Sporting nation a myth: getting youngsters back on the field

• Sport a key part of Australia’s identity, yet rundown facilities and outdated sport offerings create significant barriers to youth participation

• UTS research collaboration, Designing in Youth, aims to tackle declining participation

Sport is seen as a key part of Australia’s identity. Yet woefully rundown facilities and outdated sport offerings are creating significant barriers to youth participation.

In partnership with the Cooks River Sporting Alliance, Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club, and 12 public and private schools from Sydney’s inner west, we’ll be working with youth to co-design an innovative program to reverse the decline in youth participation in sport.

Our program, Designing in Youth, will feature new sport offerings, advertising materials and redesigned facilities.

Research [opens external link] shows that environmental design works best when it considers multiple factors. Thus, the first phase of our project is a survey to identify psychological and social barriers alongside environmental drivers of youth sport participation.

Read the full story on The Conversation [opens external link]

Byline: Professor Deborah Ascher Barnstone, Professor Fiona Brooks and Dr Job Fransen