Theepiga Mohanachandran, Mikayla McEwan, Keira Dyck, Megan Sutton, Roxy O’Rourke, Corliss Bean, Catherine Sabiston, Sasha Gollish

Community sport plays a critical role in supporting physical, social, and developmental outcomes for youth. Unfortunately, participation in Canada remains uneven and shaped by persistent structural and systemic challenges. This study sought to generate a system-level understanding of community youth sport in Canada and was guided by the overarching research question “From coast to coast to coast, what could a reimagined equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible youth sport system look like?”. Interviews from 45 Canadian community sport organizational representatives were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The interviews (Mlength = 36 (SD = 6.5); Range 23 to 48.5 minutes) highlight five interconnected themes influencing youth sport experiences: (a) Youth-Centred Approaches (sub-themes: Listening to and Centering Youth Voice; Belonging, Safety, and Feeling Welcome; Enjoyment as the Foundation for Retention); (b) Diversity, Access, Equity, and Inclusion (sub-themes: Structural Access to Participation, Systemic Exclusion, Bias, and Discrimination, Financial Barriers and Economic Exclusion); (c) Leadership Capacity and Relational Practice (sub-themes: Mentorship & Role Modelling; Collaborative Culture); (d) Program Delivery and Program Quality (sub-themes: Intentional Program Design; Program Sustainability and Continuity); and (d) System Structure and Alignment (sub-themes: System Fragmentation and Silos; Performance Prioritization and Pathway Realignment; Funding Structures and Resource Allocation; Transparency, Accountability, and Evidence Use). These findings position community youth sport as a complex, relational system in which equitable participation is shaped by both upstream structures and downstream experiences. This study offers evidence-informed insights to support policy, practice, and research aimed at strengthening community youth sport systems across Canada.