Inner City Youth Athletics need Your Help
Written By: Gavin Gorrell
12/12/2020
Inner city youth athletics will never become non existent, but the overall experience of athletics in these inner cities are causing more and more kids to not participate. Money has the biggest impact on these experiences. There is not enough money to provide proper playing fields, proper coaching, and advanced and safe equipment. After speaking with a handful of people who have experienced this first hand, it seems that if there were enough funds, none of this would be an issue.
I chose this story because I have met so many amazing people through athletics who have gone through these struggles. I have heard so many brutal stories of what they had to go through, and so I wanted to understand their stories a little more. The future is dependent on our youth, and athletics play such a huge role. Often times, athletics in these inner city areas are the main outlet to stay away from drug use and gang violence. If there are no stable athletic structure for these kids, they could get themselves into more trouble and it would not benefit them for the future to come.
Inner city youth athletics will never become non existent, but the overall experience of athletics in these inner cities are causing more and more kids to not participate. Money has the biggest impact on these experiences. There is not enough money to provide proper playing fields, proper coaching, and advanced and safe equipment. After speaking with a handful of people who have experienced this first hand, it seems that if there were enough funds, none of this would be an issue.
I chose this story because I have met so many amazing people through athletics who have gone through these struggles. I have heard so many brutal stories of what they had to go through, and so I wanted to understand their stories a little more. The future is dependent on our youth, and athletics play such a huge role. Often times, athletics in these inner city areas are the main outlet to stay away from drug use and gang violence. If there are no stable athletic structure for these kids, they could get themselves into more trouble and it would not benefit them for the future to come.
As I said, I chose this cause because it is a very important movement that relates to me the most out of all the other options I had in mind. My resources were awesome, I was able to talk to many people who grew up playing sports in these areas. For example, one of my best friends Jermaine grew up in downtown Chicago. I was able to listen to what he went through, and how it relates to the problems talked about now. He explained to me that sports was the only way to stay safe, and sports began to get less fun and less safe so more and more of his friends would quit playing. What surprised me the most was when he explained that just 30 minutes down the road in a nicer area, their equipment and playing fields were so much nice than theirs. Money is the problem, there is no way around it. Other resources I used were articles by ESPN, graphs, documentaries, and overall stories from various former and current athletes from the inner cities.
As far as data goes, I focused on the amount of activity that these kids are participating over the years.
This graph clearly shows that the amount of kids being active in sports or exercise is lowering at a fast rate. It may be partially because of technology and the amount of time kids spend on their phones, but I truly believe it is because of the poor system for these kids. It is a problem not only for athletics, but for these kids health and safety down the road.
This next set of data is more specific to Chicago. Coaches are so important in sports, they can act as father figure to these younger kids. If the kids cannot be taught by a good coach, they have nowhere to turn because their family life is rough.
This graph is sad, it shows the hardship that these kids go through in these inner cities. This one, specifically from Chicago, is eye opening. Sports cure a lot of problems, and people all around the world should be trying to provide the best opportunity possible for these kids.
The graph below is just another example of how kids are not playing sports anymore. A movement needs to happen and it needs to happen quickly.
With all these problems, what is the first step to solving them? In 2020, social media is most powerful planner in the world. Hashtags are contagious, and can spread the word of something in the matter of seconds. In order for a impactful movement to occur, a big name athlete or organization needs to put #innercityathletics. When this happens, their millions of followers will become aware of the cause, and then the domino effect will kick into place. All it takes is for people to recognize the problem, there are so many wealthy athletes out there that will be more than willing to help.
In conclusion, I feel very optimistic about this worthy cause taking off sooner than later. It may seem like a very small problem to many, but in reality, this is affecting more people than you think. Follow my social handles to get updates on how the movement is going!
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