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CAAWS eNetwork (2096)

1. M. Ann Hall to receive the 2009 CAAWS Marion

Lay “Herstorical” Breakthrough Award
Respected author and academic, M. Ann Hall, Ph.D of Edmonton, Alberta is the recipient of the 2009 CAAWS Marion Lay “Herstorical” Breakthrough Award. The award is presented by CAAWS to an individual, group or organization whose distinct contribution has had a long-term and significant influence and has broken down barriers to equal participation for girls and women in sport and physical activity. Dr. Hall is being recognized for her groundbreaking work on women in sport. She has been nationally and internationally recognized for her research and publication of both books and journal articles. The award will be presented during the CAAWS board meeting this week in Edmonton.

2. CAAWS' Women 55-70 Project trains 20 Master Trainers

The Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion has provided CAAWS with three-year project funding to increase sport and physical activity participation for Ontario women 55-70. The project began in March 2009 with one of the first activities being the recruitment of 20 women from across Ontario to become Master Trainers for the project. The response to our call for applications was overwhelming with over 60 applications received. Congratulations to the amazing women who were selected to become Master Trainers for the project:

Charlene Akiwenzie, Wiarton
Tina Braam, Milton
Nancy Cook, Barrie
Barb Cooper, Toronto
Elaine Endanawas, Midland
Tea Habjan, Mississauga
Petra Halk, Milton
Kristy Hardiman, Ottawa
Louise Hickey, Sudbury
Becky Holden, Fort Frances
Margery Holman, Windsor
Lorraine Leblanc, Markstay
Linda Lott, Kingston
Pat Messner, Ottawa
Liz Pascual, Hamilton
Annalisa Percy, Petawawa
Susan Philips, Whitevale
Gail Prior, Mt. Brydges
Kimberly Robertson, Ottawa
Lovenia Thorpe, Southampton

The formal Master Training session was facilitated by Pat Hunt and Shelley Callaghan in Toronto in May to provide information about the Women 55-70 materials, training on presentation delivery and to start discussions on possible regional activities.

Building from the Master Training session, the first activity will be the delivery of eight regional workshops in the fall of 2009 to be lead by the new Master Trainers with support from CAAWS. From these workshops a call for eight pilot projects will take place in February 2010 with funded projects running from April – December 2010. In addition, Master Trainers will be looking for opportunities to share the information and offer support within their regions.

For more information on the regional workshops, pilot projects or to connect with a Master Trainer in your region, please contact Shelley at: purpledog@sympatico.ca

More information on the Women 55-70 project and related materials can be found here.

3. CAAWS takes its leadership program to Doha, Qatar

The Qatar Women's Sport Committee partnered with the Coaching Association of Canada to provide training at the community coach level and to train the leaders in the “Sport for Life” phase of the Long Term Athlete Development model. With the opening of the women's sport club in Doha, new opportunities for girls and women to participate in sport and a growing need for women coaches have been created. “We are coaches” is the title of a new Qatar Women's Sport Committee initiative for Qatari women. CAAWS Board member Guylaine Demers delivered the Women and Leadership Program's Networking workshop to 43 Qatari women as part of the initiatve in May 2009. The workshop was highly appreciated and it was clear that Canadian women share many similar experiences with Qatari women. This was the first of a series of CAAWS workshops that will be delivered in Qatar, a small country that is next to Saudi Arabia.

4. Reports and Resources

a) AthletesCAN Releases Discussion Paper: “Including Transitioned and Transitioning Athletes in Sport – Issues, Facts, and Perspectives”

Gender diversity is increasingly visible in Canadian society, and individuals who do not reflect mainstream gender norms are rightfully seeking to participate more fully in the benefits society has to offer, including participation in sport. AthletesCAN is pleased to announce the release of a discussion paper on the topic of gender transition and sport participation. This paper is part of a larger project aimed at creating a shared understanding of gender diversity – a subject still shrouded by a profound lack of knowledge and invalid assumptions.

The Promising Practices: Working with Transitioning/Transitioned Athletes in Sport project was initiated by AthletesCAN, in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and CAAWS, to identify and discuss the barriers that inhibit the participation of gender-transitioning and gender-transitioned athletes in sport.

This project has several components including commissioning academic reviews of the social sciences and biological literature; compiling examples of good practices; consulting nationally with sport leaders and athletes; and broadening the dialogue via publication of this discussion paper. The discussion paper approaches the issue from historical, ethical, educational, and scientific perspectives, and observes that contrary to popular belief, there is no empirical evidence to either support or refute the assumption that transitioned athletes compete at an advantage or disadvantage compared with physically born females and males.

Copies of the discussion paper and an executive summary are available from the AthletesCAN website. AthletesCAN welcomes feedback on the paper, and has provided a convenient feedback feature along with a summary of feedback collected to date. Feedback gathered will provide guidance on a policy framework and policy implementation. To view and/or download these documents, visit www.athletescan.com

CAAWS also continues to build its online resources on homophobia. View the latest material on the CAAWS website.

b) 2009 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth

According to the 2009 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth, children who are physically active perform better in school than those who are not. Interestingly, academic performance improves even when academic learning time is reduced to allow time for physical activity. The Report Card was released by Active Healthy Kids Canada and its strategic partners, ParticipACTION and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute – Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (HALO).

The Report Card notes that by improving memory, concentration and attention span, physical activity positively impacts children's achievement in math, reading, grades, perceptual skill and overall academic readiness. Physical activity has also been shown to increase a child's self-confidence, self-esteem, self-image and connection to school.

Disturbingly, despite the academic and health benefits of physical activity, for the third consecutive year, the 2009 Report Card assigned an F for Physical Activity Levels. Only 13 per cent of Canadian children and youth are meeting the minimum recommendation of 90 minutes of physical activity a day.

A full copy of the report can be found at www.activehealthykids.ca

c) Web Modules on Leadership and Governance now available for free

Over the last three years the Australian Womensport and Recreation Association (AWRA) has produced five web learning modules on leadership and governance, to help increase the numbers of women in sports leadership and governance positions. They are now available for free downloading, to encourage more women to access and use the modules.

Click through to download these module topics:
Committee Readiness for Sports Organisations
Effective Board Meeting Procedure
Implementing a Successful Mentoring Program
Introduction to Good Governance - Sport & Recreation
Risk Assesment Learning Module

Your feedback is welcome and can be made through the site, or by emailing crosswhite@bigpond.com

5. What's Coming Up:

a) Canada Gets Active!
Interested in being one of 5 communities in Canada to provide Grade 5 students with a FREE Community Physical Activity Pass that will provide FREE access to recreation and facilities? Learn more about the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association's (CPRA) Canada Gets Active Pilot Project that will be taking place in 2009/2010! CPRA is working on a new project titled Canada Gets Active. Modeled after Kingston Gets Active (KGA), and in conjunction with the Everybody gets to play™ initiative, the main objective of Canada Gets Active is to increase Physical Activity involvement of Canadian children by increasing their access to and participation in community recreation facilities.

For those communities who want to confirm their interest and receive additional information please contact Carolyn McClelland at cmcclelland@cpra.ca or call 613-523-5315 x312.

If you know of an initiative in your area with a similar vision to the Canada Gets Active project, let us know about it! To share your success story contact cmcclelland@cpra.ca or call 613-523-5315 x312.

For more information visit www.everybodygetstoplay.ca or www.kingstongetsactive.ca

b) GM's Making Dreams Possible – Online applications are now available!
The Coaching Association of Canada is pleased to announce that the General Motors Making Dreams Possible club coaching grant applications are now back online!

Dedicated to supporting athletes at all levels through coaching excellence, General Motors' Making Dreams Possible Program provides one hundred $2,000 club coaching grants and ten $10,000 high performance coach grants, to community sport clubs and high performance coaches nationwide on an annual basis.

This fall, another 50+ $2,000 grants will be awarded to community sport clubs across the country for coach training and development. The application deadline is September 21, 2009.

Apply now and make dreams possible in your community! Visit www.coach.ca

6. Award Nominations
a) AthletesCAN seeks Leadership Award nominees The AthletesCAN Leadership Award was created in 2005 to recognize the contributions of athlete leaders. The award is presented annually to a national team athlete or former national team athlete who has made a significant contribution to sport and to athletes through their involvement as an effective athlete representative, advocate, change agent or bridge builder for athletes within the sport community. The AthletesCAN Leadership Award celebrates the importance of athlete representatives; honours the successes they have achieved through their work as leaders and change agents; and encourages former athletes to stay connected to the sport community and to make a difference.

If you fit the above description or know of someone who does, click here for more details:

Deadline: Friday, July 31, 2009

For more information:
Danika Tanguay
dtanguay@athletescan.com

b) Call for Nominations: Geoff Gowan Award
The Geoff Gowan Award was created in 1996 to honour former Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) president Geoffrey Gowan, CM, PhD. The award recognizes lifetime contribution to coaching development and is awarded to a coach who has presented a positive public image of coaching and enhanced the role of the coach with the Canadian public.

Go to www.coach.ca to view the eligibility criteria. The CAC will be accepting recommendations from the sport community until August 4, 2009. All letters of recommendations must be submitted to:

Geoff Gowan Award
c/o Coaching Association of Canada
141 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 300
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5J3
Fax: (613) 235-9500
e-mail: GeoffGowanAward@coach.ca

7. Celebration Noticeboard
AthletesCAN Executive Director and CAAWS Board member Moira Lassen, Ottawa, Ontario, was appointed to the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Technical Committee. The Honourable Mary McNeil has been named as the new Minister of State for the Olympics and ActNow BC. She is the MLA for the riding of Vancouver-False Creek in British Columbia. Miray Cheskes Granovsky, Toronto, Ontario, has been appointed to the Board of The Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada.

New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame welcomed longtime figure skating volunteer administrator and official/judge, Betty Bouma of Bathurst, New Brunswick in the builder category on June 5th. Phyllis Bomberry, Oshweken, Ontario, will be inducted into the Softball Canada Hall of Fame in recognition for her contribution and excellence as an athlete to the sport of softball. Susi Graham, formerly of Kitchener, Ontario, will be inducted into International Water Skiing Federation Hall of Fame during the 2009 World Water Ski Championships in Calgary August 3-9. Motivate Canada has welcomed Eleonore Fournier-Tombs, Montreal, Québec, as Communications Manager.

Lindsay, Ontario's Karen Meek was selected by Ringette Canada as on ice official for the upcoming world junior ringette championship, which will be held in Prague, Czech Republic from August 4-8, 2009. Margot Page, Stoney Creek, Ontario, will serve as head coach of Canada's National Women's Under-22 Team for the 2009-2010 season. Stephanie White, Toronto, Ontario, will join her behind the bench as an assistant coach. Alexandra Orlando, Toronto, Ontario was selected by the Canadian Olympic Committee to attend the 2009 International Olympic Academy (IOA) Olympia, Greece.

Cathy Phillips, Dundas, Ontario was presented with Hockey Canada's Female hockey breakthrough award, which recognizes an individual for outstanding leadership and contribution to the advancement of female hockey in Canada.

In the Loop celebrates women's accomplishments in the sport and physical activity communities. Send career notices, changes, awards and recognitions to In the Loop c/o bmacdonald@caaws.ca to be included in the next issue.

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Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity
N202 - 801 King Edward Avenue,
Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1N 6N5
(613) 562-5667
caaws@caaws.ca
www.caaws.ca

 

 

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