New training will enhance children’s lives in Aboriginal communities

Julia Soucie is hoping to take advantage of an Aboriginal component that will soon be added to the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association’s HIGH FIVE program.

ARPA has been running HIGH FIVE since 2007. The training program focuses on how coaches, leaders and instructors can enhance the quality of sport and recreation programs in their communities. But until now, very few of those trained have been Aboriginal.

The HIGH FIVE program was developed with the belief that the experiences children have with their recreation and sports events help to shape them in their adult lives.

Also, the better prepared those running programs are the better the chances they will have the tools and knowledge to create positive experiences for youth.

Since the inception of the HIGH FIVE program, about 3,500 people across the province have been trained in how to implement it in their communities.

Substantial funding recently received by ARPA will allow the program to focus on Aboriginal leaders in Aboriginal communities.

Soucie, who lives in Fort McMurray, works about a 45-minute drive north of the city where she is the director of the Fort McKay Wellness Centre.

Since 2012, Soucie has been involved with ARPA’s Communities ChooseWell program, which promotes healthy eating and healthy living.

Soucie is now hoping she will be among those chosen to be trained in the HIGH FIVE program.

“I think it would be an amazing opportunity to be involved with that,” she said, adding many First Nation communities do not have the financial resources to send officials to initiatives such as this.

Fort McKay is primarily a First Nation and Métis community. About 700 people live in Fort McKay.

Soucie helps run an after-school program for about 100 youth, aged 6-17. Besides various recreational activities, the program also provides tutoring and homework assistance.

Allie Pratley, ARPA’s children and youth programs co-ordinator, said the new funding ARPA has received will remedy the lack of Aboriginal participation in the program by enhancing that component.

For starters, the RBC and Canadian Sport for Life Learn To Play Project gave ARPA a $25,000 grant in December. This was followed up with $17,000 in funding from the Telus Community Foundation.

Pratley is hoping to kick off the program’s Aboriginal segment soon.

“I’m currently trying to find 12 participants to do the training,” she said.

Pratley is working with officials from the Alberta Native Friendship Centres Association to identify potential trainees.

Once program participants are chosen, the week-long training sessions are expected to be held in or near Edmonton.

Pratley is thankful a pair of organizations have come forward to help launch the Aboriginal segment of the HIGH FIVE program. She’s hoping others also step up to provide additional money to help the program grow.

“It would be nice to have a little bit more (funding),” she said. “But I can make it work with what we have now.”