Pay to Play: Access to Youth Sports

The National Youth Sports Strategy seeks to bring together U.S. youth sports culture by aiming for a future where every child has access to sports, regardless of their race, ethnicity, sex, ability, or location. Youth sports participation has immediate and long-term benefits for young people, their families, and their communities. These benefits include improved teamwork

, social skills, social responsibility, life skills, empowerment, personal responsibility, self-control, educational and occupational skills, and academic achievement. Participation in sports and physical activity also leads to a decrease in healthcare costs and a stronger long-term labor market.

However, not all youth in Washington, DC have the same access to athletics. This is because wealth is the primary determinant of one's participation in sports. The separation of sports into haves and have-nots is a relatively recent phenomenon, and the inequality in access to youth sports has increased in recent years. Low-income kids have less access to sports than higher-income kids, creating a play equity gap. COVID-19 has hit low-income communities hardest, exacerbating this dichotomy. As sports reopen, there is an opportunity to make them more accessible to underserved kids, offering them what they need from sports, such as physical activity and the simple chance to play.

Community-based organizations can help reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income families to increase their children's participation in sports. Providing equipment and transportation, while minimizing parent time commitments, may have the greatest effect on increasing sports participation among youths from lower-income families. Decreasing public investment over recent years has widened this chasm in access to youth sports. However, the return to sports provides an opportunity to increase access to those who have always lived on the margins of youth sports participation.