Commitment to Practice

boys playing soccer
01 November 2007

A Playbook for Practitioners in HIV, Youth and Sport

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A growing consensus exists within the HIV/AIDS field that prevention programs present great hope for stemming the rise of the epidemic among the 15-24 year old age group – an age group representing 40% of all new infections. This discourse is paralleled by an increasing need to translate recommendations for prevention programming into effective practice.

An increasing number of international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governmental organizations see sport-based programming as a highly effective approach to addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Within the HIV/AIDS sector, there is growing recognition that Sport for Development (SfD) approaches can achieve significant HIV prevention goals. Additionally, within the Sport for Development field, there is also increasing recognition of its potential to develop effective youth HIV/AIDS programs. This paper encourages practitioners to develop plus sport programs that have non-sport, HIV/AIDS-related outcomes as their primary objectives.