BAE Sports Summit 2020

Abstract

Gender inequity is a rampant social issue in developing countries that permeates many subsets of society such as schools, workplaces, and government positions. Significant research and even entities such as the United Nations have declared empowering coaches and athletes to promote gender equity through youth sport as one way this problem can be remedied (Wright et al., 2016). In line with this, Dr. Jacobs, myself, and six other NIU students spent our spring semester preparing and delivering the Belizeans Advocating for Equity (BAE) Sports Summit, the first women’s sports summit in Belize, a country located in Central America. The summit’s main purpose was to foster awareness and understanding of gender inequities in sport in Belize by inspiring an open dialogue that prompted individuals and communities to take action to empower women and girls through sport. The scope of the summit included harnessing voices, creating open lines of communications between attendees, and ultimately prompting action plans to be implemented within their perspective organizations. The summit was successfully delivered to 50 sport administrators throughout the country and evaluation data was collected, indicating exceptional levels of program effectiveness and participant learning.