Introduction

True Sport is Canada’s national movement for community sport.  Founded on the core values of fairness, excellence, inclusion and fun, its core mission is to be a catalyst to help sport live up to its full potential as a public asset for Canada and Canadian society – making a significant contribution to the development of youth, the well-being of individuals, and quality of life in our communities. 

True Sport is guided by the recognition that, to realize this goal, the sport we do must be good sport – sport that is values-driven.  Research indicates that the vast majority of Canadians intuitively understand the great and diverse benefits this kind of sport can deliver and that this is the kind of sport – good sport – they want.  True Sport undertook this research initiative to provide concrete evidence of these benefits, and to put data and examples around this intuition and aspiration.

Purpose of this report

There is now evidence that sport’s benefits go far beyond the positive health effects of physical activity that have long been understood. A growing body of research points to community sport’s fundamental role as a primary generator of social capital and related benefits across a broad spectrum of societal goals including education, child and youth development, social inclusion, crime prevention, economic development and environmental sustainability.  Perhaps most significantly, no other domain of community life has demonstrated sport’s capacity to connect so many young people to positive adult role models and mentors, opportunities for positive development, and help in acquiring critical life skills. 

This evidence has begun to change how policy makers, community organizations, the private sector, and sport organizations themselves view the role and importance of community sport.  On the basis of these insights, a new picture of Canada’s community sport system is emerging – that of a critical, yet largely untapped, reservoir of public benefit that, with intentional effort, can be made to deliver even more for Canadians.

The evidence presented in this report validates what Canadians have long intuitively known – that Canada’s community sport system possesses a unique potential that we have only just begun to explore.  The evidence also bears out Canadians’ fundamental belief that realizing this potential is profoundly linked, not just to the availability of community sport, but to the quality of the sport experience itself.  Ninety-two percent of Canadians believe that community sport can have a positive influence.  However, fewer than one in five believe this potential is being fully realized. 

Study after study has shown that the full value of community sport is only realized when sport is conducted in a certain way – when it is inclusive, fair, fun and fosters genuine excellence.  What Canadians understand to be good sport – the sport that they seek – is, in fact, the sport that delivers the greatest benefits to their families and communities.

The purpose of this report is to enable communities, policy makers, and business leaders to see the tremendous potential that lies within our community sport system and to catalyze new approaches that will put this potential to work for Canadians.

The sections that follow describe what we mean by community sport, sketch a brief picture of our community sport system, and summarize Canadian and international evidence concerning the impact and value of community sport in relation to a broad range of societal goals that are important to the social and economic prospects of Canadians, the quality of life in our communities, and the ability of Canada, as a nation, to meet future challenges.

Who should read this report?

This report is primarily aimed at public, private and not-for-profit decision-makers at the community, provincial, and national level who are working to improve social, economic and environmental sustainability in diverse spheres of Canadian life, but who may not currently see sport as a potential means of advancing these efforts.  These include:

• School boards, school administrators, educators and parents concerned with:  improving the quality of education, making our schools healthier, reducing drop-out rates, promoting academic achievement, and fostering healthy child and youth development.
• Municipal and regional government representatives and officials concerned with:  developing recreation opportunities; protecting public health; strengthening community development and neighbourhood renewal efforts; accelerating economic development and investment attraction; improving the social inclusion and integration of newcomers; encouraging healthy child and youth development; preventing youth crime and gang involvement; and building environmental sustainability.
• Provincial government representatives and officials concerned with:  promoting health, preventing and managing disease, tackling obesity, and reducing health care costs; strengthening education, reducing school drop-out rates and increasing academic achievement levels; eliminating barriers to the full social and economic inclusion of women, Aboriginal people, newcomers, and people with disabilities; fostering healthy youth development; building youth employment skills; preventing youth crime and gang involvement; and promoting environmental sustainability.
• Federal government representatives and officials concerned with:  public health, tackling obesity, and helping provinces to reduce health care costs; fostering civic engagement, building social capital and fostering national unity; supporting community efforts to prevent crime and reduce youth involvement in gangs; strengthening Aboriginal community development and reducing teen suicide rates in Aboriginal communities; and promoting regional economic development and investment attraction.
• Business leaders seeking effective ways to:  improve the productivity of their workplaces, achieve philanthropic impact, involve their employees in the community, and make a positive corporate contribution to the communities they work in and to Canada.
• Community organizations, staff and volunteers working to:  make their communities healthier; provide children and youth with a good start in life and positive development opportunities; promote greater social and economic inclusion of disadvantaged groups; strengthen neighbourhoods and local economies; and improve environmental sustainability and quality of life in their communities.
• Community sport athletes, volunteers, professionals and advocates seeking to:  build community and public support for community sport infrastructure, programs and participation.

Research methodology

This report is based on an international literature search encompassing primary research published in peer-reviewed journals, Canadian public opinion research commissioned by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, Statistics Canada data on community sport in Canada, and secondary research in the form of literature reviews and other research syntheses undertaken by governments, inter-governmental working groups, and research, non-governmental and sport organizations.