Welcome to Project Play’s Teamwork Toolkit

Sign up to use Project Play’s exercises to support your efforts to change the culture of youth sports in your community.

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About

Our Teamwork Toolkit

This is a first-of-its-kind resource for sport leaders, civic and school leaders, non-profits, and anyone who wants to build healthy communities through sports.

The toolkit distills the knowledge that the Aspen Institute’s Project Play staff and its partners have gleaned from landscaping the state of play for youth and mobilizing leaders in cities, counties and regions across the U.S. Learn more about our work with local communities around the country.

We’ll coach you through how to create your own community State of Play report and use that information to mobilize leaders – so every kid in your community has the opportunity to be active, healthy through sport.

How It Works

Preview What’s Inside

Select from a menu of exercises guided by Project Play’s framework that will support your efforts to gather information and mobilize leaders to forge a new path forward for your youth sports community.

Introduction

So, what do you want to accomplish? Project Play is guided by the vision that every youth regardless of zip code or ability should have access to quality sports opportunities and we have got some ideas on how to make that happen. Using these ideas as a starting point, let’s define your focus and claim the ambition for your community.

Rank The Project Play 8 Plays

The eight plays have guided our work with other communities, so let’s start by having you rank them as strategies for your community. Drag and drop the plays below in the order of your priorities. You can also use the up and down arrows on the right side of the text boxes.

  1. Ask Kids What They Want

    Center the voice of youth in the design of youth sports.

  2. Reintroduce Free Play

    Let kids play on their own terms and they will.

  3. Encourage Sport Sampling

    Connect kids to a variety of the 120+ sports available.

  4. Revitalize In-Town Leagues

    Opportunities that are local, affordable, quality.

  5. Think Small

    Be creative when identifying sport spaces.

  6. Design for Development

    Age-appropriate play recognizes kids are not mini adults.

  7. Train All Coaches

    The minimum ask: coaching philosophy for kids, basics in physical literacy and sport skills, safety.

  8. Emphasize Prevention

    Keep kids safe so they can grow up to be healthy, active.

Claim Ambition

We told you our vision is for every youth regardless of zip code or ability to have access to quality sports opportunities. So now it’s your turn, what’s your vision?

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Ready To Get Every Kid In The Game?

Sign up here and you’ll be one step closer to giving all kids in your community access to positive sports experiences so they can be active and healthy.

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