Backgrounder: 2021-2023 Sport for Social Development in Indigenous Communities Stream Two Funded Applicants and Project Descriptions

The Recreation Department will create a specific Recreation Master Plan that will include the “Commit To Be Fit” Program for ?Aq’am community youth. The activities will be planned and conducted according to the following agenda:

1. Physical activity awareness campaign;
2. Summer sports camp;
3. Introduction to sports;
4. Sports/recreation activities at local venues;
5. Gymnastics program;
6. Soccer, dodgeball, and floor hockey game nights; and
7. Fitness classes.

This project aims to improve access to physical activity by:

• providing the community with equipment for multiple sports in order to promote and increase access to physical activity; and
• ensure the rental of sports venues and facilities in order to offer fixed programming to the Gespeg community and to migrants who now live in the greater Montreal area.

The Community Ultimate Spirit Program:

• includes a series of school-based ultimate frisbee learning modules that are culturally adapted for the individual needs of the targeted First Nations;
• has the objective of teaching the sport through a journey of learning elements of the game while exploring values, connections, inclusion, spirit and respect; and.
• will include coach training and mentoring, and develop resource material (i.e. technical skills and activity cards and program guidelines), to be translated as needed.

Sport Coaching and Officiating Advancement Initiative:

• In partnership with the Coaching Association of Canada and Sport for Life, this initiative will: deliver coach education workshops using the Aboriginal Coaching modules one, two and three; and train and certify coaches in track and field, badminton, basketball, broomball, softball, swimming and volleyball;
• Officiating certification for community-level activities will also be offered in connection with the above-mentioned sports;
• The goal is to deliver 75 coach education workshops in nine communities;
• Coaches who register and attend the training and certification workshops will be certified; and
• The goal is to deliver 30 officiating clinics in nine communities.

This program will organize different sports activities for youth between the ages of 6 to 13.

The sports to be offered are:

• Softball;
• Broomball;
• Soccer;
• Football;
• Athletics;
• Cross-country; and
• Rugby.

It will also include the creation of a football team that will travel and compete against other schools in the area.

The activities will be offered twice a week during the school year. The program will highlight students’ efforts at school and in sport.

This program will follow the BC Curriculum for Physical and Health Education and Arts Education.

• The Gymnasium Fitness Program will develop the physical literacy of Indigenous youth and teach them about the importance of physical activity and making healthy living life choices.
• The Paddle Painting Art Program will focus on traditional Indigenous art painting on a canoe paddle.
• The On-water Paddling Program will teach students physical literacy by having them:
  • participate in different activities and environments, while paddling on the water, and encouraging them to practise lifelong physical activity;
  • learn water safety skills in and around boats (including proper techniques, federal regulations for life jackets, and information about the equipment needed in recreational boats); and
  • learn about environmental conservation of their community’s surrounding areas.

The Strength in Numbers project:

• will continue the employment of youth sports coordinator and youth worker assistants who will develop, deliver and monitor the youth sports programs;
• will provide transportation and other logistical support so that participants can continue participating in the youth sports programs;
• will build on the Aboriginal Head Start program and help enhance self-esteem, resiliency and optimism through sport and physical activity by providing emotional support from within the Ottawa Inuit community. It will also encourage the exploration of Inuit culture and spirituality.

This project seeks to build capacity in the community by helping participants from the community become certified coaches and trainers.

The project will focus on a female hockey program and a youth after-school hockey program, and plans to purchase ice time, jerseys and socks for the participants.

The Fort Chipewyan Traditional Indigenous Sport, Recreation, Skills and Knowledge Program will provide children and youth from Mikisew Cree First Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Fort Chipewyan Métis with access to sport and recreation programming, with an emphasis on traditional and cultural activities.

To this end, it will offer four seasonal cultural camps (winter 2021, spring 2021, summer 2021 and fall 2021), which will include traditional Indigenous (Cree, Dene and Métis) land-based learning opportunities for program participants. At each seasonal camp, children and youth will participate in various activities that are traditional for the Cree, Dene and Métis people of the area. Participants will experience traditional culture, language and lifestyles, including ice fishing, snowshoeing, skiing, trapping, hunting, harvesting, hide-tanning and medicine-picking.

The Youth Wellbeing Through Physical Activity and Sport project will be a peer-to-peer after-school program. Such programs have been successfully demonstrated to improve knowledge of healthy living and healthy behaviours for Indigenous youth (Eskicioglu et al. 2014). The project is sport-based and will be delivered by MLCN youth to their younger peers. Mentors will model 1) sport and recreation 2) healthy eating 3) culture and relationship building, and 4) contribution to community.

The project connects sport and recreation programming to high school credits. High school credits will be connected through the Career and Life Management and Physical Education curriculum. The aim is to foster community engagement and support youth in completing their high school education.

The Native Child and Family Services of Toronto’s peer-led physical literacy program was designed to address critical gaps in physical literacy, mental health, and wellness programming available to vulnerable Indigenous youth in Toronto. Each year, the program operates out of its Scarborough service location to offer high-risk Indigenous youth aged 16-29 barrier-free access to a culturally safe physical literacy program that

combines sports, peer engagement, mental health workshops, Elder supports and cultural teachings. Grounded in the Indigenous medicine wheel teachings, the program holistically addresses the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual elements of wellness through a combination of intergenerational supports, recreation-based physical activities and skills-building workshops that instill in youth messages of resiliency, harm reduction and sexual health.

This project is focused on canoeing and kayaking. It introduces youth who have a keen interest in paddling to the competitive and coaching side of the sport. This skill-based, educational project will allow young paddlers to build on their fundamental

canoe/kayak knowledge and become confident athletes and coaches in the process.

This project includes:

• monthly workshops to increase community connections by including Elder teachings to students, increasing students’ ability to maintain their own bicycles, and offering a healthy evening/weekend activity;
• daily circle meetings: everyone who attends is asked to share their mood/feelings as well as their intention for the day. This has proven to be a very powerful method of bringing the group together and giving members space to work on their healing;
• the Storm Riders Bike Club, which provides continued pride and empowerment, as well as exercise through sport for children; and
• continuing to work with guiding Elders in their sharing of information and blessing each section of the trail so that members continue to learn how important the connection between healing and land-based learning is.

The Standing Buffalo Social-Sport Development Initiative will:

• use the successful lacrosse program model to develop sport-specific sessions for hockey, baseball and boxing;
• continue to deliver the lacrosse program as it is currently set up in the community;
• organize Come Try Events to offer introduction sessions for community members new to the sports; educate; and provide a safe learning opportunity for members.

The Association:

• offers free, low-barrier, consistent and quality programming to youth after school, on evenings and on weekends;
• provides opportunities to develop, participate in, and contribute to a wide array of dynamic, youth-led sports and recreation activities; and
• engages Indigenous youth, encourages healthy lifestyles, strengthens resiliencies, builds protective factors, fosters community engagement, and supports skills and leadership development.