The Intersection of the Social Determinants of Health and Sport & Recreation Delivery Systems & The Impact on Equity-Owed Residents’ Participation
Sport, recreation, and leisure (SRL) encompass activities that promote physical, social, mental, and spiritual well-being throughout one’s life. These activities are offered by a range of community institutions, organizations and clubs within the not-for-profit, private, and public sectors. While these entities are significant in providing accessible SRL opportunities for everyone, resources often are scarce to establish and execute high-quality, diverse, accessible, dignified and equitable SRL provisions. Consequently, the participation of equity-owed residents in New Brunswick (NB) is hindered, thereby limiting the potential positive health and well-being outcomes that these experiences can offer.
Provincial and federal policies aiming to improve the accessibility of SRL acknowledge inequalities in participation in SRL among equity-owed groups (1, 2). Despite a broad spectrum of SRL providers spanning the private, not-for-profit, and public sectors in NB, significant inequalities persist in terms of dignified access for equity-owed residents. These disparities become evident when we scrutinize the allocation of SRL resources and consider who gains access to these resources and the extent of that access.
Through our project (3), we created an image based on data and observations from our field experience to visually depict the allocation of community SRL provisions, show who has access to what type of SRL provisions, and how that impacts participation in different SRL settings.
A framework for recreation in Canada: Pathways to wellbeing. https://www.cpra.ca/about-the-framework
In the image, three rows represent different levels of access to SDH4. The top row illustrates limited or negative access to SDH, the middle row signifies partial access, and the bottom row represents positive or extensive access.
At the top row, equity-owed residents lacking access to SDH are confronted with a restricted leisure repertoire, primarily engaging in unstructured, do-it-yourself (DIY), individual/peer, or family-based activities. This level of engagement lacks the involvement of community SRL investments such as dedicated staff, suitable equipment, diverse programs, and comprehensive services. Despite not always receiving the same level of financial, human, and infrastructural support, there are numerous examples in communities where equity-owed residents have carved out meaningful spaces of congregation, creativity and community-based SRL. While community SRL providers often overlook these activities and may not always happen in a visible physical space, they are crucial to building a sense of belonging. Not only do they amplify intangible and tangible culture or ancestral practices, in the case of First Nations communities, they also can be considered acts of resistance to colonial erasure and oppression.
When you live in an under served community or neighbourhood, feeling entitled to live, work and play in spaces predominantly patronized by people with more privilege can be a barrier due to internalized messaging that “this space was not built for you”. This is reinforced further when resources and support for these equity-owed residents primarily manifest in the form of subsidies offered by organizations like KidSport and P.R.O Kids, as well as reduced membership fees. These interventions strive to offset the barriers caused by limited SDH access, aiming to facilitate at least some level of participation in SRL activities, but are inadequate in creating dignified access and meaningful participation in SRL.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, in the last row and the bottom right corner of the image, individuals with high access to adequate SDH often have an expansive leisure repertoire. This is supported by various community SRL provisions. This encompasses access to well-equipped facilities, structured and organized programs, paid staff, experienced leaders and volunteers, coaches and instructors, and travel-based programming opportunities.
For participants in our study who possessed some access to SDH - which included some financial resources, personal transportation, and stable, affordable housing - engagement typically revolved around unstructured activities accessible to all community members. Examples include parks, trails, playgrounds, free 1-day events, library resources, and other cost-effective programming facilitated by SRL providers for the broader community. In certain instances, limited access to community sport and recreation activities becomes feasible for this group.
Our community-based research emphasizes a pattern: individuals with high or adequate access to the SDH and comprehensive community SRL provisions tend to have a richer array of leisure experiences. This broader exposure leads to skills acquisition and enhanced confidence, creating numerous possibilities for engaging in community SRL offerings that expose them to more robust community social networks.
Our findings also highlight the powerful interplay between access to SDH, community SRL provisions, leisure participation, and the subsequent impacts on community cohesion and engagement. This insight illustrates the importance of addressing disparities in access and resources to foster stronger, more inclusive community bonds.
We also acknowledge that there will always be exceptions, and certain equity-owed residents may possess extensive leisure repertoires and robust community connections despite limited access to SDH. Equally, access to SDH does not guarantee a strong community connection or an extensive leisure repertoire.
However, the majority of the equity-owed residents we engaged with had SRL experiences in settings that required no entry fee (i.e., parks) or registration, no complicated schedules, and minimal time commitments (i.e., sports). These experiences often involved interactions with people from similar socio-economic backgrounds, friends, and family members. Furthermore, residents discussed at length not feeling confident and being judged in community SRL settings, resulting in a sense of not belonging or deserving of SRL opportunities.
In our project, it was evident that most community SRL provisions are designed to meet the needs of those who can afford to pay. While equity-owed residents created opportunities to engage in meaningful and informal opportunities, it was often void of direct support from community SRL providers and infrastructure. Racial, economic and geographic disparities in access to SRL create significant opportunity gaps and health inequities for many equity-owed residents. To truly transform how we achieve equitable access to SRL, SRL sectors and governments must reevaluate which opportunities are deemed essential and for whom and which should be categorized as specialized and of lower priority. Effectively addressing SRL inequities demands prioritizing investments in opportunities and dignified access for equity-owed residents.
1 Canadian Parks and Recreation Association [CPRA], & Interprovincial Sport and Recreation Council [ISRC]. (2015). A framework for recreation in Canada: Pathways to wellbeing. https://www.cpra.ca/about-the-framework
2 The Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC). What We Heard: Findings of Government Consultations and a National Survey to Inform the Canadian Sport Policy 2023-2033. https://sirc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/SIRC-What-We-Heard-Report-FINAL-1.pdf
3 https://www.reimaginingaccess.ca/
4 Raphael, D., Bryant, T., Mikkonen, J., & Raphael, A. (2020). Social determinants of health: The Canadian facts (2nd ed.). Ontario Tech University Faculty of Health Sciences/York University School of Health Policy and Management.
Please cite this report as: “Oncescu, J. 2023. The Intersection of the Social Determinants of Health and Sport and Recreation Delivery Systems & The Impact Equity-Owed Residents’ Participation. Re-Imagining Access to SRL”