Sports and Recreation

Ryan Knockwood
Sport and Recreation Coordinator

May 2007- December, 2008:
The Sport and Recreation Program is made possible by the Aboriginal Sport Circle and Capacity Development Bilateral. This is an agreement between the Province of PEI and the Federal Government of Canada.

Sport and Recreation Mandate
The program’s mandate is to increase grassroots participation in sport and recreation for First Nations on Prince Edward Island, and to help improve the health of this group through appropriate and effective health promotion activities. The program also offers technical advice for programs that occur in either of the First Nation communities.

The program is also dedicated to increasing the number of volunteers for all communities to provide each with trained and certified individuals to assist in sport and recreation programming and to act as positive role models for the youth of our communities.

Service Scope
The program provides services and programming to Lennox Island First Nation, Abegweit First Nation and the off-reserve population of First Nations living on Prince Edward Island.

Increasing Grassroots Participation in Sport and Recreation:
Each community has a unique situation in terms of availability of facilities, equipment and human resources. For this reason, a generic approach to designing and delivering services or programs is not possible and as a result, different programs are delivered to the various groups in different communities.

Activities that have occurred:
Two multi-sport (MS) programs have been delivered in the first year of operations for the Sport and Recreation program. 

• In Lennox Island First Nation (LIFN), the MS program was delivered with the community’s youth summer camps. The sports that were chosen were T-ball and soccer.
• The second MS program was offered to Abegweit First Nation (AFN) and the off-reserve population in Charlottetown.  Facility space was rented at the Charlottetown Boys and Girls Club, and programs ran three times a week.  Sports that were delivered were badminton, basketball, and soccer.

The program also ran recreation sport nights in LIFN once a week for the majority of the year. Floor hockey and basketball made up the sports offered and community members as young as 5, and as old as 45, made it out at some point during the program.

Health Promotion:
The program offers a number of different wellness services or programs.  The Sport and Recreation Coordinator worked closely with the Health Promotion Coordinator to design and deliver these programs and to also ensure that the programs were safe, effective and enjoyable.

Program Examples:

Staff Challenges for both First Nations including an internal staff Challenge: 

• Members from the three groups paid a small entry fee and competed against each other to see who could improve various aspects of their health. Health improvements included hydration, weight loss, muscle gain, BMI, and body fat percentage. 

Abegweit in Motion: (exercise, nutrition, and information sessions)

• This program was designed to introduce basic fitness and nutrition concepts to the members of Abegweit First Nation. Participants received nutrition plans, exercise routines, walking programs and healthy cooking classes.

Walk Turtle Island - North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) Challenge:   (Lennox Island)

• This was a challenge that was designed to promote the NAIG for Cowichan First Nation, in British Columbia. Turtle Island was the name use by First Nations for North America. The challenge was to see how many kilometers that participants could accumulate through various physical activities. They would record the activity and duration and then the coordinator would calculate the info into steps and then kilometers.

Personal Training Services at Eagles Nest Gym and Abegweit First Nation Health Center:

• Both First Nations have a community fitness center that the Sport and Recreation Coordinator used to deliver fitness programming. The fitness centers were also very useful for the staff challenges as it allowed access to a fitness facility for individuals living in the community.  The facilities allow for basic resistance programs, flexibility programs and cardiovascular programs.

Volunteer Development:  

• Certification Courses are offered for the Aboriginal Coach Manual (ACM), which is delivered by the National Aboriginal Sport Circle based in Ontario. The course was designed to complement the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) of Canada. It provides coaches with information regarding what they may face when coaching an Aboriginal athlete. This information includes: cultural sensitivity, racism, customs and traditions and basic insight into Aboriginal cultural.
• To follow up on the ACM, The program will be offering NCCP certifications for community members wishing to obtain coaching certifications.

Special Events:

• The program rewards participants by organizing various special events. These events have included a camping and kayak adventure, a special guest speech by Canadian Boxing legend, George Chuvalo, canoe trips, BBQs and pizza parties.