Girls often face barriers to meaningful sport participation, especially within men-dominated sports. Increasing inclusive sport spaces for girls is crucial for fostering enjoyment in sport. Canadian Girls Baseball is a women-led organization that offers girls-only programming and intentional leadership opportunities to encourage girls’ retention in sport. The study purpose was to explore participants’ experiences of gender within this context. Twenty-four participants (17 youth, 7 junior coaches) completed a personal meaning map and engaged in a focus group. Two themes were created: (a) gendered realities in baseball and (b) gender-inclusive sport spaces for social and personal growth. Within theme one, participants articulated exposure to women mentors and girl-identifying peers encouraged their sustained involvement in baseball and facilitated positive shifts in baseball culture, which was meaningful given previous negative experiences in men-dominated baseball spaces. Within theme two, participants outlined that being in this girls-only environment fostered connection between peers and coaches, promoting a psychologically safe atmosphere, comfort, and authentic expression. The inclusive environment fostered empowerment and personal growth. Findings extend understanding of how girls-only sport spaces can reduce gendered barriers, promote inclusion, mentorship, and meaningful participation.

This article examines grassroots skateboarding initiatives in Morocco to explore how locally embedded sport communities contribute to rethinking knowledge production and power relations within the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) field. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork within a local informal skateboarding community organization, the study analyzes how grassroots actors navigate material constraints, spatial governance, institutional dynamics, and gendered participation through locally situated practices. The findings show that many outcomes commonly attributed to SDP programs – such as youth engagement, community building, and inclusive participation – are already produced through informal, community-driven sports initiatives. By centering these practices, the article challenges dominant SDP approaches that privilege formal organizations and externally designed interventions. Through postcolonial and Orientalist critiques, it argues that grassroots initiatives generate situated knowledge that disrupts deficit-based representations of Global South communities while revealing the broader power structures shaping sports and development. At the same time, the study highlights the ambivalent positioning of grassroots actors within processes of “inclusive neoliberalism,” where local agency both navigates and reproduces global inequalities. The article concludes by advocating for a reorientation of SDP research and practice toward grassroots knowledge, context-sensitive engagement, and non-interventionist forms of transnational support.

Routine monitoring data are an underused but important source of insight into large-scale, real-world program implementation. Three years into implementing its mental health programme called MindSKILLZ, Grassroot Soccer, an adolescent health organization, initiated a multi-country analysis of its routine monitoring data to: 1) examine MindSKILLZ effects overall, by mental health construct, country, delivery method, and participant characteristics; and 2) gather feedback from experts and youth on the MindSKILLZ pre-post questionnaire to improve its design. Pre-post questionnaire data from 2,286 participants in Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe were analyzed. Results demonstrate statistically significant improvements across countries. Program participants showed substantial gains in stigma reduction (+44.8%), help-seeking (+43.6%), and mental health knowledge (+34.2%). Clinically meaningful improvements in mental well-being were observed in Zimbabwe (+16 points), alongside positive change in Zambia (+6 points). Feedback from experts and youth highlighted challenges with the pre-post questionnaire (e.g., youth comprehension), prompting pre-post tool revisions. Findings demonstrate the value of routine monitoring data for identifying trends in program outcomes and guiding ongoing program improvement. Research studies are needed to establish causal impacts of programming.

Within the settler and nation-states, the idea of social inclusion clashes with the rights of Indigenous Peoples for self-determination and sovereignty, as distinctive Indigenous worldviews and historical assimilation processes are not being considered. Inclusion, in most cases, presupposes assimilation into mainstream sports models. Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars call for reconsidering the core ideas of social inclusion. This paper explores how social inclusion in and through sport mega-events is understood and experienced by Sámi and non-Indigenous people. With the help of Árbediehtu (Sámi traditional knowledge) and critical thematic analysis (CTA), we suggest a more nuanced approach to social inclusion with and for Indigenous Peoples, which includes: (a) identity and cultural safety, (b) value of Indigenous cultures and knowledge, and (c) historical and current needs and backgrounds. Despite the broad political argumentation that the sports context provides great opportunities for inclusion, our results suggest that sports is a difficult context for enacting an Indigenous identity. The difficulty lies among other things in the sport-for-all policy view, in which Sámi do not always (want to) identify with. The findings can inform future sports event organisers and policy makers within mainstream sports system.

Ross Walker1 1 Faculty of Health, Sport and Society, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK 1 Academy of Sport, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Citation: Walker, R. (2026). Coaching for Development: Generating Social Impact through Improved Emotional Wellbeing. Journal of Sport for Development. Retrieved from https://jsfd.org/ Download article as PDF ABSTRACT Coaches are key influencers and […]

Recent research in the field of sport for development (SFD) has examined how organisational dynamics, such as the structure and management of SFD organisations, might better facilitate the impact of sport-based interventions. Such research has highlighted the increasingly precarious policy and funding landscape within SFD, noting how organisational survival is a constant pressure, and the need to be resilient, adaptable, and sustainable, has assumed a higher strategic priority. In addition, various scholars in the field have appealed for research that draws upon the ideas, experiences, and reflections of practitioners to directly explore how stakeholders across the SFD landscape are responding to current challenges. This paper is a direct response to these appeals, drawing upon a qualitative research project that engaged 27 SFD organisations from across the globe. The paper presents the reflections of representatives of these organisations, highlighting the challenges currently evident in the SFD sector, how they might be countered, and how they may also present opportunities for the sector. Specifically, the paper provides empirical evidence in relation to three themes: (i) the implications of current (short-term) funding models, (ii) the subsequent impact on building organisational capacity, and (iii) the challenges of engaging at a government/policy level.