Activating a Belonging Framework in SPAR

Inspiration

The Sport, Physical Activity, and Recreation (SPAR) system has been built for "Systemic Elimination". The current SPAR system is focused on progressive skill development, competition and commitment with the expected outcome of elite athletes with a life-long desire for being active. However once a participant has been eliminated from the current focus at various stages, there are challenges to find opportunities focused on fun, social well being and health specifically as participants get older. Essentially, participants no longer feel like they belong and the system is not designed to help them navigate and/or facilitate the next step of the journey if it is not a progressive movement.

Traditional SPAR marketing, programming, and engagement have reached their limits because SPAR Providers have traditionally focused on filling spaces (programs, rentals) & negotiating access (time, location, cost) rather than intentionally helping people feel like they belong in their programs and spaces. This leads to a silo approach to programming, marketing & engagement, staff development and revenue generation, which in turn leads to wasted resources, wasted time, and an untapped potential of new, sustainable participant flow.

My 11 yo daughter is a victim of this system. She enjoys watching basketball with me because I have played my entire life. She enjoys it somewhat, and I have taken her to the playground to play and work on some skills. She has learned some skills from her physical education classes at school. When the call for try-outs for her middle school team arrived, she was interested to try out. She made the first round of cuts, but ultimate, due to being in competition with girls up to 3 years older than her, she did not make the team, and her basketball journey ended. There were no other opportunities for her to play with her peers in the community, and the only other opportunity was to sign her up for a club team or skills program that were expensive, far, and asked for a lot of commitment. She is no longer interested in playing basketball.because there isn't a place to play where she feels like she belongs. Unfortunately this is a story that I have heard too many times.

What it does

By focusing on BELONGING - where participants feel Invited, Welcome, and Included - SPAR can have stronger recruitment and retention of participants leading to:

• An Increase in memberships & program registrations
• Collaborations that build stronger connection to community and focuses on their needs
• Creation of sustainable budgets & resources to meet measured goals
• Creation of diverse programs and opportunities for all
• More Equity & Inclusion by embedding BELONGING as an intentional outcome of the system

Activating a Belonging Framework teaches SPAR practitioners, organizations, and providers to take a humanistic approach and reflect on how their organization Invites, Welcomes and Includes their participants.The most important thing about the Belonging Framework is that the participant ultimately holds the power of whether they feel like they belong.

Invite: How are people being invited into SPAR programs, spaces and opportunities that motivates, inspires and leads them to show up? How are we using language & imagery, creating facility spaces, storytelling, building staffing compliments, creating varied program options, utilizing word of mouth marketing, and creating invitations based on feelings rather than invitations outside of the traditional marketing approach of informing people of opportunities?

Welcome: Once people arrive at SPAR programs, spaces and opportunities, how are they made to feel welcome by coaches, activity leaders, facilities, and fellow participants?

Included: How are people being included in SPAR programs, spaces and opportunities that motivate and inspire them to be lifelong participants and/or co-creators of their experience?

It is a systemic approach that helps organizations look at all they do through a Belonging Framework that helps them develop Mission, Vision and Values, Strategic Plans, Hiring Strategies, Program Development, marketing and storytelling where Belonging is an intentional outcomes

How I built it

As a SPAR practitioner for over 20 years, I have constantly challenged Systemic Elimination with much success by focusing on People over Structure. It wasn't until the last year, after having over 50 conversations with so many people in the SPAR sector (Sport organizations, community rec centres, grassroot programs, instructors, coaches, advocate organizations, professors) that I started to reflect on the concept and power of Belonging as a critical role in the recruitment and retention of participants. What I realized was that SPAR has created a sense of belonging for many, mainly those indoctrinated in the SPAR culture and those who thrived in the systemic elimination landscape. What would it looked like if we changed the system (or in this case ADDED to the system, since we do not want those already feeling like they belong to no longer feel this way) to focus on belonging as an integral outcome?

I took my Belonging Framework and established the tenets of Inviting, Welcome & Included and started breaking down what that means for ALL identities such as:

Skill Level - activity specific, physical literacy + knowledge Fitness Level - physical attributes (height, BMI, strength, speed, cardio,etc) Competitiveness - win, skill development, fun Participant Demographics - age, gender, race / culture, sexual orientation, veteran status, socio-economic Social Connectivity - experienced during / post activity: family, clubs, spiritual, community groups, enthusiasts Accessibility - facility, equipment, aides, environment, socio-economic

and realized I could ask the 3 questions of Invitation, Welcoming and Included to participants (especially those with many intersecting identities) to help be co-designers of their experience of what Belonging meant to them and realized that SPAR was not doing a good enough job addressing these 3 tenets as a whole because they were addressing participant needs through a SPAR lens which focused largely on progressive skill development, competition and commitment with the expected outcome of elite athletes with a life-long desire for being active.

Challenges I ran into

The main challenge is that the current SPAR system is built on systemic elimination but hoping for an outcome of Inclusion for all. The system and the outcome do not align, yet there is very little desire for change, as with any systemic change as they do not wish to put resources to change without guarantee of success. There is also the challenge of overcoming the competitive nature of SPAR, which often feels they are in competition with each other for participants, spaces, and funding thereby leading to a less collaborative approach to solving the problem. A collaborative approach is sorely needed in order to create systemic change.

Belonging is a simple concept met with much hesitation and skepticism from SPAR organizations. They appreciate and accept the concept, but it is challenging them to look at their current practices, systems, and outcomes completely differently. They agree with need for the change, but when asked about activating that change, they believe that a tweak to a program or opportunity is all that is needed rather than a systemic shift to be more inclusive.

I also realize I need help in keeping my narrative succinct yet have immediate impact to start the conversation about systemic changes.I also understand the challenge will be there to activate this to prove as resources are sparse and are in high demand as SPAR organizations compete for dollars as well as recover financially from COVID-19 and therefore feel they do not have the financial resources to activate the Belonging Framework.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

In one instance, I grew registered participation rates at a University Campus Recreation Department from 11,000 participants per year to over 30,000 participants per year without change in population size, demographics, or new facilities by using a people first approach (leading to the development of the Belonging Framewor). This also lead to substantial job creation in organization, more leadership and development opportunities and a sustainable revenue stream through a balanced multi-million dollar budget for over 10 years.

What I learned

I realized the talking points needed to be about current outcomes they use to measure success such as increased revenue, participant recruitment and retention, program registration and optimized facility space usage to get my foot in the door to discuss systemic change. I also learned that this will be a long journey, as with any systemic change and will require more successful pilot projects and supported research to help move the systemic change into being.

What's next for Activating a Belonging Framework in SPAR

Currently working on a project to utilize the Belonging Framework to help increase the recruitment and retention of girls in SPAR based off of a recent study from Canadian Women and Sport (The Rallying Report 2020) to address the systemic concerns and recommendations from the study using a belong lens.