- CAAWS PROGRAMS AT A GLANCE
- CELEBRATING CAAWS’ 30TH ANNIVERSARY - PROFILING
MILESTONES IN SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
- UPCOMING CAAWS WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS
- PHYSICAL ACTIVITY COUNSELLING TOOLKIT AVAILABLE ONLINE
- CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR NEW 3M HEALTH LEADERSHIP AWARD
- SIRC: POLICY AND RESEARCH OF WOMEN IN SPORT
- CAAWS TWITTER CONTEST OVER
- IIHF AMBASSADOR AND MENTOR PROGRAM
- CELEBRATIONS
1. CAAWS PROGRAMS AT A GLANCE
 New
funding for CAAWS’ National Newcomer On the Move Project
- CAAWS is excited to announce a three-year funding partnership
agreement with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). Through
this partnership, CAAWS will sustain the Newcomer On the Move
programs in Ontario, and expand the project to Manitoba and
Nova Scotia. CAAWS’ Newcomer On the Move program aims
to increase physical activity and healthy living opportunities
for newcomer girls and young women (ages 9-18), as well as
increase capacity at the municipal, provincial and federal
levels to develop and deliver appropriate physical activity
and sport programming for this target population. The project
builds upon On the Move, CAAWS’ national initiative
to increase healthy living opportunities for inactive girls
and young women. This three year project provides a great
opportunity to apply learnings from the past 18 months to
further increase healthy living opportunities for newcomer
girls and young women.
CAAWS Abroad - CAAWS Executive Director,
Karin Lofstrom, currently serves as Secretary/Treasurer on
the Executive Board of the International Association for Physical
Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW) and recently
travelled to Ankara (Turkey) to take part in the IAPESGW Annual
Executive Board Meeting. While in Ankara, Karin also served
as a panelist examining global perspectives on women in coaching
as part of the 4th Training Science Congress. CAAWS profiled
and discussed the Coaching Association of Canada’s (CAC)
Women in Coaching program.
Step Up! Speak Out! - The Step Up! Speak
Out! Ally Campaign for Inclusive Sport is a partner initiative
led by national sport organizations designed to encourage
athletes, coaches, officials, sport administrators, parents,
fans and other members of the Canadian sport community to
respect all individuals involved in sport, regardless of perceived
or actual sexual orientation. Becoming a Step Up! Speak
Out! Ally is easy. Visit www.stepupspeakout.ca
today to make your commitment and take a stand against homophobia
in sport.
2. CELEBRATING CAAWS’ 30TH ANNIVERSARY
- PROFILING MILESTONES IN SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
2011 marks CAAWS’ 30th anniversary. To celebrate, we
are showcasing key milestones, and the women behind them,
that have contributed to CAAWS’ vision of an equitable
sport and physical activity system. This month, CAAWS salutes
one of its own Founding Mothers, Abby Hoffman.
Abby Hoffman: The Game Changer
 Abby’s
pursuit of gender equality in sport started at a very young
age, when she cut off her hair at the age of eight to play
incognito for a Toronto boy’s Junior A ice hockey team;
at the time, there were no teams for girls in the Toronto
area. The team’s success eventually led them to the
playoffs where all team members were required to produce their
birth certificates. It was at this point when the coaches,
managers and league discovered that Abby, or “Ab”
as she was called, was in fact Abigail and she was no longer
allowed to play. Abby’s mother defended her daughter’s
participation, stating "I think children should be out
playing hockey, not watching it. And any of these sports that
are good for health and teaching fair play should be good
for girls as well as boys." Abby’s parents took
the case to the Ontario Supreme Court, challenging the ‘boys
only’ policy in minor hockey, and the story made national
and international news. Despite playing most of the season
with a boy’s team however, the Supreme Court ruled against
Abby and her case.
Abby is a national treasure and her hard work and contribution
to Canadian sport have been recognized at many levels. In
1982, she was made a member of the Order of Canada and was
later inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in
2004. Thank you Abby for paving the way for many women in
the Canadian sport system!
To learn more, visit http://www.caaws.ca/e/milestones/30_years/hoffman.cfm
3. UPCOMING CAAWS WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS
From July 25th to July 31st, the 2nd GLISA North
America Outgames will be taking over the city of
Vancouver. This multi-sport event is expected to draw over
2,000 athletes and participants to the city. The Vancouver
2011 Outgames Human Rights Conference will be taking
place concurrently with the sports and cultural activities
from July 26-28. An integral part of the Outgames, the conference
includes concurrent sessions, panels, and discussion groups
focusing on open dialogue, community-building, and skill-enhancement.
On July 26, Jennifer Birch-Jones, CAAWS Project Lead for
the Addressing Homophobia in Sport Initiative, will be facilitating
the workshop Addressing Homophobia in Sport: Leading
the Way. That same day, CAAWS will co-facilitate
a workshop titled Making Sport More Welcoming to Sexual
and Gender Diversity: Getting on With It!, along
with Pat Griffin of GLSEN and Helen Carroll of the NCLR. On
the final day of the conference, Jennifer Birch-Jones will
be joined by Karin Lofstrom, CAAWS Executive Director, and
Guylaine Demers, CAAWS Board of Directors member, to lead
a panel discussion on Addressing Homophobia: The Canadian
Experience. For more details about the Human Rights
Conference and the Vancouver 2011 Outgames, visit http://www.vancouver2011outgames.com/.
For more CAAWS events and details, visit http://www.caaws.ca/e/calendar/.
4. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY COUNSELLING TOOLKIT
AVAILABLE ONLINE
The Alberta Centre for Active Living is pleased to announce
the release of its new Physical Activity Counselling Toolkit.
The online toolkit is comprised of a series of plain language
tools and resources designed to assist practitioners in the
physical activity counselling process.
The following ten resources can be distributed as handouts
and/or referred to online when working with clients:
- Behaviour Change resources: Taking the
first step: deciding to be physically active; Making a physical
activity plan; Setting goals for physical activity, and;
What stops you from being physically active?;
- Chronic Conditions resources: Benefits
of physical activity; Physical activity and your blood pressure;
High blood pressure: how to stay safe when active; Physical
activity and type 2 diabetes; Diabetes: how to stay safe
when active, and; Healthy weight and physical activity;
Each resource has been reviewed and endorsed by the Alberta
Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. To learn more about
the project or to use the toolkit, visit http://www.centre4activeliving.ca/our-work/toolkit/index.html
5. CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR NEW 3M
HEALTH LEADERSHIP AWARD
 Nominations
are invited for the new 3M Health Leadership Award presented
by Health Nexus. The annual award celebrates an individual
who has demonstrated outstanding community leadership leading
to the improved health of local residents. Presented in conjunction
with 3M’s Healthy Communities Program, the award is
geared to those working outside the formal health care sector
who have not been previously recognized at a national level.
The 3M Health Leadership Award supports grass-roots community
leadership and the growing movement towards the social determinants
of health in program planning, which ultimately encourages
changes to current public health policy. The new award will
highlight the work that is being done to improve the health
of Canadians through addressing social concerns such as housing,
income, education, food security and inclusion.
Nominations are being accepted as of June 27th until September
15th, 2011. Nominations can be submitted electronically
through the award’s website or by mail and fax. For
more information, visit http://www.healthnexus.ca/leadershipaward/index.html.
6. SIRC: POLICY AND RESEARCH OF WOMEN
IN SPORT
 Women
have made great strides in their accomplishments in the field
of sport. Not only are women strong athletes, but coaches,
officials, leaders and volunteers as well.
SIRC has been Canada’s Sport Information Resource Centre
since 1973. Over the years, SIRC has gathered a comprehensive
collection of research and resources on Women in Sport. Key
subject areas include: National Policy; Women in Leadership;
Coaching; Adolescent Female Athletes; Psychology; Sports Medicine;
Nutrition; Female Athlete Triade, and; Pregnancy in Sport.
They have also compiled a variety of articles and links to
international online resources for women in sport.
If you are looking for more information on these topics,
check out SIRC’s full listing of the policy and recent
research on women in sport - http://sirc.ca/sportcanada/54/additional_articles.cfm
7. CAAWS TWITTER CONTEST OVER
CAAWS has reached 1,000 followers on our Twitter account
– we now have 1,021 followers! This brings our 1,000
Twitter Followers Contest to an end. We are proud to announce
the winner of the contest to be Krissy Wishart, who will receive
a CAAWS prize package. Thank you to all of our followers and
keep following @CAAWS
for the latest news and issues related to girls and women
and sport and physical activity.
CAAWS still needs 38 people to reach our goal on Facebook.
The 350th person to “like” us will also receive
a CAAWS prize package! Help us spread the word, and invite
your friends and colleagues to follow us on our Facebook
page!
8. IIHF AMBASSADOR AND MENTOR PROGRAM
 July
1st marked the start of the most comprehensive International
Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) women’s hockey development
initiative to date. Mentors and ambassadors from the top four
countries (Canada, USA, Finland and Sweden) will assist women’s
programs in nine other countries that are striving to develop
elite women’s hockey programs (which includes seniors
and under-18). All of the Athlete Ambassadors and Coach Mentors
bring a tremendous amount knowledge and experience at the
elite international level.
The nine nations participating in the program are China,
Czech Republic, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Norway, Russia,
Slovakia and Switzerland. At the start of the program, each
country will be assigned two Coach Mentors and two Athlete
Ambassadors to provide guidance and support throughout the
program’s duration of two and a half years. By focusing
on the top 14 world ranked teams, it is the intention of the
IIHF to provide the greatest boost to the nations with the
most likely chances to qualify for the Sochi 2014 Olympic
Winter Games.
Four-time Canadian Olympic medalist Hayley Wickenheiser
joined the program and will work directly with all the Athlete
Ambassadors, providing leadership and direct support to them
throughout the program. Mel Davidson, who
coached Canada to back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 2006
and 2010, will co-ordinate all the coaching mentors and will
also work with the Norwegian women.
Other Canadians involved include: France St-Louis
(Mentor Coach – France U18); Daniele Sauvageau
(Mentor Coach – France Senior); Gina Kingsbury
(Athlete Ambassador – France); Fiona (Bell)
Smith (Athlete Ambassador – Germany); Nancy
Wilson (Mentor Coach – Kazakhstan Senior);
Shannon Miller (Mentor Coach – Russia
Senior); Jennifer Botterill (Athlete Ambassador
– Russia); Correne Bredin (Athlete
Ambassador – Slovakia); Margot Page
(Mentor Coach – Switzerland U18); Therese Brisson
(Athlete Ambassador – Switzerland); Doug Lidster
(Mentor Coach – Czech Republic U18); and Rick
Polutnik (Mentor Coach – Slovakia U18).
Once the Ambassador and Mentor Program is running smoothly,
the IIHF will look to expand it to other nations wanting to
build and/or improve their women’s hockey program.
9. CELEBRATIONS
Laura Robinson, a CAAWS Aboriginal On the
Move program leader, received 2nd place from ForeWord Reviews'
Book of the Year Award for her kid's book, Cyclist BikeList:
The Book For Every Rider.
Four-time Canadian Olympic medalist and women’s ice
hockey pioneer, Hayley Wickenheiser, appointed
to the Order of Canada.
Own the Podium adds Lucinda Jagger to their
team of high-performance advisors focused on helping Canada’s
winter-sport athletes’ quest for the podium.
Get Social!
Did you know you can connect with CAAWS to find out the latest
news? Become a fan of CAAWS on Facebook,
or follow us on Twitter
for another way to stay “In the Loop.”
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