Features
Unity Through Sports
Joint Program Encourages Peace
When Associate Professor Bryan McCormick visited the Nookat region of Kyrgyzstan in June, he enjoyed watching youth from different backgrounds play in a newly formed volleyball league. The game had special meaning for McCormick, who saw not just youth having a good time, but the results of a joint Indiana-based program to promote Unity Through Sports (USPORT).
Funded by the U.S. Department of State, USPORT is sponsored by the Indiana Center for Cultural Exchange, which is a partnership among Indiana University, Purdue University, and the University of Notre Dame. In the summer of 2005, coaches and sponsors from Kyrgyzstan visited IU's Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Studies on the Bloomington campus, where they learned how to form youth sports leagues that encourage peace and tolerance. They also participated in leadership training at Purdue and tolerance training at Notre Dame.
HPER faculty who oversee USPORT training at IU are Professor Lynn Jamieson, chair of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Studies, and Associate Professor Craig Ross, as well as McCormick. “The USPORT project works with youth from areas that are torn by religious and ethnic strife,” says McCormick. “We believe that when young people practice sportsmanship and have a good time on the playing field, they are more apt to develop understanding and mutual acceptance off the field,” says McCormick.
Previous participants in USPORT have included coaches and athletic sponsors from Lebanon, and participants from Algeria and Uganda will be coming to Indiana later this year for training.
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