United By Sports

Whether playing tag at recess, participating in a youth sport or rooting for a professional team, research shows that sports can create community. This training is for K-12 teachers, youth coaches and anyone else who would like to learn how to leverage sports to increase belonging, health and resilience for all young people, and foreign-born children in particular.  This training was originally held on Tuesday, September 17, 2024.

Learning Objectives:

• Enhance physical education through culturally sensitive strategies
• Understand the relationship between youth sports participation and health outcomes for immigrant youth
• Highlight the stories and contributions of immigrant professional athletes to promote inclusion of immigrants generally

Key Concepts:

• Immigrants come to the United States for a variety of reasons, including athletic opportunities.
• First- and second-generation immigrants may have different experiences and needs.
• Challenges that immigrant students may be facing when it comes to sports include:
  • Being underinsured, which may lead parents to limit their children’s involvement in activities with injury risks, including sports.
  • Unfamiliarity with U.S. sports culture.
  • Language and cultural barriers, particularly for girls.
  • Limited parental support due to work or transportation barriers.
  • Conflicting expectations from parents, teachers and peers.
• Ways to unlock immigrant students’ potential include:
  • Prioritizing inclusion and belonging by providing resources in multiple languages and having a diverse staff.
  • Acknowledging the additional burdens students may be facing and connecting them with school and community resources and services.
  • Cultivating relationships with students and encouraging participation in sports and clubs.
  • Creating multiple communication channels and involving parents and community groups.
  • Participating in cross-cultural training to learn more about your students.

Key Concepts:

• Physical Education (P.E.) offers a safe space where language barriers play a less significant role and physical activity becomes the vehicle for communication between students.
• Emergent multilingual learners can participate fully and connect with peers and teachers.
• Communication is important. Use gestures, visual aids, music, videos, slides and paired audio-visual cues to bypass language barriers and support comprehension.
• Provide choices in activities, equipment and partners, allowing students to feel success quickly and build autonomy.
• Be intentional in student grouping so that all are exposed to a variety of students within their class. Make sure to include at least one student who can assist with interpretation.
• Encourage discussion in students’ home languages, learn common words in those languages and provide visual or audio materials that reflect students’ cultural backgrounds.

Key Concepts:

• Sports are more than just games. Participation in organized sports can provide immigrant and refugee newcomers with opportunities to build social ties, learn language and cultural norms and gain visibility in their new community. Being on a team offers a “way in” to broader networks of coaches, parents and other families, which can accelerate social integration.
• Structural obstacles include the cost of participation (fees, equipment), transportation, time demands, language barriers, cultural unfamiliarity and sometimes discrimination or exclusion.
• Schools, clubs and community organizations can intentionally design programs to be inclusive by offering sliding‑scale fees or bilingual coaches, reaching out to immigrant families, integrating cultural practices, providing flexible schedules and building welcoming environments.
• There are many benefits of inclusive sports programs, including improved self‑esteem for young people, enhanced sense of belonging, positive cross‑cultural interactions and healthier communities.
  • For immigrant families in particular, sports can be a place for parents to connect with each other, children to bridge home and school cultures and for the larger community to see newcomers as contributors rather than outsiders.
• Some pitfalls to avoid include tokenism (inviting immigrant youth to participate but not integrating them fully), an over‑emphasis on “assimilation” (expecting newcomers to give up their cultural identity) and ignoring that some children may not be interested in competitive sports.
• Tips for success:
  • Invite immigrant families into planning and decision‑making to ensure programs reflect their interests.
  • Recognize sports as just one dimension of engagement and not as a substitute for broader family‑school connection.
  • Measure success not just by participation numbers, but by quality of engagement, sense of belonging and sustained involvement.