Community Youth Development in Partnership with Professional Sports Team: A Tool for Prevention

Purpose/Background: Sport is a context in which youth develop as individuals, athletes, and community leaders. Sport-based positive youth development (PYD) programs are a prevalent strength-based approach delivered to promote life skill acquisition among youth participants. Scholars argue sport-based PYD programs can support positive academic and social outcomes for youth and buffer negative psychosocial risks. Given their positive impact, professional sports teams are beginning to invest in sport-based PYD programs to support the holistic development of youth in socially vulnerable communities. In 2012, The Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) launched a sport-based PYD program in partnership with the Bresee Youth Center in the Los Angeles (LA) community. The LAFC Youth Leadership Program (YLP) is designed to prevent gang involvement and provide programming for socially vulnerable youth to develop as leaders, organizers, and coaches. To date, little is known about this model of sport-based PYD developed in partnership with a professional sport team, as well as the effectiveness and influence of such a program.

Methods: The current study sought to examine the implementation and effectiveness of the LAFC YLP program model. We investigated whether, and to what extent, the LAFC YLP supported positive outcomes for youth in the LA community. We developed three research aims: (1) examine youths’ experiences and perceived skill development using qualitative and quantitative methods; (2) explore what mechanisms and design components influenced youths’ experiences and outcomes; and, (3) develop a program model of youth sport leadership (YSL). Over the course of two years, we conducted a total of four focus groups (N = 22) with LAFC YLP youth and alumni. Focus groups were analyzed using thematic content analysis. We also utilized paired samples t-tests to analyze longitudinal pre- and post-program data from 60 youth and alumni who participated in the program. Third, we used a content analysis to review program documents, outputs, and design components to inform a program model of YSL.

Results: Our results are synthesized across three areas. First, youth reported learning a myriad of life, social, and career readiness skills. Second, quantitative data indicated that youth experienced significant changes in perceptions of their positive identity and self-confidence (p <0.05) as a result of their participation in the sport-based PYD program. Third, we identified several underlying programmatic mechanisms and design components associated with the professional sports team that influenced the recruitment, retention, and engagement of youth participants. We synthesized the aforementioned results to create an emergent program model of YSL to inform future models of community youth development in partnership with professional sport teams.

Conclusion/Implications: Sport-based PYD programs that draw on effective YSL approaches may positively influence a broad spectrum of experiences and outcomes for socially vulnerable youth. Moreover, sport-based PYD programs developed in partnership with professional or collegiate sport teams may serve as prevention and intervention approaches for adolescents in underserved schools and communities. Our program model of YSL serves as a future guide for how community centers and professional sports teams can partner to support the positive development of youth in socially vulnerable communities.