Community projects with vulnerable children and adolescents: sports, health, and violence prevention

Abstract

This article examines how community-based sport and physical activity programmes contribute to the social protection of vulnerable children and adolescents, with an emphasis on health promotion and violence prevention. Drawing on a narrative literature review of Brazilian and international studies published since the 2000s, it analyses sport and leisure initiatives implemented in low-income neighbourhoods. The evidence suggests that social sport projects can function as protective factors by providing regular physical activity, fostering community bonds, creating opportunities for youth participation and offering health education. Reported outcomes include improvements in physical well-being, mental health, self-esteem, socio-emotional skills, school engagement and reduced exposure to risk situations. Recurrent challenges include unstable funding, limited evaluation and the risk of sport being instrumentalised as a form of control over poor youth. The article argues that these initiatives are most effective when embedded in intersectoral, rights-based public policies rather than treated as isolated responses to structural inequalities.