Helping Improve Quality Of Life For Aboriginal Youth
November 29, 2010
McGuinty Government And Right To Play Launch Hockey Program
This winter, Aboriginal children and youth in Moose Cree and Sandy Lake First Nations will be hitting the ice to receive hockey lessons and compete in hockey games.
Promoting Life-skills for Aboriginal Youth (PLAY) is a pilot program developed by Right To Play in partnership with the Province and other organizations. The program helps Aboriginal youth improve their health, self-esteem and leadership skills through participation in sport and play activities.
The winter hockey camps are the latest addition to the PLAY program. They build on the success of the summer program, which has already helped more than 300 Aboriginal children and youth learn valuable life-skills and improve their health.
Based on Right To Play programming in more than 20 countries around the world, PLAY uses sport and play to support Aboriginal youth and help them develop valuable life skills and improve their health. A key component of the program is building leadership through volunteer work and relationship building with other members of the community.
This program also supports the government’s Open Ontario plan to help strengthen Northern and Aboriginal communities and help more youth reach their full potential.
QUICK FACTS
- The Ontario government has committed to providing about $490,000 over four years to support PLAY.
- PLAY partners include: Merck Canada, RBC Foundation, Larry and Judy Tanenbaum Foundation, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Sport Canada, the University of Ottawa School of Human Kinetics, Motivate Canada, Hydro One and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
- Right To Play has 350 Athlete Ambassadors including its newest, Luke Schenn from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
- The PLAY program was introduced in Moose Cree and Sandy Lake First Nations in July 2010. Both communities report increased participation among youth and fewer incidents of vandalism and suicide since the program started.
- More than half of First Nations children are overweight or obese and rates of diabetes among Aboriginal people are three to five times higher than those of the general Canadian population.
