To give examples, there are programs such as The "Healthy Living Centres program" which encourages participation in sport and physical activity, which in return increases peoples health and well-being as well it up-skills and empowers communities. Also mentioned is the "Step Into Sport" program which is said to encourage young members of communities to volunteer and then rewards them for doing so with vocational qualifications and experience. These are just two examples of little things that communities do involving sport and physical activity with the idea of developing the individuals and the community as a whole.
The article states that by involving sport in a community it leads to community engagement, builds cohesiveness and capacity within the community as we as develops social capital. I think all these points are pretty hard to argue with as most people can probably relay back to a time where sport helped your community development at one time or another.
For me personally, I can for sure relate to what this article says. I grew up in a small town in Northern Alberta, called High Level where there is not a whole lot to do. From my experience one of the biggest things that helped our community develop and come together was sport. Although hockey is big pretty much everywhere in Canada, it is especially big in High Level; people love going and watching minor hockey games through out the whole winter and when it comes time for provincials the whole town in behind the players. In my time in High Level, we went to provincials almost every year and we always had sponsors from many businesses in town which helped us with jerseys, equipment, and travel to places. We were so far away from everything so travel was very expensive, taking buses was not cheap and through fundraisers and sponsors we were able to have competitive teams every year.
High Level and hockey is just a Small example, how about Vancouver 2010? The Olympics took years of planning and this obviously took the effort of thousands within the Vancouver community to come together and be able to successfully host the event. Lets also not forget the potential for money to be made through sporting events. The Olympics brought Vancouver billions of dollars through hotel, food and beverage, transportation, the list goes on and on.
The article just gives a small example of what sport can really do for communities and their development, people can be happier, people can be healthier, money can be made, friends can be made and the community becomes stronger. I cant really imagine a community without some form of sport.
Reference: Bowtell, j. (2006). Community Development Through Sport. London: London South Bank University http://www.sportdevelopment.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=607:community-development-through-sport&catid=49:socialinstrument&Itemid=65
