From grassroots to global: Ashlyn Hardie’s New Way Sport Fund and the power of sport for development

By Grace O'Donnell

A world without sport

Imagine there were no fields in the Upstate for recreation, no basketball courts to play a game of pick-up with friends and even the idea of a girls soccer program was considered taboo. This is the reality faced by thousands of communities around the world, spanning from Tokyo to Lebanon to Colombia to right here in South Carolina.

Ashlyn Hardie, Ph.D., faculty fellow of the Robert H. Brooks Sports Science Institute and assistant professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, is actively engaging with resource and infrastructure-poor communities to use sport as a tool for positive social change.

When presenting her doctoral dissertation at Texas A&M, it was suggested that she create an idealized funding initiative based on what practitioners think is ideal - and thus, the New Way Sport Fund was born from the crux of her research. Her idea was to grant small organizations any amount up to $5,000 to address organizational needs as they see fit, not as she would.

Insights from Hardie's research: The struggle for unrestricted funding

In her research, where she interviewed sport for development practitioners from around the world, she found that, "Basically, funding requirements force organizations to deviate from their mission, to oftentimes change who they are and what they're doing. But they actually just need support to keep doing what they're already doing - they're doing it for a reason, they [sport for development leaders] know what their community needs."

The New Way Sport Fund (NWSF) is an innovative, unrestricted funding mechanism designed by a team of sport for development (SfD) practitioners and scholars, for the benefit of grassroots SfD initiatives around the globe. Hardie dreamed up this idea as a means to provide an inclusive, transparent and accessible funding opportunity for small, developing organizations that are using sport as a tool for positive social change.

"Sport for development and peace is essentially this sector of sport that's really focused on meeting broader social objectives," she said. "It aligns a lot with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals - things like climate action, gender inequality and reducing inequalities for your historically underserved groups."

There are 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, each of which caters to endemic issues in underdeveloped areas of the world. Whether it be addressing poverty and a lack of education in developing countries, or stressing the importance of sustainable lifestyles and reducing inequalities in North America, sport for development and peace groups work to use recreation as a tool to address these disparities - but how?

"There are a lot of rural parts of the world where people may not have access to regular education, but if you can get to your sport field, how can we teach basic things like sexual health and financial literacy? These are basic skills that maybe in more underdeveloped parts of the world they're not getting through school, so how can we teach them in sports spaces?"

Creating safe spaces and encouraging critical thinking

Hardie stresses the importance of creating safe spaces for young athletes in the United States, from refugees to people recovering from trauma to underprivileged children and everyone in between.

Using the sports space to initiate conversations which encourage critical thinking has not only the potential, but the promise, to save lives. Educating populations on topics like HIV/AIDS prevention, hygienic menstrual practices, financial responsibility - which may seem basic to those with privileged access to the necessary resources - can lead to improved health and wellness of communities in need.

Albert Einstein once said, "Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act." Hardie has worked incessantly to put this quote into practice, using her privilege as a scholar and practitioner to optimize cross-cultural sport for development and peace collaborations through teaching, research and practice.

"I have connections to people with more money by nature of being from the [United] States, so how are we in collaboration going to work on a solution? I approach and facilitate a space that helps people in that community solve their own problems, not me coming in and trying to tell them [to mimic] what we do in this very developed part of the United States," she explained.

"That's really what I focus on, going into spaces and having culturally appropriate, intentional collaborations. I can take my expertise as a researcher to help and collaborate with someone who has a lot of local expertise, and you need local expertise for the change to truly be effective and sustainable," she said. "Sport leaders have a ton of knowledge about what access we can get and what we can do, but they don't always know what to do with a bunch of words and numbers.

Navigating barriers: Language and access in global funding

"I try to position myself between people with a lot of money and power, and people with very few resources and very little power. I try to be the middle person that helps represent and argue for [grassroots organizations] getting resources from [funders], but in a way that is culturally appropriate - asking the right questions, minimizing potential risks and harms."

Another barrier faced by these grassroots organizations is the language barrier itself. Funding entities predominantly exist in the United States, Europe and Australia, while those most in need are not typically native English speakers.

"A lot of people historically say it's really difficult to have to read and write and apply for [funding] in English, so we offered it in six different languages." Another focus of the grant proposal was minimizing the number of questions and avoiding any word counts.

While Hardie is all for traveling to these communities should they need boots-on-the-ground assistance, as she has done for the better part of the last decade, her main goal is to consult from a distance. Most of the groups need help with long-term strategizing, collecting data and other logistical labor to ensure they can continuously meet and develop new goals for years to come.

Real-world impact: Changing lives in Egypt through NWSF

One example of this fund's focus on sustainable organizational support takes place halfway around the world in Egypt. For one applicant, NWSF is an opportunity to change the trajectory of her business and the population she serves. In a part of the world where women are often the first to be removed from rental schedules, this funding would allow her to purchase her own safe space for participants to train in boxing. If she owns her property, her plan is to rent it out to other women's groups, therefore generating a passive income while also establishing a protected environment for similar groups.

That is the definition of working toward positive social change through sport.

Because of the budget limitations of NWSF, the harsh reality is that many deserving applicants could not be awarded. Unlike most funding entities who do not provide announcements or forms of feedback, the NWSF provides tailored feedback as to how organizations can improve their applications for success in the next funding cycle, which will open in the new year.

"Unfortunately, some really great applications didn't get funded because we were concerned about some logistical issues and security things where it wasn't clear on how they planned to protect or maintain the expensive equipment they asked for," she said. "The idea was awesome, but their application maybe lacked an explanation that demonstrated how they would sustain it or leverage it over time.

"So we gave them that feedback, and it was very much with a personal note - 'I think this is genius, here's how to improve it.'"

A leader shaping the future of sport for development

Hardie's commitment to leaving a positive legacy in the world of sports is evident from the moment she enters a room: her infectious enthusiasm, ingenuity and no-nonsense attitude which could only come from years of learning and setting boundaries have molded not only a leader, but a trend-setter. Born from her experiences both playing and coaching soccer at the collegiate level, Hardie's interest in constantly improving the realm of sports is not only genuine but second-nature.

Some people spend their whole lives searching for their calling, and others like Ashlyn Hardie created their own.

If interested in learning more about the New Way Sport Fund, please check out the website or contact Ashlyn at [email protected]. Follow "Ashlyn Hardie, MBA, Ph.D." on LinkedIn and Instagram: @Dr_Ashlyn_Hardie