A workshop that started with stomping and clapping

Last month, Solutions Insights Lab hosted a workshop at our work space in the Chrysler Building that started with everyone in the room standing up. Grassroot Soccer, one of the workshop’s conveners, got us all moving with a brief energizer, a call and response exercise with stomping and clapping. The room loosened up. People laughed at themselves. And the workshop began with that good energy in the air.

It was a perfect opener, because the agenda of the day was the relationship between physical movement and mental health. United for Global Mental Health, which organized the workshop alongside Grassroot Soccer, brought together researchers, practitioners, advocates, and funders whose work centers on that connection. The opening presenter, Professor Simon Rosenbaum of UNSW Sydney, made a convincing case that we no longer need to debate whether movement benefits mental health; the evidence is settled. The question now is access.

This tracks with what we've been hearing in our own interviews for What's Working: Youth Mental Wellbeing. One of the clearest patterns across the programs we've studied is that the most effective mental health support for young people often doesn't announce itself as mental health support at all; it leads with surfing, soccer, martial arts. But movement and sport aren't just an excuse to get kids in the door. They create the trust and the third space that makes everything else possible. (You can read more about that insight here.) And as we experienced in that conference room in the Chrysler Building, they make people alert and engaged in a way that enables entirely new kinds of conversations.

The workshop aimed toward a practical question: how does a friendly cohort like this turn a good idea into a strong coalition and a global agenda? With a rolling calendar of major sporting events on the horizon, from the Women's World Cup in 2027 to the L.A. Olympic Games in 2028, the group saw no shortage of opportunities to get the world talking about how movement can support mental health.

Three Ways to Approach Supporting Mental Health Through Movement

“It's about having really caring coaches, a simple, consistent routine, and safe spaces.” — Paula Yarrow, Waves for Change

“[Our work shows] what combat sports can bring to their lives, such as life skills, discipline, respect, self-control, and emotional regulation.” — Gabriela Peixinho, Luta Pela Paz

“When young people are running around, kicking the ball, throwing it around, they're helping each other and contributing to their good wellbeing outcomes.” — Charmaine Nyakonda, Grassroot Soccer

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