For Anna Barrett, executive director of Reclaim Childhood, youth mental wellbeing is built through safety, belonging, and connection rather than clinical intervention. Based in Jordan, Reclaim Childhood creates safe and inclusive spaces for local and refugee girls ages 6 to 18 through sports, using activities like football and basketball to bring together girls from communities that are often socially and economically divided. The organization is intentionally non-clinical, positioning sports as a culturally accessible entry point for healing, confidence-building, and community formation.

Barrett emphasizes that sports programs only work when they are intentionally designed. Simply putting girls together is not enough; programs must be trauma-informed, actively inclusive, and willing to confront discrimination when it arises. Women coaches from the same communities as participants serve as mentors, guiding both skill development and fostering difficult conversations around identity and belonging. Evidence of impact appears in girls’ increased confidence, stronger peer relationships, and greater willingness to take up space at school and in their communities.

Reclaim Childhood’s approach includes:

• Using sports as a non-clinical, trauma-informed entry point for youth mental wellbeing.
• Recruiting and training women coaches from local communities to serve as trusted mentors.
• Intentionally mixing refugee and Jordanian participants to build inclusion and shared identity.
• Embedding leadership development and off-field skill building for adolescent girls.
• Engaging families, particularly mothers, to build trust and sustain participation.

Challenges remain. Limited access to sports facilities, ongoing regional conflict, and the difficulty of measuring long-term outcomes like joy and confidence constrain the work. Early expansion efforts also showed that success depends on deep investment in coach selection, training, and mentorship—without which even well-designed programs can falter.

In Jordan, Rima Yacoub, program director for Reclaim Childhood, works to create safe, inclusive spaces where refugee and Jordanian girls can grow in confidence and community. Many participants, ages 6 to 18, live with the effects of displacement and discrimination. Through structured sports and leadership programs, Reclaim Childhood helps them find belonging and emotional stability while challenging cultural taboos around women in sports.

Yacoub explains that the key is connection and consistency. The coaches are women from the same neighborhoods as the participants, so trust is built naturally. They become mentors and role models, bridging families and the organization. The sense of safety begins the moment a girl leaves home, from transportation to communication with parents. Over time, playing sports becomes more than recreation; it becomes a language of empowerment, teaching teamwork, respect, and resilience. Girls learn to navigate loss and failure on the field and go on to apply those lessons in their lives. The program also cultivates self-awareness and agency, helping girls understand their identities, set boundaries, and take pride in giving back to their communities.

Reclaim Childhood’s model includes:

• Year-round sports programming in Amman, Zarqa, and Mafraq that reaches about 500 girls.
• A leadership and enrichment initiative, Qudrati (“my capability”), which combines lessons on self-discovery and civic engagement.
• Partnerships with grassroots and psychosocial organizations to extend holistic support.
• Parent-focused workshops to strengthen family trust and understanding of mental wellbeing.

The results are visible in stronger friendships, self-esteem, and leadership. Several former participants are now coaches, continuing the cycle of mentorship. Remaining challenges include limited funding and persistent cultural barriers to mental health care, but Yacoub believes meaningful change starts locally: “It is very important that the community feels that you are part of it and embraces you, otherwise it will not accept your work.”