What might an opportunity for youth to participate in sport and physical activity look like?

Recently, Regional Sport Organisations (RSOs) were given the opportunity to sit down with eight female students aged 13-16 to learn their views and ideas on what a sporting or physical activity project may look like through their eyes. 

The project aims to develop and/or re-establish a life-long love of participation in sport or physical activity in an environment that is different to the existing traditional offerings based on what young people actually want.

This idea was pitched to the youth in the hope that they would share what and how this may look like and share their ideas with the RSOs for a better understanding of designing and offering opportunities that are youth centred.

The group of youth brainstormed in two groups and came up with ideas on what they think would create effective engagement with youth and in turn a successful experience and event.

Common themes that came through were:

• Offer multiple sporting opportunities to try, keep changing the activities to decrease possible boredom and increase the ability to learn new sports.
• Include music to engage youth by having school bands, entertainment and radio stations present.
• Allow youth to run events.
• Include activities that are wheelchair inclusive.
• Include an opportunity to upskill youth interested in coaching or refereeing.
• Ensure youth can play with their friends (rather than be put into teams) to encourage the element of fun.

The youth acknowledged that taking away the barrier of transportation was vital, along with advertising and sharing through social media to youth and parents to ensure consistent messaging of what it’s all about.

Discussions also touched on funding, council, police involvement and possibility of using the project as a fundraiser for different charities.

All discussions were centred around their ideas and what they thought would be appealing to engage youth.

From here it is envisaged that the Regional Sports Organisations, the Youth, and Sport Northland will move forward on planning and implementation of the project.  Watch this space!!