Communities Foundation of Oklahoma
Exploring philanthropic infrastructure, charitable partnerships and community investment.
BaseballSoftballCommunity Investment
Baseball Heaven Research Initiative
Better Together
Oklahoma Youth Sports Community OpportunityA solution-oriented research initiative examining how community baseball and softball, philanthropy, national nonprofits, tournament organizations, public institutions and families can strengthen opportunity together.
Explore the ResearchResearch MethodologyThe Next Question
What if the goal is not to decide which model wins—but to understand where each model fits?
Better Together studies Oklahoma's interconnected youth-sports ecosystem with a common evidence standard and a different end goal: identifying where collaboration can expand sustainable community opportunity.
Governing Question: How can Oklahoma create an environment in which community baseball and softball, national nonprofits, tournament and travel organizations, municipalities, schools, higher education, philanthropy and families can coexist—each serving the role it is best equipped to perform?
BaseballCommunity recreation, travel and tournament activity, facilities, organizations and participation.
SoftballA parallel research subject—not an add-on. Evidence is examined independently wherever its structure differs.
Youth SportsThe larger umbrella, allowing the methodology to extend to additional sports later.
Explore by Institutional Role
One ecosystem. Different responsibilities.
Each profile asks what the institution is designed to do, how its model intersects Oklahoma, where it succeeds, where barriers emerge and where collaboration may be possible.
01
Community Investment & Philanthropy
How can philanthropy help communities build sustainable opportunity and long-term capacity?
Avedis Foundation
Examining how place-based philanthropy can intersect youth development, recreation, community health and shared assets.
BaseballSoftballYouth Development
Love's Community Giving
Revisiting a documented 2020 partnership conversation involving the Brian Crawford Memorial Sports Complex, youth development, adaptive recreation and community investment—and asking what community opportunity could look like today.
Youth DevelopmentCommunity InvestmentEducationVolunteerism
02
National Nonprofit & Community Development
What can national nonprofit expertise, programming, partnerships and facility-development experience contribute?
Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation
Researching the national model, Oklahoma footprint, youth-development work, facilities and opportunities for collaboration.
BaseballSoftballYouth DevelopmentFacilities
03
Community-Based Baseball & Softball
What conditions allow locally governed, affordable and sustainable community programs to grow?
Little League International
Rebuilding the Oklahoma conversation around Little League's community-based baseball and softball model, historical footprint, participation, facilities, governance, volunteer capacity and opportunities for sustainable growth alongside tournament and travel sports.
BaseballSoftballCommunity RecreationVolunteer DevelopmentPublic Facilities
OK Kids Baseball Association
Examining Oklahoma's community-based baseball model through the documented Lincoln County record, public-facility use, player development, umpire workforce demand, local economics and the conditions that may help community programs coexist with travel and tournament sports.
BaseballCommunity RecreationPublic FacilitiesOfficials Workforce
04
Tournament & Travel Baseball & Softball
What role should tournament and travel sports play, and how can that role coexist with community recreation?
USSSA — Oklahoma Statewide
Integrating the Hidden Valley statewide quantitative research with the Better Together framework to examine tournament and travel baseball and softball, facilities, economics, officials demand, community intersection and opportunities for coexistence.
BaseballSoftballTournament & TravelPublic Facilities
Perfect Game
Planned research into the Oklahoma footprint, event/showcase model, facilities and participant pathways.
Scope To VerifyTournament / Showcase
Profile in Development
Triple Crown Sports
Planned research into Oklahoma activity, facilities, economics, sport scope and community intersection.
Scope To VerifyTournament Sports
Profile in Development
05
Public Assets & Institutional Partners
How should publicly supported facilities serve residents, community programs, schools and tournament activity?
Oklahoma Community Sports Infrastructure
Connecting municipalities, sports complexes, schools, colleges and higher education to ownership, investment, access, scheduling, stewardship and community benefit.
Public FacilitiesBaseballSoftballSchoolsHigher Education
Research Gateway in Development
Evidence Before Conclusions
One protocol for every institution.
The same evidence classifications apply whether the subject is a foundation, nonprofit, tournament organization, municipality, school or facility.
A — Documented FactSupported by identifiable primary or reliable contemporaneous records.
B — Organizational StatementA claim or description attributed to the organization itself.
C — Research FindingAn analytical conclusion derived from disclosed evidence and methodology.
D — First-Person RecollectionHistorical testimony separated from contemporaneous documentation.
E — Research HypothesisA plausible, testable proposition not yet established.
F — Unresolved QuestionThe current record does not support a responsible determination.
Better Together Research Rule: The initiative does not assume that the growth, decline, success or failure of any Oklahoma baseball, softball or youth-sports model was caused by another organization. Associations are treated as observations or hypotheses unless reliable evidence supports a causal finding. Reasonable competing explanations are considered.
Living Research
Research status should be visible—not hidden.
Profiles develop as evidence develops. Status labels help readers distinguish established work from research still being assembled.
Research PlannedSubject identified; scope and records are being defined.
Research UnderwayPrimary records and Oklahoma evidence are being collected and tested.
Profile PublishedA public research profile is available for review.
Research UpdatedMaterial new evidence has triggered revalidation or revision.
Built on Existing Research
Better Together connects the archive rather than replacing it.
Hidden Valley, facility research, municipal records, organizational profiles, public-school research, workforce studies and historical case studies remain evidence sources. Better Together adds the collaboration and opportunity question.
Explore Baseball Heaven ResearchHelp Build the Record
Better research gets stronger when the record can be challenged.
Organizations, municipalities, schools, coaches, officials, families and researchers are invited to provide records, identify errors, challenge interpretations and share successful models Oklahoma communities can learn from.
- Submit records, contracts, policies, historical materials or source documents.
- Challenge or verify data and identify missing context.
- Share successful baseball, softball or community-development models.
- Provide corrections or evidence that changes a published interpretation.
Working Thesis — Not a Predetermined Conclusion
The question is whether Oklahoma has the connective infrastructure to let different models complement one another.
Better Together will test whether Oklahoma's baseball and softball challenges are better understood as ecosystem issues involving public facilities, community recreation, tournament sports, schools, nonprofit organizations, philanthropy and families rather than as the product of any single institution. That proposition remains a research hypothesis until the evidence supports a stronger conclusion.
BETTER TOGETHER — Follow the evidence. Test the explanation. Identify the opportunity.