Austin, Texas – CHJS founder, Megan Bartlett, represented CHJS at the SXSW EDU Conference last week. The panel How Youth Sports Can Help Solve the Mental Health Crisis was facilitated by Vince Minjares of Aspen Institute while Hannah Olson from University of Washington’s Center for Leadership in Sport and Doug Ute from Ohio High School Association joined Megan as presenting panelists.

If you missed the presentation, you can listen to the full conversation here. Also make sure to read the digital article at Education Week that highlights the need to leverage the healing aspects of youth sports to help address mental health.

Check this snapshot from the Education Week article.

Bartlett said she hopes there’s a broader narrative shift about youth mental health that focuses more on prevention than intervention. Sports and coaches should be at the center of that conversation, she said. “The sport environment is uniquely suited to help young people heal from overwhelming stress or trauma—and there are too many young people who are experiencing overwhelming stress and trauma,” she said.

“And even if you aren’t, these practices, the idea of focusing on safe environments where young people can show up as themselves, focusing on the value of physical activity and moving your body, focusing on the experience of being able to be stressed and come back to a baseline … those are the things that make us mentally well.”

Thank you to the Susan Crown Exchange and the Million Coaches Challenge for the opportunity to speak at SXSW with such an incredible group.

Looking to book CHJS at your next event? Email our director of external affairs, Pharlone Toussaint, ptoussaint@chjs.org