two times more likely than Black and White youth to say it’s because they’re not good enough. Several Oakland youth told us they like having a coach who looks like them. Nationally, girls of color in urban communities drop out of sports by age 14 at roughly twice the rate of White girls in suburban communities. 41 Positive Coaching Alliance created the Racial Equity and Access in Youth Sports Task Force to build community ownership of new strategies to grow access. The task force identified three equity gaps – community coaches, equitable access for girls, and capacity and alignment of services. “A lot of people want to coach, but they know the time commitment and burden on them and coaches’ families,” said Antonio Davis, the task force’s co-chair. “Even if you’re not with the team every day, if you commit to one day a week for two hours, that can be huge.” Golf is helping to grow the pool of Black coaches in Oakland. Representation matters, especially in a sport like golf that, over a lifetime, can open doors professionally and socially. At Ace Kids Golf, which has introduced more than 8,000 Oakland youth to the sport since 1998, the coaches are predominantly Black. “We’ve had like one White coach in the past 10 years,” said Adrian Davis, a 21-year-old golfer who was trained at Ace Kids Golf and now coaches there. “What’s really awesome in Oakland is a lot of Black kids have gone from playing to coaching, and they’re starting to spread out.” Davis grew up playing through Youth on Course, a nonprofit that partners with local courses to offer rounds for $5 or less. “Oakland has a lot of minority golfers and coaches, so I never saw it as something that was lacking,” Davis said. “Then you go to a faraway tournament and realize, OK, I’m the only person of color here.” However, our Oakland youth survey showed White children are about two times more likely than Black and Latino/a youth to play golf regularly. Latino/a youth (14%) expressed the most interest to try golf.
Racial Equity and Access in Youth Sports Task Force Positive Coaching Alliance’s task force is a learning community in Oakland in which local leaders work collaboratively to increase access to sports for youth in low-income neighborhoods. The group includes after- school education leaders (K-12), youth sports professionals, government leaders, community stakeholders, minority business leaders, and professional athletes. Together, the group utilizes “systems thinking” to analyze and address the underlying conditions that cause youth sports inequities and builds community ownership of strategies that eliminate them. The group’s long- term goal is to create more racially equitable youth sports opportunities for Oakland youth and increase the number of Black and Brown coaches trained in youth development who volunteer in the community. Visit PositiveCoach.org/racial- equity-initiative to learn more.
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
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