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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSD-011-11 Claringi Oil REPORT COMMUNITY SERVICES DEPARTMENT Meeting: GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION Date: June 27, 2011 Resolution#: CPI94ud/ By-law#: N/A Report#: CSD-011-11 File#: Subject: GRADE 5 ACTION PASS — FAMILY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the following: 1. THAT Report CSD-011-11 be received for information. 4 if ..„, (____,,,- 0,,,„ Submitted by: �L. . , .__ Reviewed by: J9-eoh P. Caruana Franklin Wu, rector, Community Chief Administrative Officer ervibes JPC/SM/EM/wg CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON 40 TEMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO L1C 3A6 T (905)623-3379 F (905)623-0830 REPORT NO.: CSD-011-11 PAGE 2 1.0 BACKGROUND 1.1 The Municipality of Clarington has been a partner in the Durham Grade 5 Action Pass which was introduced in 2008 to all grade 5 students in Durham Region. The pass provides free access to public swimming, skating and drop-in basketball during the year the student is in grade 5. 1.2 The Durham Grade 5 Action Pass originated through the partners of Durham Lives! - Physical Activity Working Group. Durham Lives! was formed in 1998 as a result of funding from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. Durham Lives! promotes physical activity, healthy eating and smoke-free living for a healthy community. 1.3 At that time, just over one third of children and youth met the guidelines for optimal growth and healthy development (Active Healthy Kids Canada, 2008). It was noticed that children's habitual physical activity levels were low, and more importantly, these levels decline dramatically from childhood through adolescence. In addition to their bodies changing and activity levels going down, adolescence is an age where the children are becoming more independent and wanting to get involved in their own activities, but at the same time they still have strong family ties, and want to be involved in their family happenings. 1.4 Durham Lives! decided to target ten year olds with a Grade 5 Action Pass, to generate interest in fun activity that may carry on into future years, maintain a regular commitment to fun physical activity throughout their teens, as well as help address the rising obesity and inactivity levels being experienced in that age group. 1.5 Since its implementation, the Durham Grade 5 Action Pass has been very popular and successful in Clarington. Number of Grade 5 Action Passes Activated: 2008 / 2009 : 2009 / 2010 2010 / 2011 336 115 264 ear to date) i) In 2009, the Durham Region Health Department assumed the promotion of the Grade 5 Action Pass with the intent of physically distributing the material to the schools by Public Health Nurses on their regular school visits. However, in fall 2010, there was an outbreak of H1 N1 (Swine Flu) and all Public Health Nurses were seconded to flu shot clinics. This contributed to the significant decrease of memberships in 2009/2010. ii) In 2010, we saw 9.5% of previous Grade 5 Action Pass holders continue to participate in some form of registered recreation with the Community Services Department. REPORT NO.: CSD-011-11 PAGE 3 2.0 FAMILY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY 2.1 The Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA) is a national alliance of professionals, volunteers and elected community leaders that influence the delivery and access to quality recreation, parks, sport and culture for 95% of Canadians in over 2600 communities in Canada. CPRA's mandate is to provide support to its membership, enhancing their effectiveness and capacity to build and develop strong, vibrant communities using parks and recreation as a means. 2.2 For the past ten years, CPRA has successfully led the Everybody gets to PlayTM initiative and has made significant progress toward achieving its goal of enhancing the quality of life of Canadian children and youth living in low-income families through increased access to and participation in quality recreation, sport, and physical activity opportunities. 2.3 A similar initiative to Durham's Grade 5 Action Pass was introduced through CPRA as a pilot project in municipalities across Canada in 2009/2010. The program was well received and following requests for expansion, CPRA recently applied for and received funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada to implement a new project titled Canada Gets Active: Family Engagement Strategy. 2.4 Clarington, as a provider of the Grade 5 Action Pass, has been invited along with other Durham Region partners, to pilot the Family Community Physical Activity Pass which aims to increase access to and participation in community recreation facilities by the families of grade 5 students. 2.5 The Active Healthy Kids Report Card, 2011, states that since the obesity epidemic is affecting both children/youth and parents, strategies should be investigated that encourage whole families to be physically active and reduce sedentary time. Parents need to be encouraged to role model healthy physical activity for their children. 2.6 Many parents perceive their kids as active, when they are actually not active enough— 88% of parents think their kids get plenty of exercise, but we know that only 13% of kids are meeting Canada's physical activity guidelines (Active Healthy Kids Report Card, 2009). 2.7 Parents who are active have more active children. However, parents say they have less time to be active with their kids. Active time should be promoted as quality family time to help combat this perceived barrier of lack of time. Perhaps parents don't realize their own physical activity and sport participation habits influence their kids' activity levels. Getting active is the right thing to do as role models, and will also help parents achieve a healthy balance and meet the demands of parenting. REPORT NO.: CSD-011-11 PAGE 4 2.8 An evaluation of the pilot communities will be completed by Queen's University researchers and will serve to generate further evidence for future community based interventions aimed at increasing facility use and physical activity involvement in other age groups. Some of the research techniques that will be used include pre and post project focus groups, surveys and tracking of pass use. 3.0 , PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND OUTCOMES 3.1 Grade 5 Action Pass participants will continue to have access to all drop-in public swim, public skate and identified drop-in programs across Durham Region. This current initiative will be expanded to include their family members when accompanied by the grade 5 student for access to participate in designated activities at the pilot project partners. 3.2 The Municipality of Clarington is pleased to expand the current Grade 5 Action Pass to include their family members, The family of the Grade 5 Action Pass holder will be able to participate in public swimming, public skating and drop-in basketball at no cost when accompanied by the grade 5 student for a 12 week period (September 26 to December 18, 2011). 3.3 The key outcome of this project will be to bring awareness to the community at large of the physical activity opportunities provided by the Municipality of Clarington. The intent is to increase participation and usage of the municipal facilities in order to sustain the project going forward. An anticipated outcome is that families will realize the benefit to their health and family life by participating in activities together at their local community centres and that they will continue to access these programs once the project is completed. 3.4 We anticipate a successful retention rate, as we have witnessed an increasing and positive retention rate among previous Grade 5 Action Pass holders after their pass is completed. 4.0 COMMENTS 4.1 The Municipality of Clarington — Community Services Department is interested in pursuing the Grade 5 Action Pass — Family Engagement Strategy pilot project opportunity for September 2011 for 12 weeks. Once the pilot project is complete, staff will determine its success and will decide on future opportunities for implementation. 4.2 The program's success will be evaluated by the number of participants that register for the program. There will be additional subjective research information provided by the Coordinators of the program at Queen's University which will be REPORT NO.: CSD-011-11 PAGE 5 beneficial in assisting staff in evaluating the success of the project and in determining a recommendation for the continuation of the initiative.