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Bringing the Community to the Uni—Critical Reflections on Youth Recreation Partnerships in Toronto

The focus of this paper is an evaluation of a recreation project partnership between a co-curricular university department and various youth community programs in downtown Toronto, Canada. The goal of the Hart House Youth Community Recreation Project (YCRP) is to build a bridge between the universit...

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Autores principales: Ali, Adam Ehsan, Darnell, Simon C., Dinunzio, Danielle
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9152148/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35655526
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.876468
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author Ali, Adam Ehsan
Darnell, Simon C.
Dinunzio, Danielle
author_facet Ali, Adam Ehsan
Darnell, Simon C.
Dinunzio, Danielle
author_sort Ali, Adam Ehsan
collection PubMed
description The focus of this paper is an evaluation of a recreation project partnership between a co-curricular university department and various youth community programs in downtown Toronto, Canada. The goal of the Hart House Youth Community Recreation Project (YCRP) is to build a bridge between the university and its neighboring communities through recreation, arts, and dialogue-based programming that responds to the needs and interests of community partners and their youth members. Informed by the understanding that university/community partnerships are often paradoxical, the study assessed understandings of the program from the perspectives of the stakeholders involved. To do so, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the following two groups: organizers and leaders from the youth community programs, and staff members coordinating the project from the co-curricular university department. The results indicate that meaningful opportunities can be created within such partnerships through the provision of access to unique resources and recreation spaces; inclusion of partners in planning and program delivery; and through forging meaningful relationships between university staff and the program participants. However, significant challenges to creating and sustaining such opportunities also exist, including structural and social inequities that result in participants feeling othered in program settings; the instability and “delicacy” of trust within partnerships; and funding structure and resources. The findings shed light on, and make recommendations about, the potential benefits that youth organizations might gain from participating in university-community recreation partnerships, as well as the paradoxical nature of delivering and maintaining these partnerships.
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spelling pubmed-91521482022-06-01 Bringing the Community to the Uni—Critical Reflections on Youth Recreation Partnerships in Toronto Ali, Adam Ehsan Darnell, Simon C. Dinunzio, Danielle Front Sports Act Living Sports and Active Living The focus of this paper is an evaluation of a recreation project partnership between a co-curricular university department and various youth community programs in downtown Toronto, Canada. The goal of the Hart House Youth Community Recreation Project (YCRP) is to build a bridge between the university and its neighboring communities through recreation, arts, and dialogue-based programming that responds to the needs and interests of community partners and their youth members. Informed by the understanding that university/community partnerships are often paradoxical, the study assessed understandings of the program from the perspectives of the stakeholders involved. To do so, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the following two groups: organizers and leaders from the youth community programs, and staff members coordinating the project from the co-curricular university department. The results indicate that meaningful opportunities can be created within such partnerships through the provision of access to unique resources and recreation spaces; inclusion of partners in planning and program delivery; and through forging meaningful relationships between university staff and the program participants. However, significant challenges to creating and sustaining such opportunities also exist, including structural and social inequities that result in participants feeling othered in program settings; the instability and “delicacy” of trust within partnerships; and funding structure and resources. The findings shed light on, and make recommendations about, the potential benefits that youth organizations might gain from participating in university-community recreation partnerships, as well as the paradoxical nature of delivering and maintaining these partnerships. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9152148/ /pubmed/35655526 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.876468 Text en Copyright © 2022 Ali, Darnell and Dinunzio. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Sports and Active Living
Ali, Adam Ehsan
Darnell, Simon C.
Dinunzio, Danielle
Bringing the Community to the Uni—Critical Reflections on Youth Recreation Partnerships in Toronto
title Bringing the Community to the Uni—Critical Reflections on Youth Recreation Partnerships in Toronto
title_full Bringing the Community to the Uni—Critical Reflections on Youth Recreation Partnerships in Toronto
title_fullStr Bringing the Community to the Uni—Critical Reflections on Youth Recreation Partnerships in Toronto
title_full_unstemmed Bringing the Community to the Uni—Critical Reflections on Youth Recreation Partnerships in Toronto
title_short Bringing the Community to the Uni—Critical Reflections on Youth Recreation Partnerships in Toronto
title_sort bringing the community to the uni—critical reflections on youth recreation partnerships in toronto
topic Sports and Active Living
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9152148/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35655526
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.876468
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