- Make sure community sport reflects our best values.
- Market sport in an inviting, non-threatening way, using
non-traditional media and means.
• Dedicate more resources to quality assurance initiatives.
- Refocus community sport (especially for ages 4 to 12)
to meet healthy child development objectives.
- Ensure that community sport is safe, fair and ethically
sound.
- Expand the size and capacity of community sport
volunteers, who remain the primary sport providers in
Alberta communities.
KEY QUESTIONS:
• How do we ensure young people develop a lifelong love of
community sport and being physically active?
• How can grassroots community sport transform itself in
dynamic, innovative ways to ensure that our citizens, and
particularly children and youth, have fun and become
physically literate and skilled in multiple sports?
• How can local groups expand access to active sport
participation and engagement, so that people of all ages,
cultures and abilities, rural and urban, experience positive
and sustained health outcomes while learning
life-enhancing values and behaviours?
• Employ more fluid, collaborative, creative and integrated
sport delivery models.
- Make sure your community has an integrated
community sport development strategy or plan that
reflects local needs, conditions and aspirations.
- Create clear, coordinated pathways into sport
participation by nurturing highly localized, joined-up
networks involving key sport, recreation, education,
health and transportation agencies and authorities.
- Seriously consider using the “Canadian Sport for Life”
model to achieve integrated and seamless
grassroots/grassroutes community sports participation
and delivery.
- Use community development approaches both to
benefit the community and to equip everyone to be active
all life long.
- Consider the regionalization of sport services.
- Employ improved governance models focused on joined-up,
partnered planning and action.
- Foster an enhanced sense of community identity, spirit, pride
and culture through community sport.
People participate in community sport to meet fundamental
physical, social/emotional, cognitive and/or spiritual needs. The
better a community sport experience is at meeting those needs,
the more relevant it becomes—and the more likely people are to
continue being involved.
• How can sport itself better inspire and deliver on a “sport
for all” premise?
Community sport - a key public asset - greatly enhances the lives of
citizens and their communities.
Better choices . . .
better outcomes
through sport innovation.
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