Community, Service, and Resilience: The Effect of University Sport Camps on Military Veterans and Professionals

In the United States military, sports and athletics play a significant role in maintaining physical fitness, building teamwork, and enhancing the wellbeing of active service members and cadets at service academies. In fact, the Department of Defense organizes competitive athletic events where military personnel compete both domestically and internationally. Participation in such programs benefits veterans as well as, offering physical, psychological, and social advantages. The Department of Veterans Affairs supports such programming through various adaptive sports events for veterans who are injured and have an acquired disability. While adaptive sports provide notable benefits, there is a critical shortage of opportunities for veterans to participate. Many veterans face challenges accessing these programs due to geographic, financial, and logistical barriers. To address these gaps, university-based adaptive sport camps have been proposed as a potential solution. These camps aim to improve veterans’ community engagement, resilience, and skills. Extant scholarship suggests such adaptive sports programming can positively affect veterans’ sense of community and coping abilities, which are crucial for their reintegration into society post-service. Accordingly, this study sought to examine how adaptive sports programming influences veterans’ attitudes towards civic engagement, resilience, and identify factors that predict improvements in these areas. Utilizing participants from a university-based adaptive sports camp, the findings of this study indicated that military veterans experienced improved attitudes towards civic engagement and resiliency as a result of participation in adaptive sport programming. The researchers conclude with a discussion on potential opportunities and social value of incorporating adaptive sports programming into existent community-based sports programming.