Based on the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Model, the TPSR Alliance seeks to apply sport and physical activity to youth development in schools and after-school and summer programs through workshops, clinics, publications and academic programs.
The TPSR Alliance is a joint venture of Don Hellison, who has been recognized internationally for his work in developing alternative approaches to traditional sport and exercise, especially with underserved youth (2000); and Gloria Balague, a sport psychologist internationally known for her work promoting a developmental approach involving psychosocial growth, goal-setting, and leadership with coaches, young athletes, and sport psychologists at all levels.
Rationale for the Alliance is based on widespread consensus that sport and physical activity, unlike other areas, have the advantage of being domains generally valued by youth and at the base of self-esteem formation and peer acceptance. Therefore, a holistic developmental approach in this area has greater educational value than in most other areas, especially for youth who live in underserved communities. Responsibility shows up on virtually every list of desirable qualities for today’s youth, however, youth empowerment and self-reflection aimed at promoting personal and social development are seldom primary goals of physical activity programs for youth.
The Alliance includes an advisory board of physical activity professionals, at universities of different states, and youth development practitioners, mostly located in the Chicago area but including one from Greece.
Seeking to capitalize on the expertise of Gloria, Don, and the board members, the purpose of this Alliance is to share specific ideas, strategies, formats, and evaluation procedures for utilizing sport and exercise as vehicles for teaching youth to become more responsible both personally and socially/morally. Services are structured as follows:
Academic Components:·Internships in TPSR underserved youth programs
·MEd & PhD with focus in urban youth development (TPSR as one component)
Youth program development Components:·TPSR coach & sport psychologist workshops
·TPSR youth sport program development, implementation, & evaluation
Hellison. D. (2003). Teaching responsibility through physical activity (2nd ed). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Hellison, D., Cutforth, N., Kallusky, J., Martinek,T., Parker,M., & Stiehl, J. (2000). Youth development & physical activity: Linking universities & communities. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
