Moving towards social inclusion: Manager and staff perspectives on an award winning community sport and recreation program for immigrants

•Case study of a sport and recreation organization's newcomer inclusion program.•Used a framework to examine organization role, success factors, and challenges.•Found that newcomers were expected to assimilate and fit into existing programs.•Success factors: staff champions, leisure counseling, partnerships, and outreach.•Challenges: addressing multiple barriers, partnerships, and short-term funding.This case study examined manager and staff perspectives on their local sport and recreation department's role, organizational practices, and challenges faced when developing and sustaining a wellness program for immigrants that received a program excellence award from a provincial recreation association in Canada. Data were collected through a document analysis and interviews with all 10 staff and managers involved in the development and implementation of the newcomer wellness program, an integrated intervention with a physical activity and sport component. The findings revealed that the recreation department largely adopted an assimilation role where newcomers were expected to fit into existing programs and the implications of this are discussed. Managers and staff pointed to four key organizational practices that fostered newcomer inclusion including: having multiple staff champions, using a leisure access counselling approach, developing community partnerships and outreach, and implementing culturally sensitive marketing. Challenges encountered were reducing multiple barriers to program participation, uncertainty about interculturalism, managing partnerships, and a reliance on short-term funding that threatened the sustainability of the program. We extend a theoretical framework on the organizational dimension of social inclusion, suggest ideas for future research, and discuss implications for community sport and recreation practitioners.