Community connections 2015

SIRCuit

June 2015

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

ADVANCING QUALITY SPORT AND PHYSICAL LITERACY

Community Connections SIRCuit - June 2015

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CS4L 2016

JANUARY 26-28 HILTON LAC-LEAMY GATINEAUQUEBEC

DON’T MISS THESE IMPORTANT DATES:

JULY 5, 2015

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS CLOSE

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

20 16 REGISTRATION OPENS

NationalSUMMIT

“Resiliency by Design” Join the conversation

canadiansportforlife.ca/ summit2016 2

@CS4L_ACSV #CS4LSummit

WHAT’S INSIDE

June 2015

Connecting Communities to Sport for Life: Project Overview

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Building a Canadian Sport for Life Collective Impact Community

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The East Scarborough Multi-Sport Collaborative

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The Power of Mentors: Supporting Emerging Community Connection

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Infographic: Getting Physical Literacy into the Water Supply

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How’s It Going? Evaluation in the Community Connections Project

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Moving it Forward: Winnipeg’s Active Start Experience to Mobilizing Community 25 On The Same Page: Policy for Quality Sport and Physical Literacy

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Moving The Needle: An In-depth Examination of 3 CS4L Communities

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Videos Your Child In Sport - Resource for Parents Winnipeg’s Cross-sector Sport Initiative video Youth Advocates of Play video

Podcasts Building a Team to Have Impact in the Community - Richard Way Physical Literacy Making Fundamental Changes in Communities - Drew Mitchell

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Connecting Communities to Sport for Life: Project Overview

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he Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) Community Connections Project explored how multiple stakeholders, animated by CS4L principles, can work collaboratively to improve community physical literacy, enhance sport program delivery, and foster strong sport-municipal recreation partnerships.

The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation supported the Project from December 2012 to March 2015, after nearly two years of discussion with Foundation staff as we built an understanding of each other’s focus, priorities and cultures. Learning was the central theme, and we went through phases of figuring it out, getting to work and finally, working with communities to help them achieve their goals. Looking back, the Project

Paul Jurbala @PaulJurbala

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was a brand new way of working with and learning from communities across Canada: a collective impact project built of nine collective impact projects.

Building Blocks for the Community Connections Project Becoming a CS4L Community Recipe for a CS4L Community Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) Community Connections Project Becoming a CS4L Community Mentor’s Guide RBC Learn to Play Project

Figuring It Out

Getting to Work

Our grant application promised that we would work for better sport, break down silos, and help more Canadians to be physically literate and active for life. The Foundation specified that we should support a crosssection of projects, provide matching funds to selected communities, and strengthen the CS4L network while capturing and sharing lessons about how to effectively engage diverse stakeholders. Then there was this clause: “Change strategy: Analysis of the Sport for Development (S4D) ecosystem and how these lessons and relationships can be leveraged; in effect, a theory of change”. This was new territory for us – the Foundation was challenging us to build the Project on theory of change thinking and to use a new developmental evaluation approach to help us understand how the Project evolved in real time. Clearly we had a lot to figure out!

In the next phase we selected the nine communities: Abbotsford, Cochrane, East Scarborough, Edmonton, Hamilton, Red Deer, Vancouver, Victoria (Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence), and Winnipeg. We held online seminars for applicants to familiarize them with the Project objectives, our Long-Term Community Development (LTCD) framework and the evaluation process we wanted to use.

We completed development of the Becoming a CS4L Community resource and workshop for communities to use, and we appointed mentors for each community and provided them a Becoming a CS4L Community Mentor’s Guide. In all, $150,000 was allocated to the communities to support their activities.

In the first phase of the Project we spent many hours drafting plans and application criteria for the communities while learning about developmental evaluation and collective impact. A milestone was our planning session in Vancouver where the Project team developed Project objectives and a theory of change-based logic model; our vision was (and is), “Every community physically literate and active for life”. Shortly afterward we were ready for applications from the communities.

We recognized that communities would be one step behind our Project team: as we were getting to work, they were figuring it all out. We used a flexible approach based on the principles of community development, recognizing that community projects were based on the identified needs, leadership and capacity of each. As a result, each community took a somewhat different direction and approach. Using our developmental evaluation approach, we challenged the communities to develop their own theories of change and reflect on and share their learning, while we did the same within the Project team.

Developmental Evaluation Primer McConnell 9 Communities

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Working with Communities By early 2014 the community leadership groups had formed and communities were defining their Project goals and approaches. One goal was to create a network of Project communities, and we continued to hold group webinars while Project mentors regularly checked in with the communities. By April the initial Project reports told us that key interests of communities included training leaders, building physical literacy, building community capacity and ensuring opportunities for participation in quality sport/activity. Communities also identified challenges including “time” (the seemingly slow pace of getting started), getting the right people around the tables, and identifying key objectives from the many opportunities.

Most agreed that patience was one of the most important ingredients.

Through the summer and into the fall of 2014, community projects were beginning to hit their strides, defining actions, planned outputs and outcomes, and engaging community champions

from the health, education, recreation and sport sectors. Later in 2014 we organized a webinar on collective impact to keep the discussion going. By early 2015, as the date for final reports neared, some communities were producing exciting products, such as community plans, resources and videos, and most had organized community workshops to mobilize more leaders. In this period our mentors continued to work with the communities, assist their planning and reporting, provide advice as needed and bring updates back to the Project team.

new RBC-PHAC Learn to Play Project, which was announced in 2014. With the Learn to Play grants, communities across Canada can enhance physical literacy-based programs or, through the leadership grants, develop multistakeholder collective impact approaches to advancing physical literacy. In Fall 2015 a new group of 28 Learn to Play grantees became the first to follow in the footsteps of the original nine McConnell-supported communities.

We hoped that in most cases the work of the community groups would continue long after the nominal Project end date of March 31, 2015, and it has done so. The final reports highlighted numerous accomplishments and were full of the energy and excitement typical of the nine community initiatives.

Throughout the process we regularly challenged the partner communities and ourselves with the questions, “What did you learn? What advice would you give others?” This special report is our opportunity to share this with you. It captures much of what was learned by both the Project team and the community groups. Each community had a unique context, yet in each multiple stakeholders with varied cultures and objectives collaborated to understand, adapt and integrate CS4L principles.

They shared their accomplishments with us and now, with you. ∆

As the work went on, CS4L was working with ParticipACTION, Royal Bank of Canada Foundation, and Public Health Alliance of Canada to help support the creation of the

What Did We Learn?

McConnell 9 Communities

Nine pilot projects tested the Canadian Sport for Life model in communities for the long-term benefit of children and adults by creating better quality sport opportunities and more engaged communities. Learn more about these communities and their community connections projects.

ABBOTSFORD, BC

VANCOUVER, BC

QUALITY SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY @SportAbbotsford

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS 4 SPORT VANCOUVER

COCHRANE, AB PLAY COCHRANE @PLAYCochrane

HAMILTON, ON ADVANCING PHYSICAL LITERACY Physical Literacy for All Hamilton #OPLS2015

RED DEER, AB PLAY CENTRAL @Barbmarsh2 @BFFL_RedDeer 6

EDMONTON, AB PLAY GREAT @YEGSportCouncil

VICTORIA, BC BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS @PISEworld

WINNIPEG, MB ACTIVE START

TORONTO, ON SPORT FOR DEVELOPMENT

CANADIAN Sport for Life WORKSHOPS PHYSICAL LITERACY &

Educate. ACTIVATE. Inspire.

Sport for Life Workshops highlight best practices, research and the experiences of CS4L to activate the delivery of quality sport and physical activity.

Designed for:

COMMUNITY

Parents Educators Local recreation leaders Health care professionals Local government representatives Volunteer and professional coaches

Be a champion in your community! Attend a Workshop and then host one of your own.

Half-day Workshops: • An Introduction to Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) •

Physical Literacy 101: From Research to Practice

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Physical Literacy 201: Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth (PLAY)

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Physical Literacy 301: Enriched Programming

Full-day Workshop: • Becoming a CS4L Community

community WORKSHOPS Join the conversation

@CS4L_ACSV For more information, please visit cs4l.ca/community-workshops or contact Mik Vahi at mik@canadiansportforlife.ca Community Connections SIRCuit - June 2015

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Building a Canadian Sport for Life Collective Impact Community

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he community is the place everyone has their first experience with physical activity and sport. Funding from the McConnell Family Foundation has strengthened the work of Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) by supporting a multi-year project to identify strategies to

engage and connect communities to improve the quality of sport and physical

activity experiences while advancing physical literacy (PL) across the lifespan.

“Community” is defined either by geographic boundaries or by a community of interest and includes elements of working together, providing mutual support and establishing a sense of belonging that helps to achieve a common good.

Vicki Harber

As a result, CS4L has grown well beyond a sport-organization focus and is now

@vharber

Solving complex and inextricably linked social, personal and economic issues associated with physical inactivity and poor quality sport requires a comprehensive and collaborative intervention strategy. While working in and alongside the communities, the CS4L Community Connections mentors have started to learn about what it takes to achieve shared aspirations. Building a better place for sport that develops physical literacy and a lifelong relationship with physical activity is not easy. Using a collective impact approach has helped us to learn how to start tackling these challenges.

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igniting community development that emphasizes grassroots awareness and cross-sector involvement.

According to numerous global reports, key recommendations include: 1. Build programs with scalability in mind.

2. Alignment (always look to build with others within and across sectors).

3. Adopt a trial-and-error attitude (start doing something and be mindful of the process, be nimble to respond with modifications as required).

To support communities with their own discovery and development, we crafted a document called “Becoming a Canadian Sport for Life Community”. This process is much more than rebranding existing programming

or creating new programming featuring CS4L, Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) and physical literacy terminology. It’s about infusing the spirit of the CS4L movement into a community to improve the quality of sport and physical activity. It’s about linking sport, education, recreation and health and aligning programming within the community.

It’s also about aligning the LTAD framework with appropriate training, competition and recovery pathways guiding an individual’s experience in sport and physical activity from infancy through all phases of adulthood. It’s about creating a paradigm shift in the way sport and physical activity in the community is planned, delivered and sustained.

The “Becoming a Canadian Sport for Life Community” journey will look different in each setting but the following eleven Long-Term Community Development (LTCD) factors are likely to apply in every community.

Community-driven development Sustained social change starts in the community where a core group of community leaders decide to abandon their individual agendas in favour of a collective approach to improving the quality of sport and physical activity.

Working together The CS4L Community approach promotes collaboration between the sport, recreation, education and health sectors. Innovative, creative, new and non-traditional partnerships are encouraged.

Increasing the levels of mutual awareness and understanding that the sectors have of each other at local, provincial and national levels, sets the stage for sustained working relationships.

Policy and strategy Policy and strategy is a major component of interaction with governments, placing sport and physical activity in the frame of parks and recreation master plans and annual strategic planning processes.

Enhanced leadership and engagement Potential CS4L Champions may be drawn from active living, recreation, sport, education, health, local government or related interests. Other dimensions of enhanced leadership include the development and engagement of skilled coaches, officials and organizers supported by a committed volunteer base.

Long-Term Community Development (LTCD) – What is it?

Long-Term Community Development (LTCD) applies “thinking globally, acting locally” to the domain of sport and physical activity. Canadian Sport 4 Life (CS4L) provides the framework, but anticipated outcomes go well beyond increased health and fitness of citizens, beyond improved sport ability. The riches of a CS4L Community include enhanced community inclusivity, community resilience and sustainability – regardless of the setting: rural or urban, small or large. The journey in becoming a CS4L Community will look different in each setting but the eleven LTCD factors outlined in this article are likely to apply in every community.

Source: Canadian Sport for Life. (2013). Becoming a Canadian Sport for Life Community 2.0.

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Education and training

This document also provides:

LTCD is best supported within a culture of continuous improvement through shared learning experiences. This will include learning new sport and coaching specific skills and techniques as well as building capacity in the areas of leadership, community development, strategic planning, change management

• guidelines for building a CS4L community leadership team,

Quality sport and physical activity This goal will be attained through the integration of LTAD principles into local recreational sport programming, sport club training programs and competitions.

Physical literacy Quality sport and physical activity grows upon a foundation of physical literacy. Acquiring fundamental movement skills is essential for lifelong participation and excellence in sport. With collaborative effort, physical literacy elements and active play can be provided through and integrated with sport club introductory programming, primary school learning, recreation services, and pre-school and daycare programs.

Facilities

• support for understanding the community landscape (who are we and what do we have to work with?), • a self-assessment template to identify opportunities for early wins and to track progress of the LTCD factors.

Each community is unique, as are its resources to support those who live, learn, work and play within the community.

The widespread benefits of quality sport, advancing physical literacy and positive physical activity experiences should no longer be ignored. We invite you to learn more from our website (www.canadiansportforlife.ca). ∆

LTAD guidelines should assist with the design and usage of facilities, with enough capacity created so that everyone can play. Transparent, inclusive and equitable sport facility allocation policies, based on standards of play principles, should be established and regularly reviewed with user groups.

Sport for development CS4L believes that “good” sport and physical activity possess unique attributes enabling the development of healthy individuals, who, in turn, can make positive contributions to society. The anticipated outcomes go well beyond increased health and fitness of its citizens, and beyond improved sport ability. The riches of a CS4L community include enhanced community inclusivity, community resilience and sustainability.

Sport for health CS4L believes that quality sport and physical activity provides an environment that fosters the development of competencies that influence life-long health. Sport and physical activity can drive community health by reducing risk factors for injury and illness. This goes beyond injuries and illness in sport and physical activities to reducing risk factors for both in the community.

Continuous improvement (Kaizen) This concept is drawn from the respected Japanese industrial philosophy known as “Kaizen”, or continuous improvement. A commitment to continuous improvement ensures that community development and its practices are constantly evaluated and examined for improved delivery and sustainability. A regular review of existing relationships and the courage to build innovative, new and non-traditional partnerships is encouraged.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCE Becoming a Canadian Sport for Life Community – Online Self Assessment

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The East Scarborough Multi-Sport Collaborative Jeff Carmichael @communitysport

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he concept of collective impact (CI) is relatively new to the sport sector. A CI initiative in Toronto resulted in the establishment of the East Scarborough Multi-Sport Collaborative (ESMSC), which was initially backboned by the Toronto Sports Council (TSC) and funded by the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, Royal Bank of Canada, and Heart & Stroke Foundation as part of the Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) Community Connections Project. The common agenda of the ESMSC is “to provide all children and youth in the East Scarborough community with the opportunity in sport to: become more physically literate through quality multi-sport experiences; develop personal resiliency, learning and life skills; reach their personal athletic potential.”

The ESMSC is a completely inclusive collaborative that took more than two years to begin to focus on program activation. It was determined that a “village approach” was needed to bring multi-sport experiences and physical literacy to the community. More than 100 multisector collaborators engaged in the ESMSC project.

“The ESMSC has fostered opportunities to provide high-quality academic experiences for students and faculty at the University of Toronto Scarborough and increased access to sports facilities and education of physical literacy and recreation programs for children, youth and community members.

The result has been an increased ability to see communities, who historically have not partnered, begin to identify the possibility of partnership across borders using sport/ recreation/play to bridge worlds.”

Kimberley Tull, Manager, Community Development & Engagement. Planning, Partnerships and Strategic Affairs, University of Toronto Scarborough 12

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East Scarborough Multi-Sport Collaborative Organizational Structure and Activities

Collective Impact has been described as the commitment of a group of important actors

from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem.

Unlike most collaborations, collective impact initiatives involve a centralized infrastructure (backbone), The premise behind CI is an eagerness to collaborate and to find innovative and positive solutions through a collective effort.

According to an article published by John Kania and Mark Kramer in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, “Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations” 1.

Sport has an underlying premise of competition, yet the integration of a collaborative and collective approach

as part of greater community good was received favourably and with a high level of commitment from those involved. The underlying premise of the CI approach was to strengthen the mandate of the organizations involved, not to change their mandates. Not all organizations were able to commit equally to the CI project, but all organizations wanted to remain informed and were enthusiastic to participate within their own capacity and in their own way. No organization or individual challenged the common agenda because all organizations and individuals had the opportunity to define it.

a dedicated staff, and a structured process that leads to a common agenda, shared measurement, continuous communication, and mutually reinforcing activities among all participants 1.

Community Connections SIRCuit - June 2015

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“Being involved with the ESMSC has allowed my organization to reach out to the community and deliver on our mandate in ways we haven’t been able to before. Having this collaborative as a means of connecting with various community groups has been a fantastic resource for the Scarborough Titans.

The dialogue and discussions within the ESMSC has fostered growth and development for myself and my organization.”

Your Child In Sport - Resource for Parents

Blair Mackintosh, President, Scarborough Titans Volleyball Club.

Some of the successes of the ESMSC include: • Development of a Theory of Change that transforms children and youth from an attitude of “I can’t” to “I can”.

• Development of a Gap Analysis to identify programming gaps and available/ accessible sport programming in East Scarborough • Submission of several collaborative grant applications that enhances both the mandate of the lead applicant and the common agenda of the collaborative as a whole.

• The integration of the Canadian Sport for Life–Long-Term Athlete Development (CS4L–LTAD) framework into its programming and research decisions.

• New multi-sport program opportunities (for children and youth) that are more inclusive, affordable and accessible.

• Production of an animated educational video on YouTube entitled “Your Child in Sport”.

• Development of a community multi-sport Long-Term Leader Development (LTLD) program that is collectively designed for collective ownership and use.

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The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and Innoweave acknowledge the potential of addressing major challenges by developing and working toward a common agenda that fundamentally changes population level outcomes in a community. Both organizations provide support for CI projects, fully recognizing that, when successful, communities solve big complex challenges (e.g. youth unemployment, low graduation rates, poverty) or make substantial societal shifts (e.g. more sustainable food systems) by creating a shared multi-sector understanding of the problem, a common vision and an action plan with shared measurements and reinforcing activities.

The learnings from this CI experience are significant. CI is a community engagement process that feels messy at times. Its organic and stakeholder-driven approach requires an ability to be patient, a need to establish trust among the collaborative over time, and a need to recognize that the collective commitment is as much about social impact as it is about sport. ∆

“The East Scarborough Multi-Sport Collaborative has helped bring together various levels of sport and community organizations to share knowledge on how we can have the greatest impact and get more people active. It has also allowed the East Scarborough Storefront to share its community development approach with the sports world.”

Ewa Cerda-Llanos, Manager of Community/ University Initiatives, East Scarborough Storefront

Reference 1. John Kania and Mark Kramer, “Collective Impact”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011.

Sport for Life Society produces resources that will increase your knowledge and understanding of Canadian Sport forl Life ( CS4L), Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD), and Physical Literacy.

These resources are developed and modified by leading experts from the sport, recreation, health and education Sectors.

For a full list of our resources visit: canadiansportforlife.ca/resources

To order resources: canadiansportforlife.ca/order-resources

Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter here: canadiansportforlife.ca/signup-e-news

Register toFOR become a CS4L canadiansportforlife.ca/become-champion A NEW KIND OF LEADERSHIP A NEW KINDChampion: OF CANADIAN SPORT

Visit our websites:

Canadian Sport for Life - canadiansportforlife.ca CS4L Leaders School 2014

Physical Literacy - physicalliteracy.ca A NEW KIND OF LEADERSHIP FOR A NEW KIND OF CANADIAN SPORT

CS4L Leaders School 2014

Applications now open for our fourth year!

CS4L Leaders School develops CS4L Champions across Canada. Âť Lead a project in your community or organization, guided and mentored by members of the CS4L Leadership Team. Âť Participate in monthly webinars led by Canadian sport leaders: share and explore ideas and progress.

A NEW KIND OF LEADER FOR A NEW KIND OF CANADIAN SPORT: CS4L LEADERS SCHOOL 2016

Registration for CS4L National Summit in Gatineau January 26-28, 2016 included in Leaders School fees.

Is CS4L Leaders School for me?

Leaders School is for sport, recreation and physical activity leaders who are making a difference in their communities and organizations, and who are, or want to be, CS4L Champions.

Maximum 25 participants accepted for Leaders School.

Application deadline November 16, 2015

Visit our website for information and application or contact Paul Jurbala at paul@canadiansportforlife.ca

CS4L.ca

Canadian Sport for Life thanks the Ontario Trillium Foundation for its generous support.

Community Connections SIRCuit - June 2015

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The Power of Mentors: Supporting Emerging Community Connection

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anadian Sport for Life (CS4L) has been working with nine outstanding communities in Canada during the past two years, enhancing physical literacy and sport development through a grant from the McConnell Foundation. This project, known as the McConnell 9, provided each

organization with financial and mentoring assistance. This article will examine what CS4L has learned from this mentoring process, and what had occurred during the project.

Philip Hochman Each of the nine communities was provided with an experienced mentor to assist them in achieving their goals and outcomes during this two-year time period. These mentors had the experience, knowledge and ability to obtain upto-date information that could be utilized by any of the nine communities. In addition, the mentors were geographically located near their respective community from a national perspective. The role of these mentors was to develop and maintain the CS4L Community Mentorship Program, provide support to these emerging CS4L communities, and document the process for future applications.

A 2009 study in the Journal of Community Psychology indicated that mini-grants such as these are more likely to lead to sustained action if technical assistance (mentoring) is provided.

Some of the specific assistance provided to the communities was in areas such as asset mapping, helping identify goals and outcomes, 16

strategic planning, evaluation and problem solving. Each community had undertaken a different approach to their initiatives, and each mentor faced different issues with their respective communities. However, the CS4L mentors met weekly to discuss each community’s progress and challenges, and the sum thinking of all of the mentors would be utilized in providing help for each of the communities. For example, if one community was facing a challenge in getting all of the partners to the table for a meeting in that area, the mentors would discuss and formulate a possible list of solutions that would then be passed on to that community from its identified mentor. This sharing process allows for greater capacity in provision of help to each community.

A major consideration, based upon principles of community development, is that each of the communities must eventually make its own decisions on how to proceed, and while the mentor can provide advice and offer solutions, the community must be accountable for all of the decisions and actions.

Ongoing communication amongst the mentors also enabled them to learn from one another

and document key learnings that can be applied when supporting other communities as demand increases. Identified skills to be enhanced were: support for communities to achieve their desired goals and outcomes, collaboration in bringing multi-sectoral partners together in a community, linking to a national database and national resources, and planning a detailed process to achieve desired goals and outcomes. Some of

Building a Team to Have Impact in the Community – Richard Way @Richard_Way Ah-hah! Moment: “It’s more about [the mentors] and the growth I have seen all of us exhibit around engaging with communities.”

Click on the microphone to hear the full comment.

The Community Connections Mentors

Philip Hochman (co-mentor

for East Scarborough and Hamilton) is a retired recreation director from Guysborough Nova Scotia who has advocated for quality sport and physical literacy locally, nationally and internationally through roles such as Past President of the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association, NCCP Master Learning Facilitator and in International sport and recreation consultant.

Ah-hah! Moment: “Consider the relatively small amount of funding provided, the indepth and intense work of all 9 communities was awesome, deeply well planned and had resonating influence that had an impact across the country.”

In 2009 Lea Norris (mentor for Red Deer, Edmonton and Winnipeg) began to harness the potential of physical literacy and quality sport in her home community of Cochrane, Alberta, by bringing community leaders together to form Sport 4 Life Cochrane - a not-for-profit org created to educate and enlighten parents, coaches, leaders and teachers.

From there she became involved with Canadian Sport for Life as part of the Community Connections team overseeing the McConnell 9 and RBC Learn to Play projects.

Ah-hah! Moment: “Never make assumptions! Based on the project goals of ‘getting physical literacy into the water supply’ through application of collective impact and community development principles, we would have to constantly remind ourselves and the community champions to approach their projects in broader terms...not just offering another training workshop or another program, but intentionally thinking about how the workshop or program will lead to long term change - this forced us to really look at why we do things and question our traditional approaches.” @Lea4CS4L

Paul Jurbala (co-mentor for

Hamilton and East Scarborough) has been a member of the Sport for Life team for 10 years working primarily in the areas of LTAD, physical literacy, planning and evaluation. He is a PhD candidate at Brock University where his research focuses on change processes in community sport.

Ah-hah! Moment: “Collective impact happens not when people plan to work together, but when they find their way to the destination together.” @PaulJurbala

Drew Mitchell (mentor for Cochrane,

Abbotsford, Vancouver and PISE) is the Director of Physical Literacy for Canadian Sport for Life and works as a consultant focused on the development of physical literacy and better sport at the community level.

Drew’s goal is to create movement -purposeful, skill based and confidence building movement in children, youth, and adults. Developing physical literacy is one of the cornerstones of being Active for Life and having better long-term health outcomes. Better movement skills lead to more choices, more options, more confidence, and potentially more activity!

Ah-hah! Moment: “I was very impressed at the transcend beyond sport and use Physical Literacy to make fundamental change at the community level and develop some interesting change opportunities. Sport for development was a common theme.

Another example was Abbotsford looking at the issues from 7 lenses including the community/social services lense which is rarely looked at- identifying barriers to activity for the disadvantaged. Very very innovative stuff.”

Podcast

Click microphone to listen

@PhysLitGuy

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the critical characteristics for the CS4L mentor include: thorough understanding of CS4L at all levels, an ability to see the big picture, experienced CS4L implementation in a range of projects, and Community Development and facilitation knowledge and skills.

Another outcome for CS4L from this initiative was the creation of the resource, “Becoming a CS4L Community – A Mentors Guide,” which can be accessed on the CS4L website. As stated earlier, because each community is unique, CS4L mentors do not tell each community what to do but instead ask a series of questions to each community to help the community resolve its own issues. In this process social capital is built in the community, which is a concept that people can use through the power of connections to get things done.

In conclusion, as we measured the collective impact in all nine of these McConnell communities, it became evident that the mentoring process helped all nine communities from many perspectives. Jeff Carmichael from the East Scarborough Collective Impact Initiative said about the mentor relationship,

“Having a mentor for our communitybased project was invaluable. In addition to providing support and sharing knowledge, our mentors brought fresh perspectives and an inventory of resources and promising practices from across the country.”

In addition, the CS4L mentors have improved their skills, knowledge and ability to assist any community, which is now critical as we expand from nine communities to include the 28 RBC Learn to Play communities – and any other emerging community in Canada – as we advance physical literacy and implementation of the CS4L framework. Furthermore, CS4L has expanded the number of mentors so we now have enhanced capacity in mentoring many communities as demand increases, specifically in Québec and Ontario. ∆

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CS4L mentors do not tell each community what to do but instead ask a series of questions to each community to help the community resolve its own issues.

Sample Mentor Questions for the Community The Process Reflection is a series of questions to help you (the Community) think about your project and process to date: 1) What is the “elevator speech” for your project? Describe in a sentence or two what your project exists to do (its “mission statement”) 2)

A “theory of change” is the underlying set of assumptions that your planning is based upon. It takes the form, “If we do (THESE THINGS) then we will achieve (THESE RESULTS) because (REASONS).” For example, “If we recruit Board of Education Trustees and the regional Medical Officer of Health to our Work Group, we will be able to change community policies to favour development of physical literacy, because these are key decision-makers in our community.” Can you write one or two theories of change that animate your project and plans?

3)

Thinking about your project so far, from inception up to today, list 2 or 3 milestones or key moments that in your opinion have had the greatest impact on the project to date.

4)

Why were these events or moments the most significant?

5) What have been the biggest accomplishments or successes the group has experienced to date?

6)

What have been the biggest challenges or frustrations the group has worked through?

7)

What unexpected things have you encountered? Any “light bulb” moments?

8)

What are the main obstacles you are currently facing?

9) What would you consider the most important things you, personally, have learned since the beginning of the project? List 2 or 3 things.

10) Looking forward to the next 3 months, what are the 2 or 3 best things that can happen?

11) Looking forward to the next 3 months, what are 2 or 3 challenges you might face?

12) Give a few key pieces of advice to other communities, based on your experience so far.

References: Deacon, Z., Foster-Fishman, P., Mahaffey, M. & Archer, G. (March 2009). Moving from preconditions for action to developing a cycle of continued social change: Tapping the potential of mini-grant programs. Journal of Community Psychology, 37 (2), pg. 148-155.

Jurbala, P. (2014). Becoming a CS4L Community – a Mentors Guide.

GET OUT AND PLAY, CANADA! RBC Sports Day in Canada, presented by ParticipACTION, CBC and True Sport, is a national celebration of the power of sport to build community and get Canadians moving!

The sixth annual event takes place on November 21st in communities from coast to coast to coast in celebration of the Year of Sport.

We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada

Get your community, club, school, or organization involved by hosting a sporting event between November 14 and 21, 2015. Register your event or learn more at www.cbcsports.ca/sportsday.

Community Connections SIRCuit - June 2015

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Community Connections SIRCuit - June 2015

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How’s It Going?

Evaluation in the Community Connections Project Paul Jurbala @PaulJurbala

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ollective impact (CI) projects are as simple (and complicated) as getting groups to work together on common issues, so setting a common agenda is one of the five conditions for CI set by Kania and Kramer in their groundbreaking 2011 Stanford Social Innovation Review article1. But it is condition number two – shared measurement systems – that many CI projects find surprisingly difficult to implement. In the Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) Community Connections project we knew gathering the experiences of nine communities would be essential to our own reports to the McConnell Family Foundation, but more importantly, to making this a true learning project that would inform future efforts to build CS4L communities. We used some nontraditional assessments from the beginning: as part of our “backbone function” (that’s condition number five) we wanted to provide a variety of different assessment tools and methods for the nine communities to use.

What to measure, how and when? One challenge was the multi-level nature of Community Connections, which is essentially a national collective impact project made up of nine local collective impact projects.

We had a central vision – “Every Canadian community physically literate and active for life” – but we knew that each of the nine communities would set their own goals and engage local organizations in their own ways.

Consequently we set up our own evaluation system, then provided it to the communities as a series of templates to use in their own work and reporting throughout their projects.

That way we were guiding the process without prescribing the goals or evaluation they would use. Here’s the way we went about it.

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1. Create the Logic Model

2. Developmental Evaluation

Without a plan there’s nothing to evaluate, and without evaluation you never know if your plan is working. When you plan it’s a good idea to ask what results you expect to see and what kinds of questions will help you see them. Our team met early on and built a logic model that detailed what a community’s actions could be, what outcomes and larger impacts should result, and how we could support this. We identified the “if…then” logic which is the basis for community action. Then, as the community projects got underway, we sent them templates for their own planning and initial benchmarking and asked them to provide their own mini logic models. Their planning was telling us if our plan was on track.

Developmental evaluation (DE), like collective impact, is a new idea that has caught on in community work. The basic idea is to embed reflection and self-assessment into the process to provide regular feedback for the leadership team. Where formative assessment asks, “Are we going to get the outcomes we planned?”, DE asks, “Is our process working effectively?” We developed a series of reflection questions for our weekly calls to encourage us to dig a little deeper than just reporting what the communities were doing. We analyzed the community mid-term reports looking for themes, and considered what that meant for the overall project. We created a Becoming a CS4L Community

Five Conditions for Collective Success

1 Common Agenda 2 Shared Measurement Systems

3 Mutually Reinforcing Activities

4 Continuous

Communication

5 Backbone Support Organization

Source: John Kania and Mark Kramer, “Collective Impact”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011

Mentor’s Guide that led us to reflect on how we were supporting the communities. Then we built similar reflection questions into the community reporting to help them think about their process (see the previous article in this report for a sample of the questions).

3Formative . Build an Evaluative Mindset in Assessment As the communities progressed, we wanted to know how their work was coming. We also wanted to encourage them to think about evaluation, and to use a number of methods to determine if they were on course. For the first report we asked for some items related to their early work group planning: an asset map listing community resources to tap, a checklist about community readiness from our “Becoming a CS4L Community” resource, and an interview with their mentor that invited them to reflect on their process to date. For the second mid-term report we asked for their benchmarking plan, essentially their own logic model, as well as video interviews describing what had been done to that point.

Developmental Evaluation in the Context of the Community Connections Project Developmental Evaluation (DE) is a form of project evaluation that often occurs continuously, as the project evolves. The objective is to understand the project and the thinking behind it as it progresses. DE is particularly well suited to situations where the project leaders are innovating and are not exactly sure of what outcomes will emerge, or when they have encountered an unexpected obstacle or turn of events that results in unanticipated outcomes. The CS4L Community Connections Project is a

4Reporting . Invite Reflection in Summative

good example of a project where DE may be

For the final report we didn’t want lengthy written reports filled with numbers. We asked the communities to look back on their benchmarking plan, asset map and previous reports, then tell us what had changed since then. Most important, we asked them to reflect on the most significant change coming out of their activities, project some needed future steps, and tell us how we had done

re-presenting information in different forms,

effective. In this context the developmental evaluator works with the project leaders as a guide by gathering data, analyzing, interpreting meaning and communicating it, and where needed, by intervening to help keep the project true to its original aims and goals. This may mean use of various methods such as interviews, surveys, and quantitative methods, and helping the leaders make sense of the data by analyzing, synthesizing and summarizing.

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Most important, we asked them to reflect on the most significant change coming out of their activities, project some needed future steps, and tell us how we had done in our central backbone function. in our central backbone function. As with the previous reports we wanted to help them build a narrative about the changes they were seeing and the challenges they faced.

5Ongoing . Share Results through Communication

Ongoing open communication is key to CI projects. We set up a community of practice web site for the communities to post their reports for all to see. We ran several webinars; at the outset we gave an overview of the project, and at mid-term we gave another explaining the benchmarking and reporting. We shared the summary results from mid-term surveys, and the communities shared their reports, videos (see sidebar), plans and documents. Providing tangible

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examples helped communities understand how to evaluate their work more effectively.

In the Community Connections project we took a very different approach to evaluation than the typical “fill out the form at the end”. We were after an ongoing conversation in which the communities took stock of accomplishments and reflected on challenges, then fed back to our team so we could see patterns emerging across the country. We wanted to course-correct as we went and to encourage the communities to have the same mentality. We wanted the narrative as well as the numbers. What emerged was an effective way to guide a complex CI project. ∆ Reference 1. John Kania and Mark Kramer, “Collective Impact”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011

Video Examples from Physical Literacy For All Hamilton Physical Literacy This is Sport The Importance of Physical Literacy

Moving it Forward: Winnipeg’s Active Start Experience to Mobilizing Community Gary Swanson

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he Winnipeg Community Sport Policy uses the Canadian Sport for Life–Long-Term Athlete Development (CS4L–LTAD) Framework to identify and describe physical literacy stages for specific age groups. In the fall of 2013, our Access and Engagement Working Group decided to focus on physical literacy for the Active Start stage (ages 0-6). Given the complexity of early childhood development, the development of an Active Start

After making this strategic decision to focus on physical literacy during Active Start, the next step was to plan, organize and host a collective impact workshop. The workshop, held February 7, 2014, brought together a diversity of sectors and partners. The workshop identified some of the key needs within our community:

1. Lack of understanding and importance of physical literacy:

• Strategies need to be developed to address the issue • Defining physical literacy • Providing an overall definition of physical literacy • Breaking down the definition by age or into age categories, e.g. Physical Literacy for ages 0-1 • Developing a strategic communication strategy to parents, leaders and staff

Physical Literacy Strategy is a long process.

VISION:

OUTCOMES:

Winnipeg is a community where parents, caregivers, service providers and senior leaders across sectors understand and support the importance of physical literacy as an integral part of growth and development. Programs and policies that serve children ages 0–6 include physical literacy concepts and practices. Inclusion will increase access and engagement across the population.

Short-term:

• Increased awareness and understanding about the importance of early year’s physical literacy.

• Increased understanding of current effective physical literacy programming and accessibility in Winnipeg.

• Increased understanding of current physical literacy levels among children ages 0–6 years in Winnipeg.

• Increased understanding of opportunities to participate in research.

Winnipeg’s Cross-sector Sport Initiative video

2. Lack of programming/systematic delivery:

• Strategy to provide training opportunities (e.g. McConnell sponsored training)

With the information from the collective impact workshop, we developed a vision for physical literacy at Active Start.

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Medium-term:

Long-term:

• Recognition by government senior leadership about physical literacy as part of school readiness (EDI-Early Development Instrument).

• Indicator used to measure physical literacy levels of Active Start children.

• Increased capacity across sectors to incorporate physical literacy concepts and practices into programming, and to evaluate program effectiveness.

• Inclusive of physical literacy concepts and programs/policies.

• Increased physical literacy research in Manitoba.

• Increased physical literacy levels of Active Start children, particularly those without access.

We developed two initiatives to address some of the physical literacy needs of our community.

The McConnell Foundation funding provided the impetus to move our agenda forward much quicker than otherwise could have been achieved.

Winnipeg Community Project Feedback – Training the Trainers: Mentorship at Work This past fall (2014) I had the opportunity to attend the ten week Physical Literacy training facilitated by Michelle Johnson. This training was directly relevant to my work as a facilitator trainer and mentor for the Wiggle, Giggle and Munch program… I want to thank Michelle and the funders of this incredible initiative for providing me with the tools I needed to further support families to become physically active, connected to their community, and to form deeper attachments through laughter and play.

Alana Garcia, B.S.W. Family Programming Mentor/Trainer Communities 4 Families

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Train the Trainer Physical Literacy Workshops One of the challenges for organizations in Winnipeg is integrating physical literacy training in the Active Start stage of CS4L– LTAD. Our Active Start initiative is directed towards delivering a coordinated, cross sector, physical literacy series of workshops and courses held across the city. Our target groups include Public Health nurses and home visitors, early childhood educators, elementary school teachers, coaches, recreation leaders, students and community volunteers.

Our initial thinking was to provide small grants to train the staff of organizations that provide programs and services to Active Start children. Over a few months, we worked on how the grants could happen, planning for an application process, drafting application forms, determining grant criteria, the selection process, and other such steps.

Where are we now?

As we got closer to finalizing these details, our group came to the realization this strategy would not work well. Physical literacy training was not readily available in Winnipeg. The real need was to increase the number of people who could provide Active Start physical literacy training.

Winnipeg will host two large knowledge translation opportunities with physical literacy as a key focus in 2015. The Train the Trainer Physical Literacy Workshop is being delivered for a second time. The feedback we have received from participants of this workshop is that we are increasing their knowledge of physical literacy concepts.

The Growth and Development Community Course is being developed and expected to be delivered in Fall 2015.

We developed the Train the Trainers Physical Literacy Workshop. Three key partners arranged to deliver the physical literacy training: Fit Kids/Healthy Kids (an initiative of Doctors Manitoba), the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Sport Manitoba.

Growth and Development Course for Community The collective impact workshop identified the need for increased community understanding of growth and development of Active Start children. A growth and development course helped community programmers plan age-appropriate activities for children. The University of Winnipeg, Gupta Faculty of Kinesiology and Applied Health has become the lead partner in planning and delivering this growth and development course.

Since the collective impact workshop there has been a noticeable change in the physical literacy discussion in Winnipeg. The topic has filtered its way into the minds of people working in early childhood throughout Winnipeg and into the rest of Manitoba.

In 2015 ...

As we continue to build Active Start physical literacy capacity within our community, we believe sustainability will not be the issue.

We feel there may be a lack of capacity to offer a multitude and variety of physical literacy training, education and collaboration opportunities.

A tremendous community response to the Train the Trainer Physical Literacy Workshop has resulted in a lengthy waiting list for more workshops. As we had thought, physical literacy training is greatly needed in our community. And‌ the demand for more training opportunities in physical literacy is becoming an expectation! ∆

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On The Same Page: Policy for Quality Sport and Physical Literacy Paul Jurbala @PaulJurbala

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n our early planning for the Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) Community Connections project we identified nine outcome areas for participating communities (see LTCD sidebar). One of them was “Community policies support quality sport for life.” Why did we think policy was important, and how did our plans for communities fit with the bigger picture of national, provincial and municipal government and NGO policies for sport and physical activity?

Policies are written rules or guidelines that organizations create to govern some aspect of their work – for example, defining who has to approve different levels of spending. There are all kinds of policies: some are intended to regulate how decisions are made, some enable action in certain spheres of action. Then there are plans, which outline intended actions, and statements, which capture some part of the vision or values of an organization, perhaps as a call to action. They are all important because they record the “official position” of an organization and because they endure. You can call an organization to account if it fails to follow its policies. That’s why we thought the creation of municipal policies on quality sport and physical activity would tell whether our community projects had impact. It was a long-term outcome and to date none of the nine municipalities have created new policies, but some very interesting things did happen at different levels over the term of the Project and you can read about them here.

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A Policy, a Strategy and a Framework Walk into a Bar… Three documents form a national context for our community Project: the Canadian Sport Policy 2012-2022 (CSP2012), the Active Canada 20/20 strategy, and Pathways to Wellbeing – the Framework for Recreation in Canada 2015. The first, CSP2012, was the product of extensive national consultations and defines an ideal future state for Canadian sport. One reason CSP2012 is important is that it recognizes CS4L as a framework for quality sport delivery and positions physical literacy as foundational to all sport. Then there is Active 20/20, also the product of extensive national consultations, but with a different community: it is a “physical activity strategy and change agenda” and proposes action steps for increasing the physical activity levels of Canadians. Finally there is Pathways to Wellbeing, a joint project of government and Canada’s Parks and Recreation Associations, again underscoring the importance of physical literacy in the context of municipal recreation delivery.

Eleven Long-Term Community Development (LTCD) Factors While there were originally nine outcome areas as described in this article, they have developed into these eleven factors. You can find them more fully explained in Vicki Harber’s article earlier in this publication: 1. Community-driven development 2. Working together 3. Policy and strategy 4. Enhanced leadership and engagement 5. Education and training 6. Quality sport and physical activity 7. Physical literacy 8. Facilities 9. Sport for development 10. Sport for health 11. Continuous improvement (Kaizen)

You might wonder why each constituency needs its own policy/strategy/ framework, and why they call them different things. What’s important is that three sectors held extensive consultations and discussions with many of Canada’s sport, recreation and physical activity organizations, and the result is very similar visions, principles and terminologies.

The process created new awareness and connections, helping to align the purposes and activities of individual organizations with the broader visions. It also creates an enabling climate for municipal-level plans and policies, which naturally draw upon nationallevel policies to legitimize their directions: “As stated in the Canadian Sport Policy 2012…”.

Meanwhile, Down in the Community…

CS4L and physical literacy have shown up in a number of municipal sport policies and plans. For example, Vancouver, Richmond, Abbotsford, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Mississauga have sport plans and all include physical literacy and CS4L, or Long-

The Canadian Sport Policy 2012-2022

Term Athlete Development (LTAD), as the foundation. It’s not surprising that Vancouver, Abbotsford, Edmonton and Winnipeg were among the nine Community Connections Project communities, since the relatively few Canadian cities with sport plans also have strong leadership and are among the most advanced in their thinking. The municipal plans were created in the same period as the national policy/strategy/framework so we can’t say that one directly led to the other, but rather that they looked to each other and captured the focus on quality sport and physical literacy.

As the City of Edmonton web page says, “Developing physical literacy builds a healthy foundation for a healthy active city.”

So why haven’t the Community Connections nine communities generated new policies from the respective collective action working groups? Well, most of the projects are only about a year old, and policy takes time to develop. Typically, pilot projects demonstrate the value of a new approach before the new way is entrenched in policy. As noted, some already had municipal sport and/or activity policies, which likely enabled the progress

Active Canada 20/20

made by the work groups. In some, the Community Connections work is still evolving and penetrating the institutional bedrock. The plan and logic model Winnipeg created, for example, calls for numerous improvements including facility allocation policy. Abbotsford’s Community Connections: Activity and Sport in Abbotsford Plan 2015 has triggered a re-launch of the Sport Abbotsford council.

In Hamilton, one of the collective partners, Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, has included physical literacy in its Board improvement plan. These are the early steps that will lead to local organizational and civic policy change.

Initiatives like Community Connections have an indirect role in policy change. The success of the supported communities in making change was likely enabled by the existence of national level policies, while the national policies looked to and consulted with community-level stakeholders. Taken together, there is a shift to and alignment around quality sport and physical activity, and this is being captured in policy, plans, strategies and actions – all at the same time. ∆

Pathways to Wellbeing

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Moving The Needle:

An in-depth examination of three Canadian Sport for Life communities

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his article examines how three distinct communities in Canada advanced physical literacy using different approaches to achieve their outcomes. The communities of Edmonton, AB, Cochrane, AB and Abbotsford, BC will identify how change occurred, what they have learned, and specific advice for other communities as they move their needle.

Cochrane, Alberta @PLAYCochrane

Cochrane focused on engaging local schools around physical literacy. The leadership team collaborated with two elementary schools to create and implement a physical literacy strategy, starting with baseline surveys to assess the physical literacy awareness and knowledge of teachers, parents and students. Based on the survey results, the yearly plan included: • Embedded professional development • In school mentoring by a Physical Education expert and Badminton Alberta (Shuttle Time) • Peer leadership programs • Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth (PLAY) was conducted on Grade 3 and 4 students.

• A PLAY Ambassador (Olympian Lindsay Alcock) shared her early experiences around multi-sport and skill development.

• The Town of Cochrane Fun Van visits • Before- and after-school initiatives were undertaken to get kids active throughout the day.

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Due to these identified activities, many children benefitted from the implementation of more physical literacy programs, greater interest and enthusiasm from the teachers and more collaboration – and sense of ownership – experienced by the partners and the desire to continue moving forward. The success of this project has brought new partners to the table so that all schools in Cochrane can build their capacity to deliver physical literacy enriched school environments during the 2015/16 school year.

Community Connections at Work in Cochrane Schools: Physical Literacy and Holy Spirit School The Start of a Journey for Life (blog) Check out how one school in Cochrane is learning about Physical Literacy and benefitted from a visit from Lea Norris, a Community Connections Project mentor.

Our advice to other communities:

1.

Plan with and not for – even if it means moving forward more slowly, allow for confidence and ownership of the project in the schools.

2. Nothing builds trust more than partners who truly agree on the common agenda.

3. Relationships are crucial.

4. Resources and expertise bring credibility to the project.

Edmonton, Alberta

Our advice to other communities:

@YEGSportCouncil

Edmonton focused on increasing capacity by training leaders, resulting in a more physically literate and active society. In order to achieve their outcome of increased capacity, 146 individuals from several organizations were trained in physical literacy and Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS).

The Edmonton Sport Council and the University of Alberta regional Be Fit for Life Center worked together to establish PLAY GREAT (Physical Literacy and You, Greater Edmonton area) as the backbone organization.

Out of this training two local champions created change in their own organizations.

The YMCA of Northern Alberta has become a leading physical literacy champion, incorporating physical literacy programs into its summer programming for children and youth then expanding into all of its programs. As a result, the National YMCA office is sharing this process

with the intent to incorporate physical literacy into all programming across the country (link to enews article).

Another PLAY GREAT partner who was inspired to local action was Parkland School District, who is mobilizing schools and students through a three-part initiative. A Physical Literacy Educator in Residence (PLEIR) project was established.

This individual worked with designated staff in five schools in order to increase physical literacy in the entire school network. In addition, resident expert teachers supported other teachers with monthly booster shots of physical literacy infusion. A youth team from each school was given special support and leadership skills, and then invited to help shape and lead physical literacy-based games at the 2015 junior high district track meet. A video was created with student input, highlighting how unique community and recreation partners can champion the work of physical literacy and inspire others to get involved.

Youth Advocates of Play video

1. Start doing something, even small steps and conversations.

2. Change takes time.

3. Find someone to share the work with you.

4. Do not underestimate

the time and resourcing required to implement change.

5. Creating change in

communities is not easy. Change in smaller communities is easier as they are traditionally less complex.

6. Change is more difficult for government than for business and/or not-forprofit organizations.

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Abbotsford, British Columbia @SportAbbotsford

Abbotsford had a vision, which was to create a healthy, inspiring community and enable people to participate and be active for life. The outcome was to create an “Activity and Sport in Abbotsford Plan.” This plan was seeking to build a bridge between a basic understanding of the benefits of physical activity, and an outcome of physical literacy that depends on the whole community.

Abbotsford saw an opportunity to bring to the table all the stakeholders with a vested interest in creating a healthy community to develop the Activity and Sport in Abbotsford Plan. In order to ensure that all voices were heard in the environmental scan and all identified sectors were represented, a cross-sectoral team was brought together to represent the seven lenses related to sport, recreation, and activity in Abbotsford, including (1) community sport, (2) health services, (3) community services, (4) the school district, (5) First Nations, (6) City of Abbotsford, and (7) Canadian Sport for Life–Long-Term Athlete Development.

Having these perspectives fostered a collective impact approach towards the plan development. This approach continues today as these community leaders are engaged with the next steps of implementing strategies that were developed based on exercises and other research initiatives the consultants conducted. Moreover, the community leaders understand the importance of continuing this work through collaboration. After hosting a Physical Literacy summit in the spring of 2015, the group committed to leading to a fall Sport Summit as well as committing to continue to oversee the Activity and Sport in Abbotsford Plan implementation.

This plan has provided a tangible, action-based document on how Abbotsford will be leaders in CS4L principles. All implemented activities foster positive change for the community, with physical literacy language as the staple, and strategies being developed for all sectors to adopt best practices in sport development.

Also, strategies for further engagement to those who are disenfranchised are now being developed.

Our advice to other communities:

1. Collective impact

happens when all stakeholders have the same overarching vision and goals.

2. Having a backbone

organization can help create accountability.

This organization can help facilitate communication between organizations, disseminate the continued measurement and evaluation results, and oversee some of the administration needed to work as a larger group.

In conclusion, while each community advanced different perspectives – Edmonton focusing on training, Cochrane focusing on engaging the schools, and Abbotsford focusing on advancing municipal policy through a plan – all went through a patient process, utilizing a multi-sectoral approach that resulted in a positive collective impact for each community.

The challenge for each community in Canada is to begin the process, identify the champions, and mobilize and implement a plan in order to create a more physical literate community. These three outstanding communities can be the beacon of light for you to follow in your path for continued success. ∆

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This Community Connections SIRCuit was created as a project report by CS4L to be submitted and shared with J.W. McConnell and interested parties.

Special thanks go to: CS4L: Richard Way, Lea Norris, Paul Jurbala, Vicki Harber, Philip Hochman, Jeff Carmichael, Gary Swanson, Tyler Laing.

SIRC: Debra Gassewitz, Nancy Rebel, Kim Sparling, Josyane Morin.

Supporters: JW McConnell, RBC, PHAC, ParticpACTION and our participating communities.

Photos courtesy of: SIRC, CS4L, ESMSC, Winnipeg Active Start, Sport Abbottsford, PLAYCochrane, Edmonton’s PLAY GREAT Disclaimer: Author’s opinions expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of SIRCuit, its publisher, the Editor, or the Editorial Board. SIRC makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness or suitability for any purpose of the content.

Copyright © June 2015, All rights reserved.

No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated, in any form, or by any means, without prior written permission from CS4L or SIRC, to whom all requests to reproduce copyright material should be directed, in writing.

For more information: www.canadiansportforlife.ca, info@canadiansportforlife.ca, @CS4L_ACSV www.sirc.ca/sircuit, info@sirc.ca, @SIRCtwets

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