Professors Lyndsay Hayhurst and Rebecca Bassett-Gunter from York University’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science have received funding from the Abuse-Free Sport Research Grant Program, created by the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada, dedicated to preventing abuse and improving the culture of youth sport across Canada.
The Abuse-Free Sport Research Grant Program invests in safe sport research to improve the development of effective policies, processes and practices related to sport experiences throughout Canada. The grant received by Hayhurst, valued at close to $90,000 over three years, will fund a youth participatory action research project with two key youth community organizational partners: NUTMEG (Not-for-profit United Team of Mentors Educators and Grassroots Coaches) Soccer in Toronto and Prezdential Basketball in Ottawa.
The project, titled “Investigating the Utility of Trauma-and Violence-Informed Sport for Development in Supporting Youth Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Survivors in Canada,” will aim to create novel approaches to addressing SGBV in Canada through the youth sport for development (SFD) sector.
SFD uses sport – including physical activity, leisure and recreation – to achieve non-sport goals that relate to pressing local, domestic and/or social inequalities and global challenges, especially those related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The team’s project will advance addressing SGBV by creating much-needed resources and training tools for coaches and youth SFD organizations across Canada to promote inclusive, safe sport practices and support the diverse needs of youth survivors.
Key objectives include expanding understandings of SGBV prevention and reduction through youth SFD, piloting trauma- and violence-informed youth SFD programs, and launching the Canada Coalition of SGBV Prevention in Youth Sport to mobilize networks of support across the Canadian youth sport sector.
Hayhurst – a Tier 2 York Research Chair in Sport, Gender and Development, and Digital Participatory Research – is joined on the project by Basset-Gunter, director for the LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research, doctoral student Julia Ferreira Gomes, master of science student Isra Iqbal and Professor Francine Darroch from Carleton University.
Specifically, over the next three years, Hayhurst and colleagues will do an environmental scan of youth SFD organizations across Canada to identify to what extent SGBV programs exist, what support and resources they offer, and what benefits there are to youth survivors of SGBV. From there, the researchers will obtain a better picture of best practices for prevention and reduction, as well as support of survivors, with the goal of creating safer youth sport environments across the country.
A notable element of the funded research is the eventual creation of the Canadian Coalition of SGBV Prevention in Youth Sport, which will advance a toolkit of training resources, youth trauma-and-violence-informed SFD training modules, as well as proposed program and policy changes. The research team also expects their work to yield annual workshops, data on effectiveness of SGBV youth survivor support programs, webinars, expert panels and more – some of which will be hosted by the LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research at York University.
The project builds on Hayhurst’s existing leadership in feminist participatory action research that addresses sport, recreation, physical (in)activity and inequities among marginalized women and youth affected by violence and trauma.