ONTARIO’S SPORT, RECREATION, HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION COMMUNITY COMMITS TO BECOME AGENTS OF CHANGE AT SPORT 4 LIFE SUMMIT
What do you get when you combine sport administrators, educators, health and recreation leaders, coaches and parents all under one roof? From November 26-27th at the Holiday Inn, Markham, over 175 community leaders came together to learn, contribute, exchange and “shake the foundations” to change the way we organize and participate in sport and physical activity around the province. The goal was to provide organizers of sport and recreation with tools and resources to put the Canadian Sport 4 Life movement into ACTION.
“Finding new and innovative ways to make sport and physical activity an important part of life for Ontario’s children will help to make our province healthier,” said Margarett Best, Minister of Health Promotion and Sport. “The Ontario government commends the work of all of our conference partners – together, we will put the Canadian Sport 4 Life movement into action in Ontario.”
“We felt people left the summit with a real sense of commitment to a new paradigm for sport and physical activity,” says Susan Kitchen, Executive Director, Coaches Association of Ontario. “Clubs and schools from Essex to North Bay will benefit from the new ideas these leaders will be implementing in their communities.”
The conference began with a pedometer challenge where all delegates were encouraged to “walk the talk” and get moving over the course of the weekend. Day 1 opened with Canadian Sport 4 Life architects, Richard Way and Istvan Balyi , followed by collaborative roundtable discussions from public health and presentations from Ontario’s Physical Health Education Association (Ophea), RBC’s First Office of Injury Prevention at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, various provincial sport organizations, Parks & Recreation Ontario (PRO), the Coaches Association of Ontario (CAO), Sportball and the University of Toronto. Participants left Day 1 with ideas about how these multiple sectors can collaborate to support the Canadian Sport 4 Life movement.
Day 2 focused on putting these collaborative ideas into ACTION. Participants were asked to commit to implementing one idea and demonstrated this commitment by signing a pledge to “shake the foundations” as ambassadors in their community/organization.
The summit was supported by the Ontario Government and jointly hosted by SPORT4ONTARIO, the Coaches Association of Ontario and the Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport.
If you missed out on all the action, visit www.ontariosport4life.ca for highlights and to download resources and presentations.
Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) is a movement to increase sport’s contribution in Canadian society by promoting each child’s healthy and logical development in a sport or physical activity. Sport organizations across the province are looking to mobilizeand build real momentum for implementation of Canadian Sport for Life concepts.
See you all next year!
Vision
To create a unique “summit style” event that will mobilize and build real momentum for the implementation of Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) concepts in Ontario.
Mission
Alongside our sport and recreation partners, provincially and nationally, the Coaches Association of Ontario (CAO) and SPORT4ONTARIO (S4O) have collaborated in partnership with the Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport (MHPS) to host a unique “summit style” event in the fall that will mobilize and build real momentum for implementation of Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) concepts in Ontario. SPORT4ONTARIO and the Coaches Association of Ontario applaud the Ministry for its multi‐faceted approach to facilitate integration of these concepts into the delivery of sport programs including but not limited to the recently announced CS4L Ontario PSO/MSO Planning Grant Program. We believe the critical gaps in Ontario are leader momentum and broader public engagement. Our goal by working together to host a highly creative, high energy, summit‐style event is to expand the opportunities, ignite community leaders and help bridge the gap between concept and action.
Event: Ontario Sport for Life (OS4L) Summit
Dates: November 26-27, 2010
Schedule: Click here to view summit schedule, session descriptions & speaker biographies
Resources/Presentations: Click here to download some of the presentations made during the summit.
