Thrive together: a sports philanthropy blueprint for underserved youth

Abstract: To cope with the increasingly severe challenges of climate change, ANTA Group has been the first in the textile industry to cooperate with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Through collaboration with industrial peers, ANTA has promoted green transformation of the supply chain, applied environmentally friendly textile fabrics, and reduced plastic in packaging. Lots of activities have been organized to call on hundreds of millions of consumers to take green actions. Efforts are also made to jointly launch innovative and environmentally friendly products with cooperation partners, and support relevant organizations in achieving forest restoration, which successfully build partnerships for sustainable development.

Challenge

Youth sports education in underdeveloped regions faces multiple barriers. Anta Group’s 2017 public-interest survey on youth sports in China’s underdeveloped areas — covering 24 schools, 158 students, 400 parents, and 1,258 students across 35 counties and townships, supplemented by quantitative research across 325 schools in 117 nationally designated impoverished counties with 12,590 total respondents — revealed a stark paradox: while 88.9% of students considered PE important, 91% of parents supported sports participation, and 97.7% of students enjoyed PE classes, actual PE offerings were monotonous, rigid, and narrowly focused on test-score targets, constrained by factors that prevented proper delivery of diverse sports programs; facilities were inadequate; equipment was lacking due to funding constraints; and teachers were in short supply with insufficient training and professionalism. How to deliver quality sports education and unlock the holistic benefits of athletic participation for underserved youth became an urgent social question.

Solution

In July 2017, Anta Group partnered with the China Youth Development Foundation and the Shanghai Adream Charitable Foundation to launch the Anta Thrive Together Public Benefit Program, focused on youth sports philanthropy: providing professional sports equipment so children in need can experience the joy of sport. The program encompasses six pillars — Anta Equipment Packs, Anta PE Curriculum, Anta Dream Centers, Anta Sports Camps, Anta Sports Fields, and Anta Hope Classes — integrating sports and education to drive rural vitalization. 

Equipment donations: From July 2017 to June 2021, Anta donated RMB 400 million cumulatively, covering 1.8 million youth across 7,784 schools in 31 provinces, building 134 Anta Dream Centers and training 1,806 frontline teachers, with plans to invest RMB 800 million and reach 7 million youth by end-2023.

Curriculum innovation: The Anta PE Curriculum addresses the monotonous, literacy-poor PE offerings in underserved areas by designing professional sports courses for primary-school students and training frontline PE teachers to ignite passion and deliver proper athletic instruction. Through combined online and offline training, 1,806 teachers across 1,101 schools have been certified, benefiting 612,800 students. 

Impact evaluation: A three-year assessment (10,825 respondents) in June 2020 found: professional footwear usage increased 6-fold and professional sportswear usage rose 12%; students who participated in the Dream Sports Course exercised daily at a rate 6 percentage points higher than non-participants, and 64% reported more proactive attitudes; 100% of PE teachers expanded their subject knowledge and 92% acquired new pedagogical concepts; course delivery rate was 100%, with teacher satisfaction of 93% and student satisfaction of 86%; 87% of students reported growing enjoyment of sports and 63% showed improved coordination.

Impact & Value

Youth development: Equipment donations — the most visible component — dramatically raised the adoption of professional footwear and apparel, directly improving the exercise conditions and experience of underprivileged youth; the Anta PE Curriculum ignited enthusiasm and initiative, with clear gains in fitness and coordination. 

Education equity: The Dream Sports Course filled a quality-education void in underserved areas, and frontline teacher training lifted the standard of local PE instruction — a 100% delivery rate and exceptionally high satisfaction scores attest to its suitability and effectiveness. The introduction of Tinkering education marked the first deployment of innovative pedagogy in rural Chinese schools, demonstrating urban-rural equity across quality educational resources, compulsory education access, and education digitization. 

Social impact: Parental recognition of sports literacy education rose markedly (80% said they would encourage their children to exercise more), forging a positive school-family-society feedback loop. Anta’s Thrive Together program, with its sports-education integration at its core, provides a powerful corporate contribution to the national strategy of building a sporting powerhouse, and offers a mature, scalable model for systematic, large-scale corporate sports philanthropy.