Sports Doing Good Newsletter #395

Aug. 7 – Aug. 20, 2022
Welcome to issue three hundred and ninety-five of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. The Baseball Stadium That “Forever Changed” Professional Sports (The Ringer)
2. SlamBall Planning Its Big Return Amid a Hot Alternative Sports Market (Yahoo! Sports)
3. Sport and peace – joy and beauty (ACU Review)
4. What Does It Mean to Win at Saving Lives? (SI)
5. How the DREAM Series is helping reshape MLB (ESPN)
6. Fresh Ideas For MLB to Create More Must-See Events Like Field of Dreams Game (Bleacher Report)
7. NHL player’s children design NASCAR Xfinity car to raise awareness for autism at Michigan International Speedway (RMNB/Joe Favorito)
8. The Power of My Voice (Go Stanford)
9. How Emma Hayes turned Chelsea Women from part-time also-rans to a dominant force (The Telegraph)
10. ‘A League of Their Own’ Endures Because It’s Personal (SI)


10+
Educating future advocates in sport and social change (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/educating-future-advocates-sport-and-social-change

For Young Kids, The Power of Play-Based Learning (Edutopia)
https://www.edutopia.org/article/young-kids-power-play-based-learning

Mayor of London’s summer initiative to help prevent crime (Beyond Sport)
http://www.beyondsport.org/articles/the-mayor-of-london-unveils-summer-initiative-to-help-prevent-crime/

Centre Congratulations the Commonwealth Games Federation and Birmingham 2022 (Centre for Sport and Human Rights)
https://www.sporthumanrights.org/news/commonwealth-games-statement-2022/

Laureus Sport for Peace Humanitarian Action Fund (Laureus)
https://www.laureus.com/


We present again our “Featured Video” offering(s). With the explosion of video content out there highlighting the good in sport, we want to showcase such content for your enjoyment and learning. This will be an ongoing effort. And now we add podcasts!

Afghanistan women’s national soccer team playing in exile: ‘The heart that is still beating’ (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/afghanistan/story/4716839/afghanistan-womens-national-soccer-team-playing-in-exile-the-heart-that-is-still-beating

Barilla | The Promise with Roger Federer and Zizou (Barilla/YouTube)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=57RpNFLTAZU

Gravel bike racing focuses on diversity and inclusion and its popularity soars (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/15/1117484483/gravel-bike-racing-focuses-on-diversity-and-inclusion-and-its-popularity-soars

Sports, Identity & Migration (w/Travis Murphy) (Play It Forward)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sports-identity-migration-w-travis-murphy/id1576240420?i=1000574665979


Introduction
I would like to start by announcing a great opportunity for those interested in serving in the sport for development and social change space. Our good friends at Grassroot Health (fka The Grassroot Project) are looking for Board members. Please click here to learn more.
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3215153313/?refId=l51Gl5p6SiO%2Bzhy23DYthg%3D%3D

This is another issue of great stories that runs the gamut of subjects from business to entrepreneurship to diplomacy to partnerships to educating the next generation of sport for good advocates. The story I want to highlight is actually not one of the 10 main stories but rather an item from our “Featured Video” section. It has to do with the amazing story of courage, perseverance, empathy, and inclusion involving a group of women from Afghanistan and continuing on in Australia. If someone asked me to pick one story that captures the essence of this newsletter and the idea of sports doing good, the article/video “Afghanistan women’s national soccer team playing in exile: ‘The heart that is still beating,’’ would be it.

The story of these women and their supporters in Australia is but one involving the global dilemma of internally displaced individuals and refugees. In a story from HIAS, according to the UNHCR, there are 100 million people who are displaced, with 27 million refugees worldwide. Much of this is taking place beyond our scope, in parts of the world that are not regularly covered in the news, certainly not in sports news. But the story of these courageous women and the network of supporters in Australia and around the world indicate that not all hope is lost, that there are good people and organizations who care.

And as the research would indicate, the number of individuals who have lived a part of their life as refugees or are the descendants of refugees are in the hundred millions. Inevitably, some of these individuals are sports people, maybe some of your favorite players. For example, one of the top young footballers in the world, Alphonso Davies of Canada, who now plays for German powerhouse Bayern Munich, began his life journey in Buduburam, a Ghanaian refugee camp, where he was born after his parents had fled the civil war in Liberia.

And if you sit back and research your own histories, these stories of displacement and hopefully, recovery, may be closer to you than you may have thought. It was not until I was in my early 30s did I truly understand the full life story of my parents, both of whom became refugees with their families upon the partition of “British India” into India and Pakistan in 1947. They had to leave much of what they owned behind and start again in a new area with very little support. So, as South Asians around the world celebrated the 75th Indian Independence Day this past week on August 15, I took some time to think about how lucky I am to be where I am today and that it is a privilege to highlight the stories of these Afghan women and others who long for the most basic of wants, and that is a safe place to call home.

If you think others would like to receive the newsletter, please feel free to forward it on or have them contact us directly at sab@sportsdoinggood.com. (If you do not want to receive the newsletter anymore you can use the Unsubscribe button at the end of the email).

So, enjoy. And have a good week.

The Baseball Stadium That “Forever Changed” Professional Sports (The Ringer)
https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2022/8/4/23288546/camden-yards-30th-anniversary-baltimore-influence

SlamBall Planning Its Big Return Amid a Hot Alternative Sports Market (Yahoo! Sports)
https://sports.yahoo.com/slamball-planning-big-return-amid-040100857.html

Sport and peace – joy and beauty (ACU Review)
https://www.acu.ac.uk/the-acu-review/sport-joy-and-beauty/

What Does It Mean to Win at Saving Lives? (SI)
https://www.si.com/more-sports/2022/08/15/competitive-lifesaving-daily-cover

How the DREAM Series is helping reshape MLB (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34373454/how-dream-series-helping-reshape-mlb

Fresh Ideas For MLB to Create More Must-See Events Like Field of Dreams Game (Bleacher Report)
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10045037-fresh-ideas-for-mlb-to-create-more-must-see-events-like-field-of-dreams-game

NHL player’s children design NASCAR Xfinity car to raise awareness for autism at Michigan International Speedway (RMNB/Joe Favorito)
https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2022/08/05/nhl-players-children-design-nascar-xfinity-car-to-raise-awareness-for-autism-at-michigan-international-speedway/

The Power of My Voice (Go Stanford)
https://gostanford.com/news/2022/8/12/womens-volleyball-the-power-of-my-voice.aspx

How Emma Hayes turned Chelsea Women from part-time also-rans to a dominant force (The Telegraph)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/08/13/how-emma-hayes-turned-chelsea-women-part-time-also-rans-dominant/

‘A League of Their Own’ Endures Because It’s Personal (SI)
https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/07/15/a-league-of-their-own-where-are-they-now-2022


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Our goal is to have Sports Doing Good be a portal housing original content and excerpts from and links to the increasing number of articles, websites, video, and other media that showcase the good in sports and society. We aim to celebrate those concepts, activities, events, and individuals by highlighting them for a wider audience. Much of the news today, whether sports- related or not, is incredibly negative and increasingly polarizing, biased, and quite annoying. We are trying to refocus some of the discussion on the good, with a focus on sports.

Our mission is to have Sport Doing Good be a consistent, and significant, contributor to the areas of sports, social responsibility, and development. We look forward to partnering with other stakeholders in producing content, in creating and/or sponsoring athletic and service events, knowledge sharing, and conferences/seminars, and even having a commercial arm that could be the source of innovative social businesses.

We invite you to send in news, press releases, and guest pieces for possible publication, and email us with suggestions about the content and format of the newsletter and Sports Doing Good website.

Contact Information
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Sarbjit “Sab” Singh
sab@sportsdoinggood.com
516-287-7141
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