Who is sport safe for, and what would it take to make it safe for everyone?
In the RISE Youth Sport Lab, we examine how risk, harm, and exclusion operate within sport systems. Our research spans individual experiences and structural conditions, asking what it would take to make sport a genuinely safe space for all young people.
Risk, responsibility, and injury reporting in youth sport
- Why do youth athletes hide injury symptoms even when they know they should report?
- What personal, cultural, and social conditions make reporting feel like the right choice?
- How do risk culture norms, expectations, and rules shape the way parents, coaches, and athletes think about safety?
- Who is responsible when a youth athlete is harmed in sport?
Equity, belonging, and identity in sport and recreation
- How do Black girls and women experience belonging, safety, and joy in sport spaces?
- What role does embodied identity — hair, body aesthetics, cultural expression — play in how Black and racialized athletes navigate sport participation?
- How do sport organizations' policies and equipment reflect assumptions about who belongs in sport?
- What does resistance look like for athletes whose identities have been marginalized in sport?
- How do community-led initiatives create space for belonging and reclamation?
Safe sport:
policy and structural harm
- How do community sport organizations understand and manage risk?
- What institutional, cultural, and resource conditions shape their capacity to create safer environments?
- What does it look like to govern sport safety as a shared structural responsibility rather than an individual issue?
Select Research Projects
The following studies are currently underway in our lab. Each is conducted with ethics board approval through the University of Waterloo.
- Black hair and belonging in sport and recreation: Exploring how hair norms and policies in sport spaces affect the experiences, sense of belonging, and participation of Black girls and women (REB# 46228).
- Concussion Reporting in Youth Girls’ Sport: A community-based project that partners directly with youth girls to understand concussion under-reporting culture and co-develop resources that make reporting feel safer and more supported (REB #46554).
- Stories of Belonging for Black Girls and Women in Hockey: Centering the voices of Black girls and women to understand their experiences of joy, resistance, and belonging in hockey spaces (REB #47929).
Findings from our research are shared through peer-reviewed publications, which can be found here.
Research Partners
Current Funders
