Sports & Recreation
Goals / Purpose of Program
The overall goal of the Aboriginal Youth First Sports and Recreation Program is to develop and deliver a diverse range of sports and recreation activities that encourage Native youth in East Vancouver to be active, participate in skills training, make positive life choices, and develop their leadership skills.
Our focus is on developing programming with youth and removing barriers to support the participation of all Native youth, particularly those who are not currently active. We aim to strengthen resiliencies amongst youth, their families, and the community by increasing awareness and knowledge, and fostering youth skills and leadership development.
We work in collaboration with youth and a broad range of community partners to host a wide range of sports and recreation activities, and encourage youth to access a wide range of programs, in and near East Vancouver.
The development of the AYF program included a survey of 223 Native youth, fostering partnerships with local service providers, and working with the provincial and federal government funders of the three year pilot program.
Celebrating 3 Years of Overwhelming Success!
A formal program evaluation was completed of the three year pilot program, and showed an overwhelming demand for sports and recreation activities for Native youth in East Vancouver. All of the activities were well attended by youth and supported by our many partners. In particular, we are very proud of our success in the following areas:
- Working with a nine member Youth Advisory Council
- Balanced mix of drop-in, structured and competitive activities, as well as one-time, occasional, and ongoing activities
- Certified skill-building activities that had 260 youth participate, with 200 certificates awarded. Many youth used their newly acquired skills to become Peer Mentors for the program.
- Partnership with 52 community organizations, groups and individuals
- Creation of a program logo by a Native youth
- 3,397 youth accessing the program
- Introducing youth to new activities such as canoeing, capoeira, boxing, snowboarding, rock climbing, parent/tot swims, triathlon, Vancouver Sun Run, cultural activities, skills building camps, and weight training
- Co-founding partner for the community based National Aboriginal Day Celebration at Trout Lake
- Doing all this with only 2.5 staff
How Youth Can Become Involved
- Native youth ages 11–23 years
- Youth of all levels of skill and experience
- Those who want to be active, have fun, and make positive changes in their lives while participating in new and familiar sports & rec activities
- Those who are willing to follow basic guidelines to maintain a safe, positive, and healthy space for youth to participate
- Those who want to learn with and from other Native youth
We also welcome the participation of Elders and volunteers who would like to share their knowledge and/or skills with Native youth. Some activities may include parents/guardians and other family members.
Our Current Programming
In our first three years of operation, our team worked very hard to introduce as many activities as possible to encourage youth participation and partnership development. This work has helped us to identify which programs to focus on in year four. We will be increasing our efforts to help youth obtain certification, focus on health and nutrition, and to ensure we are providing a good mix of programming in various areas to meet the needs of our diverse youth population. This year again, we will only have 2 – 2.5 staff, so this summer we focused a lot of attention on identifying core programming for the coming year, budgets, staffing, and partnerships to ensure we are offering high quality and consistent programming to Native youth who have come to make AYF activities a regular part of their schedule.
Our discussions with community organizations include fostering partnerships that provide as much free space, coaching, and sports activities as possible. We are taking this approach so that we can provide as much programming to as many youth as possible within the funding limitations of this program. The Project Coordinator will continue to focus on developing community partnerships that can help to increase Native youth participation in sports and rec activities throughout East Vancouver. We will continue to help support the development of programs with our partners with a focus of having our partners continue with the programming on their own, or with minimal support after the program has built a solid foundation.
Donations
We gratefully accept donations of new or quality used sports and recreation equipment for our youth participants. Please contact us to enquire which items would be particularly useful for current programming.
Examples of items which would be helpful include:
- New running shoes for our Walking / Running Club members
- New bathing suits for our Parent / Tot Swim and Triathlon Groups
- New winter jackets suitable for cold weather for our Snowboarding Group
- Bikes for those working towards participation in a Triathlon or Build A Bike
- New hiking boots for youth participants
In the near future, we hope to be posting specific requests for individual youth who are on teams, in skills building camps, or training on their own in specific sports or recreational activities.
Depending on the size and value of the donation, UNYA may be able to provide a tax receipt for donations.
AYF Sports & Recreation Program Brochure (pdf)
Program Funders
The Aboriginal Youth First Sports and Recreation Program is a partnership between the Urban Native Youth Association, Sport and Recreation Branch (B.C. Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts) and the Crime Prevention Action Fund (National Crime Prevention Centre, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada).
How to contact us:
1618 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, V5L 1S6
Phone: (604) 254-7732
Fax: (604) 254-7811
Email: sportsandrec@unya.bc.ca