The idea came from the field, from coaches, cultural leaders, and local authorities who, community after community, described the same problem: too many young people with too much unstructured time, and too few resources to change it. It’s a need Creciendo Juntos has been positioned to answer since its earliest years; the organization ran a community sports program during its first decade, and this new effort picks up that thread at a far greater scale.
Fourteen community sports groups, currently serving 746 participants and supported by 20 coaches, will receive uniforms, training equipment, and balls, with a goal of growing participation by at least 30% (roughly 220 new athletes). Ten cultural groups, eight dance and two music, representing 426 participants, will get costumes, instruments, and transportation support to travel, perform, and pass on their traditions.
The number that may matter most, though, is tied to a single new hire: a physical education instructor with a bachelor’s degree in health promotion and human movement, rotating weekly through the peninsula’s priority communities. Between 4:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., precisely the hours flagged as highest risk, he’ll run three daily sessions for children, youth, and adults, reaching a projected 1,500 plus people across four communities in the first year.
Every session carries something extra, too: messages on healthy habits, discipline, teamwork, and life skills, woven into the drills and rehearsals rather than delivered as a lecture.
For Guardia, Comunidad, Palmira, Paso Tempisque, Sardinal, Playas del Coco, and Playa Hermosa, the program is also a statement about identity. Many of the cultural groups being strengthened carry Chorotegan and Guanacastecan traditions, heritage organizers see as one of the program’s central protective forces, not just a side benefit. A young dancer who feels pride in her roots, the thinking goes, is a young dancer with something to hold onto.
The throughline across every component: uniforms and instruments are the visible layer, but underneath is a bet that structure, mentorship, and cultural belonging can keep kids safe and communities cohesive.
Creciendo Juntos is framing this as more than a one-year push. The plan folds the sports and culture line into the organization’s annual planning and budgeting, with Mohari Hospitality’s continued support as an anchor, a chance for Peninsula Papagayo to formalize a role it already plays informally: a neighbor invested in the well-being of the towns around it.
Twenty-five years of trust, hundreds of families already showing up to practice and rehearsal, and a coordinated push to remove the barriers of equipment, transportation, and instruction. The pieces are aligning at once.
The season began in May. What it grows into will depend on the same thing that’s carried Creciendo Juntos since 2001: the communities themselves, showing up.
