Youth Panel on Sports in Society

The 2022 International Youth Conference called for the use of “sports as a glue for community building”. As part of the our work to devlop this idea further, we have now consulted our Youth Panel, consisting of 171 young people from over 30 countries.

All of the respondents agree that sports activities has the potential contribute to social cohesion, but they also point to a lot of related issues. Half of the responses submitted claims to have experienced barriers when wanting to participate in sports activities. One respondent elaborates:

“Definitely [sports can contribute to social cohesion], in regard to creating a community and meeting people from different social and cultural backgrounds and lives … But there can be backlashes as well, in regards to the … question about expenses. If you are a young person without a stable income in combination with not wanting to burden your family financially.”

These and other challenges has been examined in a recently published IYTT Working Paper, and is explored further as a group of our Youth Fellows are currently working to develop a Policy Brief on the issue to inspire leaders the world over to consider the community-building aspects of sports.

Read the full results from the panel here.