For Boston youth, a new city grant is aiming to increase access to community sports programming.
The grant program, the Community Sports Grant, was announced by Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration on Aug. 20. It offers grants of up to $10,000 to youth community sports organizations, with a focus on those that are majority volunteer run.
“We see the benefit, day-in and day-out, of the confidence that [sports] instills in young people, the amount of work that it takes for these organizations to make these leagues, and these programs [that] happen,” said José Massó, the city’s chief of human services.
In all, the city plans to allocate $300,000 to community organizations for the operations of sports during the fall, winter and spring seasons. Applications to the grant program are open through Sept. 13.
Through the grant, the city is hoping to reduce barriers around access to programming. The funding is intended to be used to reduce registration fees, purchase new equipment and uniforms or cover the cost of renting space.
Tyrik Wilson, youth sports initiative manager for the city, said that, in his experience, a lot of organizations offer great programming but face barriers around the simple financial struggles of running the sports activities.
“A lot of times there’s a lot of great programs going on, but financially, they struggle to meet the demands that the programs have to set so they can keep doing the great things that they’re doing,” Wilson said. “This grant is helping bridge that gap and hopefully more programs could make their services more accessible to the youth and also amplify what they’re already currently doing.”
The approach to reducing barriers also means trying to support groups that have historically been underserved by sports programming — low-income kids and those from communities of color, but also girls and LGBTQ+ youth.
Part of that means bringing more variety to the experiences for kids in the city, both in terms of what sports kids have access to and how they interact with them.
“We know that not all youth see themselves in sports and not all families are able to make the financial commitment to sports,” Massó said. “That is the contribution, that is the overall hope.”
Through the grant program, the city is looking to support not just sports like basketball or swimming, but also more non-traditional and potentially non-competitive sports, like fencing, sailing and kayaking.
“They’ve always been around but, when we go back to that conversation about access and the barriers to access, the kids that we’re working with and we serve don’t always have access to these types of programs due to [not] being exposed to them and not knowing where to go, or just the financial barriers,” Wilson said.
And within sports programming, Massó said he would like to see more kids be able to explore more roles and skills outside of just the sport itself, things like refereeing and coaching, or doing videography, photography or data collection that allow the city’s youth to be involved in a broader way. He called it a “holistic approach” that allows for more connection and exploration.
“There’s this whole other element in regard to just sports in general that young people can be exposed to that doesn’t require them to be the direct athlete,” he said.
The grant program is part of the city’s Connect, Learn, Explore program, an agenda launched by Wu in March 2023.
Beyond sports, that agenda has a focus on the arts and growing plants, as well as biking and swimming in particular, with a goal to expand youth connection with extracurricular activities.
“Part of our responsibility for keeping Boston’s young people healthy and happy is ensuring each of them has access to enriching experiences outside of the classroom,” Wu said in a statement about the new grant program. “It is a joy to partner with youth sports programs across the city to keep our kids in motion.”
For Massó, the skills those five areas offer — including in sports, both on and off the field — can help develop important skills for later in life.
“The mayor sees these as priority areas in supporting our young people and recognizing that these are lifelong skills that you could take on at any age,” Massó said. “So, whether young people themselves go on to continue in a career sport, directly or indirectly, there’s many different things that you could learn by just being involved.”
