To investigate innovative and inclusive retention strategies for youth participants in community sport

This report looks to build on innovative international approaches to physical activity and retention in youth sport and make recommendations for an Australian context. It explores factors influencing retention, contemporary approaches to accessibility of programs and provides a benchmark for future approaches to retention of youth participants across local clubs, State Sporting Organisations (SSO) and National Sporting Organisations (NSO). These original eight key focus areas outlined below became only a beginning:

• The importance of unstructured play, along with the development of fun, and the significant role that both of these factors play in youth retention;
• The development of physical literacy and fundamental movement skills and the role that this development plays in retaining participants long term;
• Engagement strategies – with a particular focus on diversionary programs;
• The role that technology can play in youth sport retention strategies;
• The impact of parenting styles in youth sport retention – particularly around female engagement and retention; Socioeconomic influences – and the importance of programs to support accessibility for all, Youth advocacy – and empowering youth in program and product development; and
• Inclusive program development – ensuring opportunity for all.

Over the course of the project, the discussions also provided insight and knowledge around a number of factors that directly or indirectly impact youth retention in community sport, and helped to shape and redefine the author’s thinking. The conversations all lead to one key premise, in that there needed to be an integrated or interconnected approach that sought to coordinate and organise the key components impacting youth retention, thus providing clear direction to sport. Ultimately, retention comes down to relationships, and the ability to maintain and enhance these relationships over a number of years and through a number of key transitional phases within a sport context. It is from this foundation that the proposed ‘Interconnected Model of Youth Retention’ was developed. It looks to unite all the key factors impacting youth retention, but also highlights the importance of the relationships between these components, and the interconnected manner in which they impact or influence each other. The Report’s original objective was to develop a tangible document that could be utilised by sports to guide and/or challenge their current way of operation, and provide authentic ideas or strategies that could be introduced to enhance youth retention in community sport. The report proposes a model for youth retention and discusses the key aspects that impact each of the proposed nine components.