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RST Students Playing for Change

group of 15 grade-school-age kids holding up a banner that reads 'Young Olympians of Champaign County'

After taking the class Critical Issues in Sport Management in the fall of 2013, urban planning graduate student Josh McCann and some of his classmates knew they wanted to do something active to follow up on the course’s theme of using sport for social change and development. It took about a year to launch the new Registered Student Organization they developed, called Play for Change. However, the work of the new group had started before its formal recognition, during the Olympism 4 Humanity Summit held in Olympia, Greece, in June 2014.

“The summit focused on using sport for development, and we were challenged to design an action project to do back home,” Josh said. “We’d already been having conversations about partnering with the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club of Champaign and we thought doing something there with an Olympic theme would be perfect.”

Working with Recreation, Sport and Tourism professors Jon Welty-Peachey and Chris Green, faculty advisors for Play for Change, and fellow students including Aimee Gottlieb, a master’s student in RST, and Bruno Fusaro and Wonjun Choi, doctoral students in RST, Josh developed a youth and community development program called “Young Olympians of Champaign County.” Focused on four of the Olympic and Paralympic values—friendship, determination, courage, and equality—a pilot program took place in April 2015 for Boys’ and Girls’ Club attendees in third- through fifth-grade.

“Our students developed this program with careful attention to theories of design and learning for maximum effectiveness,” said Dr. Welty-Peachey. “It wasn’t just about playing sports. They incorporated arts and cultural activities, emphasized cooperative learning, and focused on process rather than the end result.”

Each week included two sessions at the Boys and Girls Club and incorporated physical, arts, and cultural activities as well as a special event. One week, for example, participants took a field trip to Dodds Park in Champaign to see the Tribute to Olympic and Paralympic Athletes sculpture. Other special events included a demonstration of wheelchair basketball and a field trip to the University of Illinois Ice Arena. The program culminated with a closing ceremony at the Boys and Girls Club for participants, parents, and caregivers. Children demonstrated some of the program’s activities and received certificates and t-shirts.

Organizers are now reviewing data from pre- and post-program surveys and focus group interviews of participants to refine and expand the program for academic year 2015-2016. Among the features they would like to develop and implement are better ways to involve families and others to spread the impact more effectively into the community.

Josh McCann, currently the president of Play for Change, hopes that membership in Play for Change will increase as students hear about it. The Young Olympians program is but one example of the activities the organization will sponsor. It already has hosted a film festival and social events. Future plans include a Play for Change Speakers Series that will bring academicians and practitioners to campus to share their insights on sport as a vehicle for social change and community development.

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