TORONTO, November 16, 2000 -- Children’s sport and recreation programs frequently do not support children's well-being, says Ann Peel, executive director of the advocacy group Voices for Children, and a leading expert on child development and sport. Peel, a Toronto lawyer, was a race walker on Canada's track and field team and medalist at the 1987 Pan-Am Games and the 1987 and 1989 World Cup Championships. She is also founding chair of Athletes CAN, an organization to ensure a fair, responsive and supportive sports system for Canadian athletes.

Peel will present her views at the Metro-Central YMCA on Monday, November 20 at 3 p.m. in a seminar entitled, Sport And Children's Healthy Development: Creating a Safe Place For Children to Thrive. It is the second in the Michael Smith seminar series on violence and sport, sponsored by York University’s LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution.

"The tolerance of violence in sport, from harassment to trash talk to physical injury, actively interferes with sport as a powerful tool to enrich children's development. Parents can add to this interference by placing undue pressure on their children to win," says Peel, who is herself a soccer parent and coach.

Peel says that while scrapes and bruises are an unavoidable part of the game, it is up to parents, coaches and officials to ensure that children in their prime emotional and physical development years – typically from age 7 to12 – have fun rather than fear and loathe sport.

"Delivered well, sport can be effective in enhancing the socio-emotional and cognitive development of children, as well as their physical development. But the focus must shift from being sport-centred to being child-centred. Once this occurs we will see great sport, healthy children and experience sport as a safe place for our children and youth."

Peel says all children should be engaged in physical activity where fun and the acquisition of skills are emphasized rather than winning at all costs. She adds that all children’s sport should involve respectful adults teaching children to respect their peers on and off the field, not over-zealous parents shouting from the stands. Her seminar will take place in the Tippet Room, 3^rd Floor, Metro-Central YMCA, 20 Grosvenor St. (located two blocks north of College Street, between Yonge and Bay Streets).

The Michael Smith Seminar series commemorates the work and research of York Prof. Michael Smith, a sport sociologist and one of the founding members of York’s LaMarsh Centre, who died in 1994. Smith's book Violence and Sport (1988) is a standard text on the subject. The seminar series will conclude with a full-day round-table discussion in May 2001.

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For more information, please call:

Julia Grant
LaMarsh Centre
York University
(416) 736-5528 / lamarsh@yorku.ca

Ann Peel, Executive Director
Voices for Children
(416) 413-0301 / voices@voices4children.org

Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086 / kturriff@yorku.ca
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