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This past Tuesday, we were excited to gather U.S. professional sport leaders, businesses – from within and outside of sport – and sport for development experts at our signature Beyond Sport United event in New York. For the past 14 years, the unique event – backed by our Founding Supporters MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL and the WNBA – has provided a learning and networking platform to explore ideas and challenges across a variety of social issues.
This year’s fully interactive event focused on ‘Reimagining Purpose Through Sport’ at organizational and societal levels. Throughout the day, attendees had the opportunity to select from 12 workshops curated to address key topics and challenges relevant to leadership development, youth contributions, innovation and engagement in sport for social change. Session leaders represented a diverse range of expertise and presented social change-focused workshops that provided real world applications and results, opportunities to get direct feedback and tips and resources to apply in daily work and future strategies.
“As the world is only getting more complex, it’s clear that there are many challenges to come for our communities and our work… We know that achieving change requires collaboration. That is why our approach – locally, nationally and internationally – is grounded in partnership. We hope you believe, as we do, that sport can drive opportunity, equity and community. And we know that happens best when we work together,” said Fred Fikouhi-Turner, Executive Director of Beyond Sport in his welcoming remarks. We were also pleased to have award-winning sports journalist Kavitha Davidson open the day with an activity envisioning the Greater Possibilities for Purpose.
Thank you to all of our workshop leaders, attendees and partners for a day of connection and inspiration!
Reimagining Leadership Development in Sport for Social Change
Powering Humanity, Rejecting Hate: Maintaining social impact in challenging times
Led by: Dr Jeffrey O’Brien, CEO, Institute for Sport and Social Justice
Leading with Purpose: Staying motivated in your social impact work by understanding what’s driving you
Led by: Dr. Meredith Whitley, Professor, Sport-Based Youth Development, Adelphi University and Barrett Takesian, Founder and Executive Director, Portland Community Squash
Advancing the Field: Building a resource for pro sports professionals in youth development
Led by: David Flynn, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Center for Healing and Justice through Sport
Reimagining Youth Contributions in Sport for Social Change
Advocating for Gender Equity: Girls Flag Football in Georgia
Led by: Chris Millman, Senior Vice President, Community Engagement & Sports Philanthropy, AMB Sports + Entertainment
Incorporating perspectives and experiences from marginalized groups who have historically been excluded from mainstream sports
Led by: Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation CEO Nichol Whiteman, COO, Chaitali Gala Mehta, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications Erin Edwards, Director of Programs Micheal McElveen and Programs Manager Nick Tipton
Insights from Head In The Game: Understanding young people’s wants when designing mental wellbeing programming
Led by: Claudia Larrea, Grants and Programs Manager, Beyond Sport, Coach D Williams, Founder and CEO, Get Fit Fly Right and Yaliz Campos, Community Soccer Programs Manager, South Bronx United
Reimagining Innovation in Sport for Social Change
Data-Driven Impact: Leveraging new technologies for smarter investments and advocacy in sport for social change
Led by: Stuart McReynolds, Associate Vice President, Programs and Advocacy, Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, Dan Acosta, Advisor, Community Programming, Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities and Dr. Steven Mann, Global Partnership Director, 4Global
Learning from Olympism365 Innovation Hub on disrupting traditional community impact and funding models
Led by: Nicole Matuska, Global GRLS Director, Women Win and Claudia Larrea, Grants and Programs Manager, Beyond Sport
And it Counts! Partnering with communities to build sustainable, human-centered impact evaluation systems
Led by: Brooke Wurst, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, RAIS3 and Lorrie Fair, Chief Program Director, Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project
Reimagining Engagement in Sport for Social Change
Vancouver Whitecaps & City In The Community (NYCFC): Helping student-athletes become leaders on and off the pitch
Led by: Ryan Sidhu, Manager, Community Development & Inclusive Programming, Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Mauricio Maya, Manager, Coaching Education and Program Delivery, New York City FC
Evergreen: A Sustainability Platform powered by Collaboration
Led by: Trennis Jones, VP, Community Impact, Austin FC
Change Can’t Wait: Providing community advocacy platforms for players and staff
Led by: Shamare Holmes, Community Relations Manager, and Jenna Whelan, Community Relations & Youth Development Coordinator, Connecticut Sun
Nick Keller, Beyond Sport Founder and Board of Directors Chair closed out Beyond Sport United 2024, saying “We had a therapeutic day of learning and inspiration and problem-solving. We and sport are a solution to some of the issues going on in the role… control what can be controlled, do what we can do with as much purpose as possible!”
We truly appreciate our workshop leaders for their time, insights and expertise, our attendees for their enthusiastic participation and our event partners for making Beyond Sport United 2024 possible!
Photos: Pixel Vixen Imaging
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