This month, WorldOregon served as the local host for a delegation of leaders from the Federated States of Micronesia as part of a U.S. Department of State professional development program titled, Sports Diplomacy: Sport for Social Change. Playworks had the opportunity to host the participants for a site visit at Burton Elementary school, a local TagTeam partner through the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Washington.
The participants ranged in providence and role; they hail from Pohnpei, Chuuk, and Yap, and they work in local education, government, business, and non-governmental organizations. We were all united by a common passion for sport. In this, participants connected easily with Playworks’ mission. They jumped into play with ease, learning Blocker Ball, All-Star Basketball, and Watch Your Back Tag with ease.
“As athletes, coaches, advocates, and leaders, we shared best practices for play. While introducing Watch Your Back Tag, I asked what tag is like in their cultures. Someone shared that, back home, they like to play tag in the ocean,” shared Sam Sorscher, Partnerships Experience Manager.
This program has an explicit goal of supporting access to sports for young women. Playworks aims to create access to sports for young women in all our programming. We had rich discussions about cultural norms that deter women from participating in sports. We talked about universal challenges of under-resourced schools and overtaxed teachers who don’t always feel they have the capacity to play. The TagTeam model was especially appropriate to highlight in this context, because of how it leverages existing relationships in a school environment to create a positive, inclusive recess climate.
