Community Sport Organizations Research Articles

The vulnerability of community sport organizations to criminal interference

The vulnerability of community sport organizations to criminal interference

Community sport, Australian sport policy, and advocacy: The views of community sport club officials

AbstractIn Australia, the policy priorities and processes of government and national governing bodies of sport impact how community sport organizations operate. This study explored the views of community sport club (CSC) officials (n = 53) in the Illawarra region in New South Wales, where there is a disparity in impact compared with their better‐resourced urban counterparts concerning sustainability, policy, and advocacy matters. Participants were surveyed for their views about the typically top‐down policy processes, inter‐organizational relationships, and advocacy for community sport. CSC officials participated in an online survey to assess opinions on resource issues and policy processes. The findings demonstrated that community sport is challenging to sustain and that CSC officials have little influence on policy. The outcome points to an appetite for advocacy from CSC officials in policy creation. Further, the Advocacy Coalition Framework is proffered as a platform for evaluating the viability of advocacy within community sport.

Development of an empirical model and using community sport organizations as the basis for intervening variables in Islamic sports

PurposeThrough the development of an empirical model and using community sport organizations (CSOs) as the basis for intervening variables, this study aims to ascertain the impact of Muslim household consumption, sport development officers (SDOs) and CSOs on Islamic sport development (ISD) during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachAll of the sports branch managers in Banten Province make up the study’s sample. Non-probability sampling with a purposive sampling strategy was the sampling method used. Making use of a questionnaire to gather data, 275 different sets of data are available for analysis.FindingsPartial least squares is a tool for technical data analysis. With a t-statistic value of 71.358, the Moslem household consumption construct had a favorable and significant impact on the SDO construct. With a t-statistic value of 1.111, the Moslem household consumption construct had a positive but not statistically significant impact on ISD.Originality/valueWith a t-statistic value of 3.926, the Moslem household consumption construct had a positive and statistically significant impact on CSOs. With a t-statistic value of 1.111, the SDO construct had a positive and statistically significant impact on ISD. This study makes a new contribution by providing practical recommendations for the relationship between ISD authorities, community sports organizations and the positive and substantial impact on the development of the community and ISD.

Recognising, addressing and supporting the challenging nature of community sport coaching work: potential ways forward for research and practice

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines key issues that continue to pervade the domain of community sport coaching. Specifically, we centre attention on a) conceptualisations of policy implementation and enactment, b) neoliberal working conditions and policies and their impact, and c) training and education currently offered to practitioners. For each issue, we map out some of the key concerns in both research and practice and the implications of these for community sport coaching’s ability to achieve its purported objectives. We then present potential future directions for research and practice before outlining, in the final section, specific methodological approaches capable of being deployed to examine and have practical impact for these specific issues in sufficiently complex ways. This article will be of use to community sport organisations, coaches, educators, managers, researchers, and others as they seek to enhance the criticality and interrogative nature of their work.

“Hands off”: responsibilizing low-income citizens through fee assistance programs

ABSTRACT Rationale To critically examine fee assistance programs (FAPs) through the lens of responsibilization and discuss the implications of creating access to sport for low-income families. Method Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 volunteers and administrative staff from community sport organizations in New Brunswick who facilitated FAPs for their organizations. Findings Four themes were constructed and discussed, illuminating how FAPs responsibilize low-income families: (1) Don’t advertise, don’t share: Applicants do all the work; (2) Passive but efficient: Processes of FAPs; (3) It’s always the parent: Communication of FAPs; and (4) You have to take ownership: Families need to be accountable. Practical implications This study is valuable to practitioners interested in understanding how FAPs may cause harm by excluding low-income families. Research contribution This study demonstrates how responsibilization is evident in facilitating FAPs in community sport organizations in New Brunswick and the consequences of creating access to community sport.

Strategy practitioners and the procedural legitimacy of strategic planning in nonprofit community sport

ABSTRACT This study examines how leaders of community sport organizations (CSOs) engage in a strategic planning process through the intersection of institutional work and the strategy-as-practice (SAP) approach. The SAP approach focuses on the micro-level social activities, processes, and practices that inform how organizational leaders engage in strategic planning. A multiple-case study of four CSOs with contrasting approaches to the practice of strategy provides insight into the role of strategy practitioners and their choice of strategy activities. The study also examines how these activities contribute to the procedural legitimacy of strategic planning. The findings highlight four roles that strategy practitioners hold within their clubs (i.e. consultant, board member, staff member, facilitator) and three general types of activities that indicate varying levels of stakeholder involvement in planning. The findings provide evidence of the need for a granular approach to the study of strategic planning and a focus on how organizational leaders’ roles and choice of activities shape strategic planning and its legitimacy.

The Development of a Management Model on An Integration of Physical Education, Health Education, and Medical Practice for Sustainable Students’ Health Development

Background and Aim: The health of any person could not develop segmentally because all body parts were related and affected each other as the concept of “a sound mind is in a sound body”. Integrating physical education and health education in school teaching and learning could be implemented to enhance the students' whole body’s health development. The medical practice in some aspects could gain more success in health screening, habits, and practice on prevention and reduction of some health deficiencies. In response to the “Student Physical Health Standards” " the government declared the policy on the integration of physical education and education to strengthen education and other subjects. The concept of an integration of physical education, health education, and medical practice could be a good model to serve this policy of the “Healthy China 2030” plan. This research developed a school students’ health management model, provided macro guidance for the development of primary and secondary school sports courses, made everyone clear the basic outline of sports health management operation, and laid a foundation for subsequent development and research. Materials and Methods: The participants of this research are as follows: 17 experts for expert interview to collect preliminary data, 5 experts to test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire with IOC and IOC value = 0.87 (.60-1.00), 19 experts for Delphi to gather the appropriateness and accuracy of the model, 11 stakeholders to connoisseurship group to gather the acceptation of the model on a satisfaction, practicality, and usefulness. Result: The findings of an integrated management model by merging physical education, health education, and medical practice to improve students’ health for sustainable development included the following findings: (1) Planning and guiding students' physical education through the comprehensive management model could improve the comprehensive quality and development level of students' health with a scientific measurement practice system, objectively evaluation through the management modern on integrated operations and activities of physical education and sports, health education and medical practice. (2) The collaborative networks among schools, the Department of Community Public Health, and community sports organizations should be established to drive this model. 3) The physical education and health. education should integrate some courses to enhance the knowledge and practice of students’ health. 4) Schools should cooperatively organize events on students’ health development, such as annual health checks, health exhibitions, sports competitions, and health contests 5) The integrated management model and measurement practice was accepted to be practical, useful, and satisfying to them. Conclusion: Based on the POLC theory, the establishment of cooperation and communication mechanisms among the government, schools, families, communities, hospitals, community public health, and sports clubs could promote the effective integration of school physical education, health education, and medical practices. This model could serve the government policy and total health development to the primary students in Xi’an Shaanxi Province.

Chinese migrant communities’ relationships to coastal spaces in the ‘City of Sails’, Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT New Zealanders have long-standing and multifaceted relationships with coasts, including recreation activities in, on and by the water. Leisure scholarship to date has paid little attention to outdoor recreation in New Zealand's fast-growing Asian migrant communities, whose involvement in coastal recreation is relatively low. This study explores Auckland's Chinese communities’ relationship with coastal blue spaces (i.e. the ocean/sea, beach and harbour) through their recreation activities, and the potential impacts on their experiences of cultural identity, belonging and wellbeing. Interviews were conducted with Chinese immigrants and community sport organisations’ representatives to understand the factors that enable and constrain Chinese immigrants’ outdoor blue space recreation practices. Applying Bourdieu's concepts, we identified that Chinese communities’ relationships to coastal blue spaces are impacted by their ‘blue space’ related habitus and cultural capital. Findings also suggest that when facing habitus-field mismatch, participants reject norms and expectations in the field, actively disrupting and challenging them.

The ongoing struggle for legitimacy: the case of an unsanctioned community sport organization

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to explore how one unsanctioned community sport organization (CSO), AM Hockey, sought to acquire legitimacy in a highly institutionalized minor hockey marketplace at various points in its organizational life cycle.Design/methodology/approachThis study was guided by instrumental case study methodology. Twenty (20) AM Hockey stakeholders from a variety of roles (e.g. executives, program directors and coaches) were interviewed. Document analysis was also utilized to supplement the interviewees. Internal and public documents reflective of the CSO's creation and growth were obtained.FindingsFindings revealed that the CSO had to navigate distinct phases of evolution including the Building, Growth, Competition and Stabilization phases. Although the four life cycle phases identified in this study share similarities with the phases identified by Lester et al. (2003), findings indicated that institutional work mechanisms must be understood in their context as they can vary over the life cycle of an organization. Therefore, start-up sports organizations must approach the pursuit of legitimacy as a continual process rather than something acquired and defended through maintenance work.Originality/valueDeveloping legitimacy remains a central challenge for CSOs that seek to deliver alternative sport programming, yet it continues to be understudied. Ultimately, the long-term viability of an unsanctioned CSO in a federated sports system relies, in part, on its ability to continually determine the actions needed to achieve legitimacy within its environment.

Sounding the alarm: Occurrences of fraud in nonprofit community sport organizations

AbstractThis study examines the prevalence of fraud occurrences in community sport organizations (CSOs) and compares the organizational characteristics of CSOs that have and have not experienced fraud. The empirical analysis relies on online survey data gathered in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Germany (n = 1256). Respondents were asked if organizational fraud had occurred in their CSO in the last ten years. In the full sample, 12.2% of organizations had experienced some type of fraud. The results showed occurrences of fraud were significantly higher among organizations that support the local community, have a high annual budget, possess grant income, and perform large and complex financial transactions and among those who lacked policies for handling assets and cash. In contrast, occurrences of fraud were significantly lower in organizations with a relatively small annual budget, a plan for the education and professional development of board members, and at least two individuals handling cash or checks. The analyses of geographic subsamples not only partially echoes the results for the full sample, but also shows further significant differences. The findings reveal that fraud occurrence across subsamples does not follow a clear pattern, demonstrating that prevention measures should be tailored based on geographic and organizational context.

Defining the scope and content of mental health guidelines for community sport in Australia: A Delphi study

Regular sport participation can lead to several known physical and psychological health benefits. However, some sport environments may be contributing to the development of mental health disorders in participants. Elite sporting organisations have introduced several guidelines and positions statements to ensure psychologically safe sport environments, but these are often not applicable to the recreational sport setting. To guarantee psychologically safe sport environments for all participants, there has been an urgent call to develop mental health guidelines for recreational sport. To ensure future guidelines meet the needs of recreational sport environments, and are feasibly implemented, collaboration with experts is needed. The aim of this study was therefore to explore and synthesise the opinions of experts on the scope and content of mental health guidelines for community sport using the Delphi technique. Twenty-one experts from around Australia participated in two Delphi rounds, one qualitative and one quantitative, to reach consensus on key areas of future guidelines. Five key groupings were identified from the qualitative responses, which led to the identification of 13 key statements related to the provision of mental health promotion, prevention, and care in sport. Eight of the statements related to the role of community sport organisations in the promotion of positive mental health, and prevention of mental health problems. None of the statements were concerned with mental health care as most experts did not indicate this was the responsibility of community sport clubs. An additional five statements related to the responsibilities of the different levels of sport governance. Practical implications and future directions for the development of mental health guidelines for recreational sport are discussed.

Research on Influencing Factors of Young Students' Participation in Sports Activities Based on Social Ecology Theory

Based on the theory of social ecology, this paper takes the influencing factor model of young students' participation in sports activities as the research object, and adopting the methods of literature review, questionnaire survey and mathematical statistics, this paper constructs a model of influencing factors of young students' participation in sports activities. It is considered that young students' participation in sports activities is influenced by multiple factors of individuals, schools, families and communities. Among them, school factors have the greatest influence on young students' participation in sports activities, followed by family factors, community factors rank third, and personal factors are the least, but their importance cannot be ignored. In the dimension of school influencing factors, the degree of influence on young students' participation in sports activities is as follows: school sports facilities and equipment, school peer groups, frequency of school sports competitions, opportunities for improving sports skills, and school sports characteristic culture; In the dimension of family influencing factors, parents' education style and parents' support have the greatest influence on young students' participation in sports activities. In the dimension of community influencing factors, community sports competitions and community sports organizations have the greatest influence on young students' participation in sports activities. In the dimension of personal influence factor.

Vulnerability to Fraud in Community Sport Organizations: A Multicountry Study on the Role of Organizational Capacity

This study develops and tests a measure for perceived vulnerability to occupational fraud and examines the relationship between organizational capacity and perceived vulnerability to fraud in community sport organizations. Drawing on the opportunity dimension of fraud triangle theory and the concept of organizational capacity, the study identifies a number of risk and protection factors for vulnerability to fraud. Board members of community sport organizations in Australia, Germany, and North America were surveyed (n = 1,256). The results offer a reliable and valid scale assessing vulnerability to fraud in community sport organizations consisting of procedural and financial dimensions. The regression analyses indicate a set of risk factors for vulnerability to fraud, including the presence of paid staff, high annual and unbalanced budgets, and owning sport facilities. Protection factors include strategic planning, relationships with other institutions, and trust within the board. This knowledge can be used to design antifraud education and training resources.

Sport4Me: A people focused approach to engaging Australians in sport.

The traditional model of community club-based sport is fine for those, particularly children and youth, who enjoy the competitive focus and have the skills and commitment to play. But societal preferences during leisure time have changed dramatically over recent decades. However, sport organisations have made limited progress in response to these changes in providing ways in which children and youth can participate outside the traditional competitive structures and environments. In this paper the context of community club-based structures is reviewed leading into an assessment of the associated impact of these structures on sport participation. Children and youth's current motivations to play sport including what makes sport fun to play, are considered. It is then demonstrated that the associations between motivations to play sport and the factors that contribute to fun and enjoyment, are often misaligned for many individuals, with a primary focus on competition-based structures to deliver community club sport. In the final part of the paper a model for community sport organisations where people are put first is proposed - Sport4Me. Sport4Me is about flexible, inclusive, equitable sporting opportunities that focus on friends, fun, physical literacy and play. The model would complement the traditional competitive club-based model and afford participants more choice whilst fostering an environment that promotes lifelong involvement in sport. This model will require structural and cultural changes to the sporting environment and include coaching practices. Sport4Me is an evidence-based model, but it is not radical in its conceptualisation but rather, builds on previously proposed approaches, considers the needs and wants of potential sport participants and widens the scope of sport delivery.

Developing a Community Sport Organization’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy

This teaching case study tasks students with creating a diversity, equity, and inclusion policy. The teaching case study’s context is a fictional community sport organization (CSO; i.e., Niagara Falls Thundering River Volleyball Club) located in the Niagara Region in Ontario, Canada. To develop such a policy, students learn about the emerging pressures and market conditions surrounding the fictional CSO. Students are also made aware of key policy principles as well as management by values to consider ethical standards within diversity, equity, and inclusion. Finally, students are introduced to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies within the Canadian sport system to inform their policy development process for the purposes of this teaching case study.

From Podcasts to the Playing Field: Creating a Culture of Gender Inclusivity Within the Stone Kickball League

Hall’s Circuit of Culture provided a framework in the context of this case study to help understand and alter cultural systems within an organization. Specifically, the Circuit of Culture was applied to the Stone Kickball League, a hypothetical, nonprofit, adult community sport organization, with nearly 400 participants across the local Keystone City, Oklahoma area. Felicity Campbell, the league’s newly appointed commissioner, was tasked with creating necessary change to address league-wide issues of inclusivity, recruitment, and retention, particularly among female-identifying and gender minority participants. By incorporating Hall’s Circuit of Culture framework, Felicity reviewed cultural components of the organization through document collection, personal experiences, and research. Felicity’s Summary of Findings provided ample evidence of gender and cultural issues within the Stone Kickball League. Students will analyze the Summary of Findings and propose strategies to implement a positive environment and create a culture that integrates and promotes greater inclusivity within the Stone Kickball League while also developing recommendations to address the issues identified throughout the case.

Community sport and recreation organizations’ inclusion of low-income families in sport and recreation in New Brunswick

ABSTRACT Fee assistance programmes (FAPs) used by community sport and recreation organizations (CSROs) are a popular means of addressing the financial barriers low-income families face. However, there is a dearth of literature that speaks to the other ways CSROs support the inclusion of low-income families. The purpose of this study is to use Ponic and Frisby’s organizational dimension of inclusion which was published in 2010, as a conceptual framework to examine how CSROs support the inclusion of low-income families in sport and recreation. Through data analysis, three main themes were constructed to illuminate how CSROs facilitated inclusion to support sport and recreation participation for low-income families: 1) CSROs’ financial access provisions; 2) supplying equipment; and 3) relationship building. Our findings indicated that New Brunswick CSROs facilitate inclusion through supports beyond FAPs, but these practices continue to have a narrow focus on financial limitations.

Difficulties and Countermeasures of Community Sports Service in China

In order to promote the rapid implementation of the domestic national fitness plan, promote the sustainable development of social sports services, improve the physical fitness of the whole people, improve the quality of life and lifestyle of the masses, and cultivate the people's awareness of independent fitness; This paper uses the literature method, interview method, and survey method to investigate domestic community sports services. The study found that the supply of community sports service funds and venues and facilities is insufficient, the division of government responsibilities is not clear, the operation efficiency of community sports organizations is inefficient, the quality of service is not high, the infrastructure construction in remote rural areas is not perfect, and it is impossible to enjoy sports and health services. Research conclusion: In the process of the development of social sports services, the government needs to formulate clear community sports policies and regulations, clarify the division of government responsibilities, give lower-level organizations greater rights, and create a management organization that leads multiple participation; Introduce market mechanisms to alleviate government economic pressure; Improve the community sports volunteer system, protect the interests of volunteers, and improve the service quality of community sports organizations.

A Framework of Strategic Approaches to Membership Growth in Nonprofit Community Sport

Engaging in strategic planning may help leaders of community sport organizations (CSOs) to develop strategic thinking as well as build capacity to sustain and expand their programs despite environmental uncertainty. This study proposes a framework for understanding how the membership growth strategies of CSOs are shaped based on their environment. Semi-structured interviews with presidents of CSOs, alongside analysis of strategic plan documents, were used to identify strategic imperatives that CSO leaders considered when formulating their organizational strategies. These imperatives were grouped into two dimensions: organizational readiness for growth and environmental dynamism. These dimensions were then juxtaposed to create a matrix of four strategic approaches: Trailblazers, Enhancers, Maintainers, and Carers. Each approach is described in detail and implications for strategic management in community sport are discussed.

An Annealing Model Analysis and Research on the In of Community Public Sports on Economic Development.

The state vigorously develops the application of community sports and takes it as an important unit of social and economic development. With the development of the economy, residents' living standards are getting better, which also greatly promotes the development of community public sports. Community public sports have made great progress in terms of scale, hardware, and services, and their impact on society is getting worse. Come bigger. However, there are still some deficiencies in the development of community sports. How to accurately evaluate and predict its facilities, construction, and service levels and put forward corresponding development strategies is an urgent problem to be solved in the field of community public sports. In this paper, an iterative simulated annealing algorithm is proposed to evaluate the level of public sports services and help community public sports institutions identify their own development deficiencies. Through the simulation analysis of the community sports organizations, community members, venue facilities and funds, venue facilities and funds, administrators, and the community sports activities, it is found that the identification accuracy of the evaluation results of the five indicators is above 95%, while the initial threshold of community public sports and social and economic development and the prediction accuracy required by the standard of development status are both 10%. At the same time, the recognition time of the evaluation results in the five indicators is less than 7 seconds. In community public sports development trend prediction and service level judgment, the identification time of the evaluation result is less than 4 seconds, and the overall judgment result is better.