National “Shout-Out” for Peterborough’s Access to Recreation Project
Written by admin, October 1, 2014
October 1, 2014 – Canadian Sport for Life Publishes Feature Article Celebrating Local Access to Recreation Leadership Initiative
The success of Peterborough County and City’s efforts to improve access to recreation for local residents is in the national spotlight following the publication of a feature online article today by Canadian Sport for Life.
“It’s wonderful to see the collaboration and hard work of our nine local townships recognized like this at the national level,” said Janet Dawson, Health Promoter at Peterborough Public Health who facilitated the Access to Recreation (ATR) Project. “Their leadership in creating a Peterborough area-wide policy to improve access to recreation for all residents truly was groundbreaking, and now can be used as a model for other municipalities across Canada.”
The Canadian Sport for Life movement advocates for alignment and collaboration of sport, education, health and recreation sectors as a means to provide quality sport and physical activity opportunities to all Canadians. In their online feature article entitled “Peterborough County: Changing the Landscape of Municipal Recreation”, it describes how the nine county townships and the city overcame the systemic challenge of working separately and instead developed an overarching policy that improved access to recreation on many fronts.
One of these fronts is the better coordination of how local recreation programming is delivered. An example of this would be that municipalities now have a communication mechanism with other municipalities to plan when recreation and sports programming is offered so that they can attract the most appropriate demographic and avoid duplication. The policy also helps remove barriers, such as cost and travel time, so that citizens can get the physical activity they need.
Described in the article as an “incredible success”, the workgroup has since formalized to look at other related issues, and now includes other key partners such as the City/County Social Services Department and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Sport.
To learn more about access to recreation, please visit:
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/5702981/access-to-recreation-key-messages-ospapph-pdf-559k?da=y
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For further information, please contact:
Brittany Cadence
Communications Supervisor
(705) 743-1000, ext. 391