Fitness Tips from Fitness 2J2: James Bay girls at bat with Blue Jays foundation
- Joel Pedersen | May 15, 2019
Tansi, Edlanete, I hope this article finds you and your family in a good place. I recently returned from the area of Muskoka, Ontario, which is now in the news because of the flooding in the east. I have the honour of being an implementing partner with the Blue Jays Care Foundation, which is the Toronto Blue Jays non-profit that gives back to community. Grateful to spend time with the amazing youth, incredible staff and volunteers that are involved in the program. My part for this was to share some of my story, and to provide some fitness activities and self defence with the James Bay Girls at Bat program.
The seven communities of the Mushkegowuk Council are represented, situated in northern Ontario around James Bay, reminding me of the remoteness of northern communities in Saskatchewan. The James Bay Girls at Bat is designed by the belief that young people have the potential to transform their communities. Throughout the program Elders, Mentors, Volunteers, Facilitators and fellow Youth Champions work to support each other. Based from five anchoring skills of: Care, Courage, Connection, Creativity, and Commitment, the Youth learn empower themselves as leaders and change makers for their communities and themselves.
The Blue Jays have a number of youth programs for communities across Canada. As of last year in Saskatchewan, La Ronge Band and File Hills Qu’appelle Tribal Council are now involved with rookie league. The main focus of all programs is for girls, indigenous youth, kids with disabilities, and kids living below the poverty line.
These are some points to think about. Did you know? Almost 6 in 10 indigenous boys aged 12-17 participate in competitive sport, which is 14% higher than girls the same age. Furthermore, sport participation drops with age to 23.5% for men and 11.2% for women. If a girl hasn't participated in organized sport by age 10, there is only a 10% chance she will be a physically active adult. And 1.2 million children across Canada live in low-income households. For nearly 50% of families experiencing poverty, the cost of programming is the biggest barrier to accessing physical activity programs. Only 56% of children and youth living with physical and cognitive disabilities are participating in sport, play and recreation compared to 87% of those living without disabilities.
Back in Saskatoon, Fitness 2J2 received the SABEX Award for Community Involvement. A true honour that is shared with all the coaches, volunteers and supporters of 2J2 programming. Remember if you’re in Saskatoon, come check out one of the sessions, we provide Functional Fitness BootCamps Co-ed and women&girls only; Learn to run 5km all ages and abilities and self defence for women and youth. We remove the barrier of cost, and the programs are in the inner city and west side, and all are welcome. We are excited to start our fourth year of youth learn to do triathlon program. 20 kids are signed up and will be ready for the Kids of Steel Triarthlon in June.
Our goal at Fitness 2J2 is to provide healthy and positive lifestyle programming through fitness and sport. To empower you and your family, to inspire our community for change, and to never give up. Be active and I hope our paths will meet. Marci Cho, Kinanaskomitin.
Fitness 2J2 is a socially responsible community based health and wellness company. Contributing to the success and vitality of our communities, promoting healthy and positive lifestyles through fitness and sport, for Indigenous people of all ages and abilities. STRONG HEALTHY PROUD