A community capacity building approach to sport-based youth development

•Sport for development (SFD) research has been critiqued for “individual-oriented” approaches to positive youth development (PYD).•Community capacity building provides a complementary framework for youth SFD organizations to also promote community capacity.•Youth SFD organizations offer a unique context to promote PYD and community capacity, but must be strategically managed to do so.•Promoting community capacity can enhance youth-context interactions outside program context, and promote sustainable development.Positive youth development (PYD) is the most popular framework guiding sport-for-development (SFD) research. To date, much of this work has focused on how sport programs are purposefully designed to promote PYD outcomes. However, the youth-context interactions that form the theoretical basis of PYD occur across all aspects of youth ecologies, meaning youth SFD organizations are most effective when they enhance the capacity of communities as well. Although the need to expand current youth-centred perspectives has been noted by SFD scholars, implementing this insight into practice has proven difficult. In this paper, the authors provide a conceptual advancement to the literature through three objectives. First, a theoretical basis for linking PYD and community capacity frameworks is provided. Second, specific capacity building strategies are critically explored within the context of youth SFD organizations. Third, a community capacity building approach to sport-based PYD is presented and discussed in light of key considerations.