State of Play Oakland offers an assessment of the state of youth sports and physical activity in Oakland. The report is authored by the Aspen Institute as part of its Project Play initiative, and in partnership with Eat. Learn. Play. Project Play’s work is anchored in the body of research that has emerged over the past decade, establishing the many benefits of physical activity including greater cognitive function, positive mental health, better educational outcomes, and lower health care costs in adulthood. Every child in Oakland should have the opportunity to be active through sports, play, and outdoor recreation, regardless of race, gender, income or ability. State of Play Oakland includes 40 findings, youth survey results on what children want from their sports experiences, and one game-changing opportunity to grow access. It includes key insights that will serve as a blueprint and drive our PLAY strategies and investments as we move forward.
STATE OF PLAY Oakland
ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
WELCOME
2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
4
SCOREBOARD
6
THE 8 PLAYS
35
GAME CHANGER
44
APPENDICES
53
ENDNOTES
The Aspen Institute thanks our partner for its support of this report.
WELCOME Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation is committed to unlocking the amazing potential of every child by fighting to end childhood hunger, ensuring students have access to a quality education, and providing safe places for all children to play and be active. As part of our mission, Eat. Learn. Play. is bringing the joy of sports and physical activity to the next generation of youth by providing opportunities and creating safe spaces for all Oakland children to be physically active and participate in sports. Oakland has a tremendous passion for sports. However, only 19% of boys and 9% of girls from Oakland receive at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, just 24% of Oakland public high school students play sports. All kids have the right to enjoy the benefits of sports. To accomplish this goal, Eat. Learn. Play. is proud to partner with the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative to commission State of Play Oakland . This report, authored by the Aspen Institute, offers an assessment of the state of play for youth sports and physical activity in Oakland, including hearing children’s voices on what they like about sports and how to improve their experiences. The work of Project Play is anchored in the body of research that has emerged over the past decade, establishing the many benefits of physical activity including greater cognitive function, positive mental health, better educational outcomes, and lower health care costs in adulthood. A virtuous cycle gets unleashed, especially if children can be engaged in regular sport and physical activity before age 12. That’s why we’re proud to continue to work for all youth to have the opportunity to develop as individuals through sports. We firmly believe that access to sports in safe and healthy environments should be made available to every child. Each of us plays a role in making that happen. Sincerely,
THE VISION An Oakland in which every child has the
opportunity to be active through sports, play, and outdoor recreation, regardless of race, gender, income or ability.
Stephen Curry Eat. Learn. Play., Co-Founder
Ayesha Curry Eat. Learn. Play., Co-Founder
STATE OF PLAY OAKLAND
1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program analyzed the landscape of youth sports in the city of Oakland from June 2021 to June 2022. State of Play Oakland offers a snapshot of how well adults are serving youth through sports and other physical activities, regardless of race, gender, income or ability.
Findings for this report were guided by local Oakland experts in the fields of sports, finance, and physical activity and obtained through multiple methods: individual interviews with a broad collection of stakeholders and community members; focus-group discussions with youth, coaches, and parents and caregivers; youth surveys; media accounts; and existing reports, policy analyses, and publicly available data.
Some key findings in the report:
• Oakland youth are less physically active than the nation. Only 14% of youth in Oakland meet the 60 minutes of physical activity per day recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, below the national average of 23%. Oakland girls (9%) are less likely to be sufficiently physically active than boys (19%). Physical activity decreases as youth get older.
Oakland lacks equitable access to recreational sports league opportunities. White children are three times more likely than Latino/a youth and two times more likely than Black and Asian kids to play on a recreation center team. In the Montclair, Dimond and Laurel neighborhoods, 41% of youth have played sports on a rec center team. In Deep East Oakland, that figure is just 13%. Boys are more likely to play on rec center teams than girls.
•
Access to quality parks is unevenly distributed. Residents in Oakland
•
• Youth want to try different sports and need more sustainable opportunities. Oakland youth identified 24 sports that at least 10% of them said they want to try. That’s far more interest than youth expressed in Baltimore or Columbus, Ohio, where the Aspen Institute produced previous community reports. Oakland youth don’t have a sustained way to play new sports because the city lacks the capacity to create lasting infrastructure for continued participation. • There’s strong interest in trying individual sports. Archery is the No. 1 sport both Oakland boys and girls said they most want to try. Karate/mixed martial arts, roller
neighborhoods where people most identify as a person of color have access to 66% less park space per person than those in predominantly White neighborhoods. Although 89% of Oakland residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, the amenities and investments are much lower than comparable U.S. cities. In a study by Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, 55% of respondents said poor park maintenance was a barrier to visiting or fully utilizing Oakland parks. Most children don't use rec center spaces, and those that do often are in wealthier areas.
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
skating, fencing, rock climbing, figure skating, gymnastics, skateboarding, and parkour also ranked high. • Playing with friends is the No. 1 reason to play sports. Youth told us that friendships with peers and having fun are the main reasons they play. Winning games ranked seventh and chasing college athletic scholarships was 12th. • Physical education in Oakland lacks funding and accountability. PE is the top location where youth told us they play sports. Yet only half (51%) of elementary school principals at Oakland Unified School District reported having a credentialed PE teacher on staff. Our recommendations for improving the local state of play – located in the Game Changer section starting on page 35 – are based on the unique characteristics of Oakland and informed by feedback from key stakeholders in the community. One of the strengths of Oakland is its close proximity to so many unique sports and physical activities within the Bay Area beyond just basketball and football, which are very popular but don’t serve the needs of all children. In our analysis, the most promising opportunity is to diversify Oakland’s sports offerings through partnerships by leveraging the community school model since children spend so much time at school.
The community school model integrates academics, health and social services, youth and community development, and community engagement. Oakland could use its schools as hubs to align systems, services, and providers and create more sustainable exposure for kids to access different sports. Oakland could apply these four strategies: • Strengthen physical education, especially at elementary schools • Align systems and providers to expand sports after school and in the summer • Maintain directories of youth sports providers to help families and schools • Use the power of the permit for sharing arrangements between schools and rec centers Creating more diverse sports offerings through schools won’t be easy. We recognize schools are overburdened with requirements in providing a quality education to students. Given Oakland’s commitment to the community school model, we have found there is a shared understanding of the benefits of sports and physical activity in support of student-level and community-level outcomes. Progress will be achievable through collaboration. All parties need to come to the table with the goal of working together, so more children can enjoy the physical, social, emotional, and academic benefits research shows can come from participating in sports.
State of Play Oakland is Project Play's 11th community report. The Aspen Institute has produced county reports on Seattle-King County, Washington, and Mobile County, Alabama; a state report on Hawai’i; regional reports on Southeast Michigan, Western New York, Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes, and Central Ohio; and local reports on Baltimore, Harlem, New York, and Camden, New Jersey. Stakeholders in those communities have taken actions based on the recommendations and are seeing results.
STATE OF PLAY OAKLAND
3
THE STATE OF PLAY IN OAKLAND
SCOREBOARD
BOYS 19 19%
GIRLS 9 9%
FEW YOUTH ARE ACTIVE ENOUGH Only 19% of boys and 9% of girls meet the CDC’s recommendation of 60 minutes of physical activity daily. Nationally, 31% of boys and 15% of girls meet the CDC recommendation for physical activity.
TOP 5 SPORTS OAKLAND YOUTH HAVE PLAYED
Results from Aspen Institute’s survey of 1,076 youth. Multiple answers were allowed.
NONBINARY*
GIRLS
BOYS
58% Basketball
50% Basketball
69% Basketball
58% Swimming
49% Soccer
54% Soccer
49% Biking
42% Swimming
42% Biking
46% Frisbee
42% Biking
37% Kickball
42% Soccer
33% Dance
37% Tackle Football
42% Roller Skating
+ + + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +
WHITE
BLACK
LATINO/A**
ASIAN
67% Soccer
62% Basketball
62% Soccer
53% Basketball
61% Swimming
34% Biking
59% Basketball
41% Soccer
56% Biking
34% Kickball
40% Biking
39% Swimming
53% Basketball
33% Soccer
31% Kickball
35% Biking
42% Bowling
32% Bowling
28% Swimming
32% Badminton
+ + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +
* Nonbinary refers to people who do not identify with any gender. ** The youth survey listed Hispanic as the answer option. For purposes of this report, the designation Latino/a is being used.
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
TOP SPORTS YOUTH WANT TO TRY
OVERALL
GIRLS
BOYS
NONBINARY
26% Archery
23% Archery
28% Archery
33% Figure Skating
22% Karate/Mixed Martial Arts 20% Roller Skating
23% Parkour 22% Karate/Mixed Martial Arts 22% Fencing
27% Roller Skating
30% Archery
24% Figure Skating
30% Rock Climbing
23% Gymnastics
27% Roller Skating
20% Fencing
21% Tackle Football
22% Rock Climbing
24% Gymnastics
19% Rock Climbing
22% Skateboarding
24% Parkour
22% Karate/Mixed Martial Arts + + + + + + 31% Surfing 30% Rock Climbing 26% Archery 23% Parkour 23% Fencing MIDDLE SCHOOL
+ + + +
+ + + +
+ + + + + +
BLACK
WHITE
LATINO/A
ASIAN
25% Karate/Mixed Martial Arts 24% Basketball
26% Archery
35% Archery
21% Fencing
25% Karate/Mixed Martial Arts 22% Fencing
19% Rock Climbing
23% Archery
19% Swimming
21% Roller Skating
21% Roller Skating
19% Karate/Mixed Martial Arts
21% Boxing
19% Skateboarding
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
HIGH SCHOOL
+ + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +
+ +
24% Karate/Mixed Martial Arts
30% Archery
26% Archery
24% Archery
21% Skateboarding
23% Karate/Mixed Martial Arts
23% Fencing
20% Volleyball
19% Boxing
20% Surfing
WHY SOME YOUTH DON’T PLAY SPORTS OFTEN
Girls
Boys
No time due to schoolwork
No time due to schoolwork
26%
23%
I’m not good enough to play
I’m not good enough to play
19%
11%
I don’t want to get hurt
I don’t want to get hurt
18%
10%
STATE OF PLAY OAKLAND
5
THE 8 PLAYS
THE 8 PLAYS
The Aspen Institute’s seminal 2015 report, Sport for All, Play for Life: A Playbook to Get Every Kid in the Game , identifies eight strategies (“plays”) that can get and keep all kids active through sports — regardless of race, gender, income or ability. On the pages that follow are five findings from Oakland related to each “play.”
• Think Small • Design for Development • Train All Coaches • Emphasize Prevention
• Ask Kids What They Want • Reintroduce Free Play • Encourage Sport Sampling • Revitalize In-Town Leagues
For more on the framework of each play, see the Project Play report at AS.PN/YOUTHPLAYBOOK
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
1
Challenge: Youth sport is organized by adults The Play: Ask Kids What They Want
From the Sport for All, Play for Life report: To get and keep kids involved in sports, build the voice of children into the design of activities.
FIVE KEY FINDINGS IN OAKLAND Youth are motivated by friendships with peers to play sports. In our survey, the No. 1 reason kids said they play sports is to be with friends, followed by having fun. Winning games ranked seventh and chasing college athletic scholarships was 12th. That’s not to say kids don’t want to compete; 17% of them viewed competing as a reason to play. But far more children play to be with friends (51%), have fun (35%) and exercise to stay healthy (29%). White (42%) and Asian (40%) youth reported having fun as a motivation to play more than children who are Black (29%) and Latino/a
(35%). One middle school athlete said he likes to win, but more importantly, he wants to have fun and play with friends after not seeing so many of them during COVID-19 shutdowns. “If I lose, it’s not the end of the world like some grown-ups act like,” he said. A middle school tennis player said she feels pressure when her dad sometimes yells at her after losing a match, and she doesn’t know how to change his behavior. “It’s very uncomfortable,” she said. “Sports should be about doing your best and making new friends.” Earning a college scholarship through sports is very important for Black youth. They are motivated to play sports to reach this dream at greater than twice the rate of other children, according to our survey of Oakland youth. The odds of success are long: Although Oakland is tied for the 19th-most NBA players ever produced among U.S. cities, 1 the likelihood of a national high school basketball participant even playing Division I college basketball is just 1%. 2 Too often, “the Black family will say (playing sports) is a way for my kid to get out of this difficult situation and go to college, and the White family will say this is an opportunity for my kid to be physically active and make friends,” said former NBA player Antonio Davis, an Oakland native who co-chairs the Positive Coaching Alliance’s Racial Equity and Access in Youth Sports Task Force. “These are two totally different perceptions that can lead to different results. If kids think they can’t be the best, they ask themselves, ‘Why play?’
STATE OF PLAY OAKLAND
7
It’s incredible and unfortunate we’re at a place where it’s all or nothing.” This sentiment was shared by an Aspen Institute focus group of Oakland parents, who hope coaches and sports providers can better model how kids can succeed academically in concert with sports, so they have different pathways.
want to try includes only two traditional team sports (basketball and volleyball). Archery, mixed martial arts, boxing, figure skating, roller skating, fencing, rock climbing, and parkour are the other activities. Schoolwork and lack of self-confidence prevent more youth from playing sports. The good news: More than half of surveyed Oakland children of all ages said they very often play sports in some form or another, from organized to pickup play. However, there were major disparities reported by geography, ranging from 66% in the East Oakland, Maxwell Park and Seminary communities to 37% in the Chinatown, East Lake and San Antonio neighborhoods. Among youth who don’t play sports very often, almost 1 in 4 cited schoolwork as a reason why. This barrier was found the most in Fruitvale and Jingletown (38%) and identified the least in East Oakland, Maxwell Park and Seminary (18%). Among all youth, 15% said they are not good enough to play sports, a sentiment shared most frequently by those living in Chinatown, East Lake and San Antonio (19%). “Kids are always quick to judge,” one middle school-aged girl told us. “To some kids, it’s just trash talking. But sometimes people can really take it to heart, and it gets in their head, so you don’t want to play and mess up.”
In this city, it’s more like, ‘Be great in sports and you’ll be fine.’ Academics and sports need to be parallel.”
YOUTH SPORTS PARENT WHO IS BLACK
Children want to play sports to exercise and stay healthy. Almost 1 in 3 said health benefits motivate them to participate. Boys and girls expressed nearly equal interest in exercise as a reason for playing. Yet only 14% of youth ages 14-18 meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of receiving at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity. 3 In our youth survey, high school students (40%) expressed a desire to exercise for health benefits more than children in middle school (27%) and elementary school (26%). The challenge is that high schools in the U.S. typically have a limited menu of interscholastic sport options, and many children get weeded out of sports at younger ages due to cost and ability. The Aspen Institute’s Reimagining School Sports Playbook showed that high school students nationally want more casual and fitness-focused activities, and the playbook offers strategies to center the model around student enjoyment and development. Oakland’s public high school interscholastic sports participation rate is only 24%; 4 nationally, it’s 39%. 5 Oakland’s participation declined 9% during the pandemic. The top 10 sports Oakland high school students
8
PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
Almost one-third of Oakland youth spend six hours or more on a screen daily for fun. In our youth survey, 32% of respondents reported spending that much time on a cell phone, tablet, TV, computer or video game for fun outside of school. Nationally, 48% of kids spend more than six hours per day online with mostly noneducational platforms; the average online time doubled during the pandemic. 6 In Oakland, Black youth are four times more likely than White children to spend 11 or more hours per day on screen, and about twice as likely as Latino/a and Asian youth to be on that long. Kids in elementary schools are twice as likely to spend over 11 hours on screens as high school students. Parents often bemoan that video games and technology keep kids less physically active. While there’s truth to that, video games succeed by focusing on what kids want – action, freedom to experiment, competition without exclusion, playing with friends as co-players, and no parents looking over their shoulder to critique every move.
WHAT YOUTH LIKE MOST ABOUT PLAYING SPORTS
Playing with friends
51%
Having fun
35%
Exercising to stay healthy
29%
Learning new skills
26%
Getting better at sports
17%
Competing
17%
Challenging myself
15%
Winning
15%
Making my family proud
14%
Making new friends
13%
* Multiple answers allowed Source: Aspen Institute Youth Survey
STATE OF PLAY OAKLAND
9
He hopes to play AAU in the summer before trying out for Emery High School.
“I love the game as much as it loves me, and the things it’s given me are the opportunities,” Marcus says. “You also have to thank God. Without basketball or sports in general, I don’t think I would be doing anything else. I found a path. I’ve had a focused path my whole life.” Marcus studies the moves of Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Michael Jordan. He connects most to James, who grew up with a difficult childhood, because, “I feel like I can relate to his story, and I can make a big name for myself once I get drafted.” Marcus plays basketball every day. If he’s not shooting at a park or his school, he’s dribbling the ball on the sidewalk outside his house. In pickup games at a park, Marcus once witnessed a losing player brandish a gun because of the result. “It wasn’t my fight, so I kept walking,” he says matter-of-factly. “If it was me, then I don’t know what I probably would have done in that case.” It’s common for Marcus to see basketball players hop fences or cut gate wires to get access to a court. He wishes someone could supply basketballs at courts every other week since kids often have their balls stolen at parks. “Most people don’t feel safe [at parks],” he says. “But especially if you go there a lot, I feel all right because they’ve been here and been through it all.” Marcus views basketball players in two categories – those like him who put in the work and those who slack around. He is putting in the work because he hopes to escape his reality.
Marcus Davis, 14
At the end of the interview for this profile, Marcus asks the interviewer a question: When you look at Oakland, what do you see? It’s a rhetorical question because Marcus clearly wants to share what he sees every day.
Troubles and violence throughout the city, punctuated by flashing red and blue lights.
Residents’ longstanding homes taken away because they can’t pay their mortgage, or the city wants to build a new freeway or condos – many of which will be populated by people who don't look like him.
BART stations and buses that people run in and out of while sometimes getting shot at.
“I don’t really think it can change because once something new gets here, it always gets vandalized in some way,” Marcus says. “You can tell that to the people who are here, but they aren’t gonna take any mind to it. They’re still gonna do the same things they do every time.” Marcus, who attends the East Oakland Youth Development Center, dreams of playing in the NBA. He says he’s not currently on a team because his grades didn’t meet the requirements.
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
2
Challenge: Overstructured sports experiences The Play: Reintroduce Free Play
From the Sport for All, Play for Life report: Make sure there’s room not just for organized play but experiences that children can own.
Unorganized free play often disappears due to park maintenance concerns. Unlike many cities, Oakland’s public works department – not the parks and recreation department – handles all park maintenance. This practice is not ideal because it creates added layers of bureaucracy to maintain parks, said Terra Cole Brown, Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation (OPRF) executive director. Brown said Oakland parks are historically maintained and invested in separately without a long-term strategic plan. Although 89% of Oakland residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, the amenities (49 out of 100 score) and investments (52 out of 100) are much lower than comparable U.S. cities. 10 In a study by the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, 55% of participants said poor park maintenance was a barrier to visiting or fully utilizing Oakland’s parks. 11 Participants bringing children were 13 percentage points more likely to report maintenance barriers. The biggest complaints about parks: bathroom conditions (53%), safety concerns (46%), homeless encampments (41%), litter and deterioration (40%), and drug paraphernalia (31%). “I wouldn’t ever want my kids at parks by themselves,” one Oakland parent told us, reflecting a common theme we heard.
FIVE KEY FINDINGS IN OAKLAND Access to quality Oakland parks is unevenly distributed.
More than half of surveyed Oakland youth (58%) told us they have played sports at a park or playground. However, residents in Oakland neighborhoods where people most identify as a person of color have access to 66% less park space per person than those in predominantly White neighborhoods. 7 Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation’s 2018 survey found that parks in the city’s higher income neighborhoods were more likely to receive “A” and “B” maintenance scores, while the “D” and “F” parks were generally located in economically disadvantaged or gentrifying neighborhoods. The pandemic showed how essential parks are to the health and well-being of people and communities, but people living near unsafe or poorly maintained parks suffered. The life expectancy of Black residents in the West Oakland flatlands, which along with the East Oakland flatlands has the fewest well-maintained parks, is 14 years shorter than White Oaklanders in the hills. 8 The lack of quality parks in the flatlands dates back to redlined maps of Oakland from the 1930s. For decades, the hills benefitted from federal investment and cheap mortgages; the flatlands were subjected to pollution, denied federal investment or access to loans, and considered valuable only for their proximity to industry. 9
STATE OF PLAY OAKLAND
11
City plans attempting to address park inequities have not yet materialized. In March 2020, Oakland voters passed Measure Q to collect tax funding that will levy $27.5 million annually over the next 20 years to support park maintenance and address homelessness. 12 Parks will not improve until homelessness is addressed. Oakland’s homeless population increased by about 1,000 people since the start of the pandemic, but the growth rate has slowed, from 47% between 2017-2019 to 24% from 2019- 2022. 13 Measure Q will fund 35 to 40 new full- time employees for public works, adding to about 80 already employed. As of March 2022, about 75% of the new employees had been hired and trained. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission has oversight over Measure Q and plans to work with public works to create reports on how often sports fields get mowed, bathrooms are cleaned, and trash gets picked up. Still, many parents, children and city leaders told us they remain frustrated by the lack of progress. Oakland lacks the political will to improve parks, partly due to inertia by the community, said Brown of the OPRF. “If you’ve lived here your whole life, this is what you think parks are supposed to be,” said Brown, who hopes the philanthropy sector will one day fund a public ad campaign to educate residents about the value of parks. “There’s not this idea of, ‘I need to put pressure on local politicians for parks,’ and if there is, it comes from White people and not people of color. I think residents want better; we have to help them know it’s possible.” Oakland Midnight Basketball provides a positive alternative to the streets. Once very popular in the 1980s and 1990s before becoming politicized nationally, Midnight Basketball is making a comeback and offers a supervised, free play format. Midnight Basketball, which once had its national headquarters based in Oakland, disappeared for
about a decade before returning in 2019 through partnerships with the Alameda County Probation Department, Oakland Police, and Oakland Human Services, plus support from corporate sponsors. 14 Youth and young adults ages 16 to 25 play in weekly summer games held between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. – the time frame when 1 in 3 shootings happen in Oakland. 15 Players must participate in a one-hour life skills workshop before games on topics such as employment, legal services, community violence, and financial literacy. The league also hosts resource fairs, provides free food to players and spectators, and free Lyft rides. One of the program’s goals is to improve community-police relations, and much of its $150,000 budget goes toward police overtime pay. About 20% of program participants have a criminal background, including teens from a minimum-security residential program in Alameda County’s Juvenile Justice Center. 16
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
Recess provides a safe place to be physically active.
To help keep Playworks coach Matthew Bailey on Manzanita’s staff, his colleagues created a GoFundMe that raised about $5,000 and The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation donated $65,000.” 19 YOUTH WHO FEEL SAFE PLAYING IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD 84 WHITE 84% 60 LATINO/A 60% 74 BOYS 74% 71 71% ASIAN 68 68% GIRLS 67 BLACK 67% Source: Aspen Institute Youth Survey
With one-third of surveyed Oakland youth not feeling safe to play in their neighborhood, recess at elementary school becomes a valuable tool for children to get physically active on their own terms. White children (62%) are more likely to have played sports at recess than those who are Black (48%), Latino/a (51%) and Asian (54%). A 2013 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that Playworks can reduce the transition between recess and class time – giving teachers more time to spend on instruction – and can cut back on bullying at recess. 17 Although founded in Oakland and viewed as a national leader on recess, Playworks only has on-site staff at four Oakland schools (Manzanita Community, Bridges Academy, Aspire Berkley Maynard and Lazear Academy). The four schools pay on average about $34,000 per year. 18 “We’re just barely scraping by to make those payments,” said Amy Jones, the principal at Manzanita, who added that providing a trained recess coach to every Oakland school would be a “game changer.”
STATE OF PLAY OAKLAND
13
3
Challenge: Sameness and specialization The Play: Encourage Sport Sampling
From the Sport for All, Play for Life report: Resist early sport specialization that limits overall development. Grow the menu of sport options, create better connections to vulnerable populations, and more athletes-for-life will emerge.
FIVE KEY FINDINGS IN OAKLAND
than boys. (See Scoreboard on page 5.) Volleyball and cheer/step are the only team sports among the top 10 that girls said they want to try. Girls are rarely introduced to sports they want – just 35% have played an individual sport more than once vs. 86% who have tried a team sport. “Patriarchy is real in youth sports,” said Amy Boyle, Coliseum College Prep Academy athletic director. “We’ve had to do much more intentional building for girls’ opportunities by listening to what they want and laying the groundwork in middle school.” Title IX lawsuit against Oakland schools carries future stipulations. In 2020, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) settled a Title IX lawsuit brought by Fair Play for Girls in Sports after the district cut 10 high school sports that affected twice as many girls as boys. The 2018 cuts meant participation in the remaining sports was 61% male and 39% female; the student body was 51% male and 49% female. District officials at the time said the decision was made in a rush to balance their budget and without adequate staffing. 22 OUSD spent a year working with prominent Title IX consultant Donna Lopiano to begin addressing gaps. Oakland Athletic League (OAL) started four high school girls lacrosse teams, began prioritizing middle school sports (18% of middle school students now play organized scholastic sports, according to OAL), and plans to add elementary school programming.
Oakland youth want to try different sports and need more sustainable opportunities. Oakland is largely a football and basketball town, but Oakland youth identified 24 sports that at least 10% of them said they want to try. That’s far more interest than youth expressed in Baltimore or Columbus, Ohio, where the Aspen Institute produced previous community reports. 20 The challenge for Oakland youth is they lack a sustained way to play new sports. Exposure to new sports often comes through one-off opportunities without the capacity or alignment to create lasting infrastructure for continued participation. Even basketball lacks financial investments for programming or maintenance when new outdoor courts get built. Oakland has only 2.6 basketball hoops per 10,000 people (compared to 4.4 hoops for San Francisco), ranking ninth out of the 15 largest cities in California. 21 Girls are often interested in different types of sports than boys. The one-size-fits-all menu of traditional sports (football, basketball, baseball/softball, soccer) isn’t working for Oakland girls, who were more likely than boys to report they are not interested in sports. Boys play basketball at twice the rate of girls. Almost 7 in 10 girls expressed interest to try individual skill sports – a slightly higher rate
14
PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
youth are up to four times more likely to participate than other races and ethnicities, even though there is strong interest among all children to try archery. The highest population of youth who have tried archery comes from the Montclair, Dimond and Laurel neighborhoods in the hills, where the Redwood Bowmen Archery Club is located through East Bay Regional Parks. Ohlone Archery, located in San Leandro right outside Oakland, offers a weekly beginner class.
Ice sports offer promising opportunities.
Figure skating and ice hockey were two of six sports in which Oakland youth reported at least two times greater interest in trying compared to their actual exposure to the sport. The Oakland Ice Center and San Jose Sharks pilot a street hockey program at the nearby Lincoln Square recreation center. Upwards of 75 kids participate in the once-a-week, free street hockey program that the Sharks hope to replicate at other Oakland rec centers. Oakland Technical High School has fielded a coed hockey team since 2009 – an encouraging sign since Oakland girls in our survey reported nearly the same interest in hockey as boys. Also, 24% of girls and 5% of boys want to try figure skating – a sport that has produced elite Bay Area skaters such as Kristi Yamaguchi, Vincent Zhou, Alysa Liu and Karen Chen. Oakland School for the Arts partners with the ice center on a PE skating program and several other schools take free field trips there. "Step one is understanding you can be part of ice skating as a hobby by destigmatizing the sport's competitiveness and that you're done by age 16," said ice skating coach Michelle Hong, who uses TikTok to promote accessibility.
OUSD assessed athletic facilities, practice and competition times, publicity, and transportation so girls have equitable experiences. The district earmarked about $120 million in future sports facility improvements that will create greater gender equity, OAL Commissioner Franky Navarro said. “Many of our facilities were built in the 1960s so they weren’t constructed with a lens of equity for boys and girls,” he said. The settlement’s three- year monitoring period, which ends in June 2023, includes the expectation that OUSD will annually survey high school students about their sports interests. In 2021-22, OUSD’s sports participation ratio was 54% boys vs. 46% girls. 23
Archery is the No. 1 sport all youth want to try.
One in four Oakland youth expressed interest to pick up a bow and arrow and aim for a bullseye. “Archery is super fun,” said a 9-year-old boy who tried it at camp. “I just like the idea of using a projectile to hit something.” Surprisingly high interest in archery is a trend the Aspen Institute has found around the country. But children need access to programs. While 26% of Oakland youth want to try archery, only 12% have participated more than once and 2% do so regularly. White
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Alyssa soon began playing the sport every season and developed into a respected leader of the Oakland Technical High School lacrosse team. “I had never heard of [lacrosse] before, so I was a little confused when I started,” she says. “I was like, ‘What is this and why do I have to hold the stick like this?’ Lacrosse is a community for me now. I saw people who looked like me and that made me feel comfortable enough to grow.” Lacrosse is perceived as a White, upper-class sport. The Oakland Lacrosse Club is trying to grow the sport by working with the Oakland Athletic League to start four high school girls teams. “I think it will be a slow process,” Alyssa says. “The Bay Area is very diverse, but lacrosse as a sport isn’t necessarily diverse. I think it has the potential. We just have to expose more young children to it.”
Alyssa Belisle, 18
Alyssa never played sports until sixth grade. She didn’t know how to get into sports, nor was she interested. After Alyssa’s father died, her mom thought it would be good for Alyssa to be part of a social group with peers. It just so happened the Oakland Lacrosse Club came to Claremont Middle School around that time, introducing a sport Alyssa had never heard of before. When one of her friends expressed interest in lacrosse, Alyssa decided to join with prodding from her mom. “I wasn’t very social, especially in elementary school,” Alyssa says. “When I got to lacrosse, it was like a whole new world for me. I got to meet a bunch of different people from a whole bunch of different backgrounds, but we do everything together. I feel like this is my second family. I’m comfortable around these people, I enjoy being around these people, and I love these people.” Alyssa’s story exemplifies how trying a sport – any sport – can benefit children if the sport is delivered properly. Oakland Lacrosse Club stresses developing skills, having fun and creating a positive culture.
And that can change perceptions.
“I get asked all the time, ‘Oh, do you play basketball or volleyball?’” Alyssa says. “Because I’m tall that doesn’t mean I play those two sports. In middle school, it used to really bug me. I’m like, ‘No, I play lacrosse.’ They’re like, ‘What is that?’"
The Bay Area is very diverse, but lacrosse as a sport isn’t necessarily diverse. I think it has the potential. We just have to expose more young children to it.”
ALYSSA BELISLE, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
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Challenge: Rising costs and commitment The Play: Revitalize In-Town Leagues
From the Sport for All, Play for Life report: Provide community-based, low-cost leagues and programs that are accessible to all kids – not just youth with the resources and ambition to participate on travel teams.
FIVE KEY FINDINGS IN OAKLAND Oakland lacks quality recreational sports league opportunities. Michael is an Oakland parent who pays $5,000 to $10,000 per year for two sons to play travel basketball and baseball. Andres, another local parent, spends $500 on each travel soccer tournament for his son. “If you want to be competitive, you have to travel and play against higher teams because there’s nothing else here,” Andres said. Added Michael: “I would love there to be a more local option that’s affordable.
But usually if you want your child to be on a team that’s competitive and has really good coaches, travel is where you end up.” These examples underscore the decline of recreational programming in a city that was once considered one of the largest youth sports providers in the country. Today, about 1 in 4 youth said they have played sports on a recreation center team. Even fewer (15%) have played sports without being on a team at one of the city’s 24 rec centers. Oakland Parks, Recreation and Youth Development (OPRYD) reported serving 2,000 youth on sports teams in 2019 through basketball and flag football, while allocating $120,000 for this programming. 24 OPRYD’s new, ambitious goal is 10,000 children, or about 10% of the city’s youth. Parents say they want to see more quality programming from the city. The department’s main initiative for kids is Town Camp, a summer experience that includes theater, urban nature, sports and science. Youth of color and girls are the least likely to play sports at rec centers. According to our youth survey, White children are three times more likely than Latino/a youth and two times more likely than Black and Asian kids to play on a rec center team. In the Montclair, Dimond and Laurel neighborhoods, 41% of youth have played sports on a rec center team. The story is dramatically different in Deep East Oakland, where that figure is just 13%.
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Boys are more likely to play on rec center teams than girls, even though since 2004 California law has required equal participation opportunities by gender in community youth athletics programs. 25 In 2019, girls represented only 17% of Oakland youth participants on city-run sports teams. 26 “The way we generally run programs is not culturally acceptable,” said Nicholas Williams, former Oakland Parks, Recreation and Youth Development director, prior to his resignation in May 2022. “We want to find out what those nuances are to become more inclusive or produce specific programming for those groups.” Parks and Rec recently began door-to-door canvassing to inform residents about available programs and receive feedback. The department plans to focus in the next year on introductory mixed- gender sports and girls’ sports (basketball, touch football, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, golf and swimming). Lincoln Square Park and Recreation Center is a model for other rec centers. Many community members expressed two major frustrations with Oakland rec centers: They lack engaging programming for youth, and city leaders don’t hold the rec centers accountable. Residents question where the funding goes as they see many centers with small numbers of regular kids that don’t equate to how many adults are on staff. One exception is Chinatown’s Lincoln Square Park, which serves about 400 youth in person and reports about 1,000 total (including virtual attendees during COVID-19). Most rec centers focus on basketball as the primary sport. Lincoln Square director Gilbert Gong, a resident of Oakland for over 50 years, creates programs to expose kids to as many sports as possible, including tennis, softball, lacrosse, and swimming. The parks and rec summer swim league is held at Lincoln Park, which offers swimmers a junior lifeguarding program to develop skills as future
employees. “Without deliberate design, nothing will happen,” Gong said. His work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Lincoln Square Park is scheduled to receive an $8.5 million renovation to create a new community center, outdoor classroom, badminton court, two patio and garden areas, and renovate the outdoor lighting and three existing basketball courts. 27 Efforts are underway to try to revitalize local baseball. You can’t tell the story of baseball’s history without Oakland. Frank Robinson, Rickey Henderson, Joe Morgan and Dave Stewart are among the many major leaguers who came out of the city. At its peak in the 1980s and early 1990s, Oakland’s Babe Ruth League had more than 1,200 youth players on 86 teams across four age divisions. 28 Since then, the league’s participation declined 75% and the 13-year- old division was eliminated. High schools now struggle to field teams. In our youth survey, only 14% of boys said they regularly play baseball (vs. 50% for basketball, 33% for soccer and 26% for tackle football). Baseball didn’t even make the top 10 sports boys want to try, surpassed by activities like parkour, surfing and mixed martial arts. Oakland Babe Ruth President Louie Butler said the gentrification of the city and children’s changing attitudes about sports have hurt baseball. Oakland Athletic League (OAL) and Babe Ruth League are now partnering to try to revitalize the sport. About 60 kids from four elementary schools with baseball fields are learning T-ball after school twice a week. OAL provided the funding, including stipends to Babe Ruth coaches, and negotiated a reduced fee for elementary school teams to play in the league. In addition, recent MLB players Tyson and Joe Ross started “Loyal to My Soil,” a series of free baseball camps for Oakland youth coached by current and former pros, college players, and scouts. 29
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
Philanthropic investments in direct programming have been limited.
was frustration in working with city-run entities. Funders sometimes experience bureaucratic challenges to provide large donations to the city, and then may feel dissuaded from offering future gifts. “It’s a big conglomerate with different departments and legal issues, so sometimes the red tape to protect liability takes a longer time or more energy than the smaller organization has the capacity for,” said Williams, the former parks and rec director.
Leaders in Oakland said the opportunity exists to improve investors’ understanding of sports and play with health and educational outcomes, as well as racial and economic justice components to children having equitable access to safe, healthy and consistent play. One challenge many funders of youth sports and play communicated to us
WHERE YOUTH PLAY SPORTS
Sport
Girls
Boys
Black White Latino/a Asian
Rec center (not on a team)
14%
15% 12% 20% 8% 16%
Rec center (on a team) 21% 27% 18% 45% 15% 19% After-school/summer program 44% 46% 41% 65% 31% 45% PE at school 69% 69% 60% 79% 67% 75% Recess at school 47% 62% 48% 62% 51% 53% School team 49% 45% 52% 54% 41% 38% Travel team 11% 19% 17% 19% 7% 9% Playground/park 57% 59% 52% 63% 60% 60%
Source: Aspen Institute Youth Survey
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school blacktop with Emilio Navarro-Perez, the club’s founder. Johanna struggled to find the right team. Before COVID-19, the boys played in a Richmond league with coaches more interested in winning than developing players. “If they didn’t win, they’d get a whole speech of you guys didn’t do good,” she says. “I don’t like that, especially to younger kids.” Then a rec team in El Cerrito “wasn’t really a welcoming environment for us,” Johanna says. “Being Latino, the organization is like not us. We were kind of pushed to the side.” The COVID-19 layoff inspired Johanna to look again for a team that fits her family’s schedule and lifestyle. Victor joined a select team he likes. Both boys joined their school team. Their mom never considered a City of Oakland rec team. “There is programming that’s accessible, but the quality is not there,” she says. Instead, she’s paying $1,600 for Victor’s select team, which she says is manageable given that payments can be made through installments. She hasn’t applied for available scholarships. “When the child has more talent, the sport becomes more accessible to them because it’s easier to navigate scholarships,” Johanna says. “For kids who are starting out, you have to figure out what paperwork to submit and when the deadlines are. It feels like a hassle.” These are the details parents and guardians must navigate. Johanna wishes sports in Oakland were more local within each community. She used to drive 30 minutes each way for David and Victor to learn swimming. There aren’t enough safe parks and pools she trusts for her kids to visit.
Victor Sanchez, 13 David Sanchez, 9
COVID-19 restrictions took a toll on the Sanchez brothers. Their typical day involved sitting around the house playing video games and watching screens for hours at a time. “We’ve seen every movie because of quarantine,” says Victor, a seventh-grader at Berkley Maynard Academy, where his brother David is in fourth grade. “We don’t know what to watch now.” Johanna Mota Garcia, the boys’ mom, had other ideas. As restrictions were lifted, she forced them to return to soccer and play for the Oaktown Futbol Club. Johanna likes that it’s a free experience through the boys’ school, limiting cost barriers and transportation challenges since she works odd hours at Target. Most importantly, it allows her sons to play with friends again. Staying indoors during the pandemic “was tough and it was a little boring without seeing any of my friends,” says David, who went 18 months without in-person connections and only became motivated to play soccer once he saw Victor return. “Now it’s fun seeing friends.”
For now, though, her children are happy again. And that’s all that matters to this mom.
With limited field access in Oakland, the Oaktown Futbol Club practices on the middle
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
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Challenge: Not enough spaces to play The Play: Think Small
From the Sport for All, Play for Life report: Large sport centers are great — but people living within a mile of a park are four times more likely to use it than those who live farther away. Be creative in the use and development of play spaces and how kids can be transported there.
FIVE KEY FINDINGS IN OAKLAND Transportation creates challenges for families to access sports. Despite the availability of city buses and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), 82% of surveyed Oakland youth said they are driven to practices and games by a family member. Many community members feel public transportation is unsafe, leaving working parents in a bind, especially if taking one’s child to a better facility in Oakland or elsewhere means a longer commute. In the neighborhoods of Fruitvale, Jingletown, East Oakland, Maxwell Park and Seminary, 10% use a city bus for sports – twice the rate of the West Oakland, Downtown and Lake Merritt communities. Biking (8%) is another method some youth use for transportation. Six percent of city streets account for more than 60% of severe and fatal biking collisions, which Oakland is trying to correct through its three-year, $100 million Complete Streets plan to repave roads. 30 In the first year, the program implemented more than eight miles of new bikeways. Youth sports providers that offer transportation are incredibly valuable for families and schools. For example, Oakland Strokes uses a van to pick up about 10 youth at the East Oakland Youth Development Center and transport them to the boathouse. Rideshare
programs like HopSkipDrive offer vetted drives for kids, but it’s expensive and only conducive for one or two children at a time. Sports providers and city leaders aren’t on the same page over facility improvements. Ninety-four percent of Oakland residents strongly agree or agree that the city should invest more in parks, fields, pools, and recreation facilities. 31
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