A star-studded cast of speakers brought a wealth of knowledge to Cal this week, all with the goal of increasing and improving opportunities for youth sports. Speakers included Steph & Ayesha Curry, First lady of CA Jennifer Newsom, writer Michael Lewis, the CEO’s of Little League International, Teamsnap and GameChanger, and executives from dozens of other companies.
The Project Play Summit was in it’s 11th year, and first in Northern California. It’s part of the Aspen Institute, which is diverse and impactful international nonprofit.
The event serves as a way to build on the annual State of Play report and research that Project Play does each year, which is incredibly comprehensive and educational. Take a look at the following graphics related to sports participation by State, Gender, and Sport.
The event kicked off with 3 youth entrepreneurs as speakers. Arden Pala, from Sports 4 Kids which is a nonprofit in San Diego focusing on providing opportunities for low income youth & fighting youth homelessness. Maegha Ramanathan from Girls4Sports leads a nonprofit focused on gender inequality in sports. And Ayanna Shah run the nonprofit Second Serve, which redistributes tennis equipment and provides opportunities to play for underserved communities.
The overarching theme from the Summit was the 63X30 Project, which is a collaborative commitment to achieving 63% youth sports participation by the year 2030. The current participation rate was 54% in 2022, but that is down from 58% in 2017. The impacts from achieving this goal are profound related to overall public health, quality of life, increased productivity, and reduced medical costs. There is even a legislative assembly bill in the works to create a Department of Youth Sports in California
The biggest takeaway from the summit as it relates to our community in Lamorinda is that there are an incredible amount of resources available that our local clubs, leagues and schools can be utilizing. Most sports leaders don’t realize how many free resources are available that can help improve all aspects of their program - especially as they relate to youth athlete development and coaching tools. I hope to continue moving conversations forward and collaborating with local leaders to provide the best opportunities for kids in our community.
