are coming together to share knowledge about what’s working and how to solve issues around the barriers they are facing. Two philanthropic organizations, the Names Family Foundation (Tacoma, WA) and Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation (Southeast Michigan and Western New York), and the Aspen Institute are partnering to bring together philanthropists and community leaders to reach that 63% through the Project Play Communities Council.

August 2024 newsletter

Featured highlights:

  • Learn how five state governments have taken action to increase access, equity and quality in youth sports, and download a new two-page resource with 20+ examples to guide your work

  • Learn about our first state initiative, Project Play Colorado, and get involved with Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day

  • Players Health joins the 63X30 roundtable. Meet chief mission officer Kyle Lubrano and learn how Players Health got involved in youth sports policy in Colorado

  • and more…

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July 2024 newsletter

Featured highlights:

  • Watch philanthropist and new Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein interview our Tom Farrey on how the country can lift youth sport participation rates to 63% by the end of the decade

  • Read about the NCAA league that could save the Olympic sport pipeline

  • Dive into insights about how school coaches prepare for and experience their roles, from our recently published National Coaching Survey

  • and more…

June 2024 newsletter

Featured highlights:

  • Read the 63x30 press release and learn about our national roundtable’s plan to raise youth sport participation to 63% by 2030

  • Watch the 63x30 Project Play Summit session where our panel explored the value of organizations mobilizing at all three levels — national, state and local

  • Embrace the Ripken Way as Cal Jr. and son Ryan offer guidance on how to be a sports parent

  • and more…

Project Play Summit 2024 Recap: Children’s rights, youth sports policy take center stage

BALTIMORE, Maryland – Maryland became the first state to sign the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports after Governor Wes Moore endorsed a framework that all youth should have the opportunity to develop as people through sports.

“Some of my earliest memories are on a basketball court in the Bronx, where it was a place of escape,” Moore said May 15 at the Project Play Summit, the Aspen Institute’s annual youth sports conference. “It was a place where you felt safe. It was a place where you met some of your lifelong friends. It was a place where you learned all the beautiful things you can learn from team sports – how to win properly, how to lose properly, the importance of being able to trust the people to your left and right and make sure you’re practicing so they can trust you back.”

The long-awaited Commission report on sports governance is here. What does it say, and what comes next?

Three years after it was authorized, the final report of the group seated by Congress to study the organizations at the center of the Olympic and Paralympic Movement in the United States is now out. The 13-member group took a home run swing. It hit a broken-bat double. Broken bat, because not everything connects. A double, because it sets up a chance to score.

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Analysis: Serious knee injury among teen athletes grows 26%

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Among the most dreaded injuries in sports, the rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries among high school athletes has grown significantly over the past 15 years, according to a new data analysis by organizations collaborating to assess and address the problem of serious knee injuries.      

The National ACL Injury Coalition reviewed injury data for 12 major girls and boys sports over five three-year periods from 2007 to 2022, as supplied by certified athletic trainers in the High School RIO surveillance program. From period one to five, the average annual ACL injury rate grew 25.9% to 7.3 injuries per 100,000 athlete exposures. ACL injuries now represent more than 14% of all injuries involving the knee.  

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The value of sport system design

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The Aspen Institute studied the governance models and ecosystem results in 11 peer countries, with a focus on youth sport participation rates and elite performance – the grassroots and treetops. The countries studied vary in population, geography, culture and forms of government, but all have found success in either youth sports or elite sports, or both.

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