1. CAAWS PROGRAMS AT A GLANCE
2. CAAWS RELEASES NEW CANADIAN SPORT FOR LIFE RESOURCE
3. CAAWS TO HOST MOTHERS IN MOTION WORKSHOPS
4. ON THE MOVE IN ETHNIC COMMUNITIES: ONTARIO FOCUS GROUP SITES NEEDED
5. 5TH IOC WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN AND SPORT
6. HOW CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE TO A BOOK ON WOMEN AND SPORT?
7. LOBBY DAY 2012
8. WALK IN HER SHOES 2012
9. UPCOMING CAAWS WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS
10. CELEBRATIONS

1. CAAWS PROGRAMS AT A GLANCE

CAAWS Celebrates International Women’s Day - In honour of International Women’s Day, CAAWS took part in various activities throughout the day to recognize and celebrate girls and women in sport and physical activity. CAAWS hosted a Lunch and Learn event in Ottawa ON featuring three women leaders who talked about “Influencing Change through Advocacy – Personal Stories and Reflections.”

Erin Kasungu (Sport Matters Group) shared her learnings about influencing change in Canada and abroad. Lisa Marie Naponse (Motivate Canada) spoke about her personal journey and experiences that influenced her work as an advocate today. Leslie Coburn (City of Ottawa) discussed her involvement and leadership in the City of Ottawa’s Girls ’n Women in Sport initiative, emphasizing the need for continued work to ensure equity for girls and women in sport and physical activity in Ottawa, and across the country.

CAAWS Project Manager, Stéphanie Parker, and Aline Lafrenière, CAAWS Consultant, participated in an International Women’s Day event for staff of the Senate, House of Commons and Library of Parliament in Ottawa ON. This non-partisan event invited administrative employees to learn about services offered in our community, in support of girls and women.

CAAWS also launched a new publication entitled Actively Engaging Women and Girls: Addressing the Psycho-Social Factors – a supplement to Canadian Sport for Life. The resource provides information about the intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental and policy factors influencing women’s and girls’ participation and leadership, and provides practical recommendations to ensure equitable programs and opportunities. A valuable resource for everyone involved in sport and physical activity, it will support and guide those working with women and girls so they engage in, and maintain, healthy and active lifestyles. For more information, please read the article further below.

Girls and Women in Sport & Physical Activity Images – Are you looking for images of girls and women participating in sport and physical activity? Images that show different abilities, different cultures, races and people of all shapes and sizes? Images that cover a variety of activities including winter, summer, extreme sports, team and individual? Photos of older women, young women, pregnant women and children? CAAWS' photo DVD offers 255 high resolution, colour images that can be used for non-commercial purposes in brochures, flyers or newsletters. Copies can be purchased for $5 each by contacting Karras Hagglund at caaws@caaws.ca or 613.562.5667.

Seeking resources for new After School website - CAAWS is a partner in the Canadian Active After School Partnership (CAASP) which is working with the Leisure Information Network (LIN) to collect resources for a new After School website to open in April. It will provide resources, program ideas and other great information for anyone providing after school programs across the country.

Right now, we are particularly interested in collecting policies in the following categories: leisure access policies for low income populations; policies on accessibility for facilities and programs; gender equity policies; child protection policies and procedures; healthy food and beverage policies; and active transportation policies. If your organization has a policy or you can recommend any available elsewhere, please let us know! You will be contributing to a great new resource that will support the delivery of quality after school program resources: Please send policies or suggestions to info@lin.ca.

Employment Opportunity: Administration and Office Coordinator - The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) is seeking a skilled and highly motivated individual to fill the position of Administration and Office Coordinator.
Reporting directly to the Executive Director, the incumbent will be responsible for providing administrative support and performing day-to-day clerical duties for CAAWS.
This is a permanent part time position at the National Office in Ottawa.
Application Deadline: April 5, 2012. For more information, click here. (.pdf)

2. CAAWS RELEASES NEW CANADIAN SPORT FOR LIFE RESOURCE

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) announces the publication of Actively Engaging Women and Girls: Addressing the Psycho-Social Factors, a new resource designed to increase opportunities for women and girls as both participants and leaders in the Canadian sport and physical activity system. The publication is a supplement to the Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) foundation document, and complements other Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) resources.

“The purpose of this resource is to increase awareness about the experiences of women and girls, and provide recommendations to address the psycho-social factors that influence female athlete development, leadership and life-long participation in sport and physical activity. International Women’s Day is the perfect time to reignite the dialogue and provide solutions, and CAAWS is proud to be offering this resource to all Canadians”, said CAAWS Executive Director Karin Lofstrom (Ottawa, Ontario).

Information in Actively Engaging Women and Girls: Addressing the Psycho-Social Factors will support national, provincial/territorial and community sport and physical activity organizations in enhancing their CS4L/LTAD implementation strategies. It will guide sport and physical activity leaders, coaches, educators and health promoters in developing and implementing quality programs and providing equitable support for women and girls as a priority. Parents and family members will find this resource helpful when making decisions about how to encourage and support the full and active participation of their daughters and female family members.

For more information or to download a copy, visit: http://www.caaws.ca/ActivelyEngaging/

Note: All national sport and multi sport organizations, provincial and territorial sport organizations, and government departments responsible for sport and physical activity will receive English and French hard copies of the resource directly. Additional copies are available upon request by contacting caaws@caaws.ca.

CAAWS acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Sport Canada).

3. CAAWS TO HOST MOTHERS IN MOTION WORKSHOPS

With funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, CAAWS trained 22 women interested in becoming Mothers in Motion (MIM) Master Trainers, and developed two workshops – one for stakeholders and one for mothers - to mobilize communities to increase physical activity and healthy opportunities for mothers and their families.

CAAWS will be hosting its first MIM workshops on Tuesday, March 20 and Wednesday, March 21 in Tyendinaga ON. If you live in Tyendinaga or the surrounding area, and are a mother or stakeholder who is interested in increasing physical activity for themselves, families and/or mothers in your community, please contact Mandi Buma at 613.396.1944 or by email at recreation@tyendinagatownship.com by Monday, March 19.

Mothers in Motion is a national initiative aimed at moving, mentoring and motivating mothers to be physically active and adopt healthy eating practices for themselves and their families, from infancy to adolescence. Mothers who are active and lead a healthy active lifestyle are role models for their families, and their desire to keep moving, eat healthy and be involved in sport and physical activity will motivate their children to do the same.

Trainers will be delivering workshops across Ontario between March and June 2012.

4. ON THE MOVE IN ETHNIC COMMUNITIES: ONTARIO FOCUS GROUP SITES NEEDED

CAAWS' new On the Move in Ethnic Communities project is designed to enhance capacity at the community, regional and provincial levels to increase healthy living opportunities for girls and young women from ethnic communities. On the Move is CAAWS' national initiative to increase opportunities for inactive girls and young women (ages 9-18) to participate in sport and physical activity.

CAAWS is currently seeking 10 Ontario communities (across the four health regions) interested in hosting focus groups with girls and young women, and service providers, about the needs, interests and experiences of the target group. Focus groups will be hosted in late March and April. A CAAWS facilitator will conduct the focus groups, and costs will be reimbursed by CAAWS.

For more information please contact Tammy George, Project Coordinator at mastertg22@hotmail.com. CAAWS acknowledges support from the Ontario Ministry of Long Term Care's Healthy Communities Fund for this project.

5. 5TH IOC WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN AND SPORT

For the first time ever, CAAWS was invited to participate in the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) 5th World Conference on Women and Sport that took place in Los Angeles, California, from February 16-18, 2012.

CAAWS Executive Director, Karin Lofstrom, presented as a part of the panel discussion “Together Stronger: Educating women and men to create successful leadership teams”. The session was well attended and provided an opportunity to showcase CAAWS’ Women on Boards resource and its Women and Leadership Program. The training session titled “Practical skills to be an effective leader” led by CAAWS Master Trainer, Nora Sheffe, was also well received and women from around the world discussed how they could get more women in the leadership pipeline. Following both sessions, Nora and Karin were asked many questions about how these practical resources might be used in other countries.

The IOC closed the conference by presenting the Los Angeles Declaration, a series of recommendations aimed at promoting gender equality in sport and using sport as a tool to improve the lives of women around the world . To read the Los Angeles Declaration in full, click here. (.pdf)

As part of the conference, CAAWS also developed and distributed a trilingual English/French/Spanish promotional flyer highlighting its numerous women and leadership opportunities. To read the flyer, click here (.pdf).

6. HOW CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE TO A BOOK ON WOMEN AND SPORT?

This new book will focus on girls, women, gender and sport between 1960-2010, and hopes to capture a range of issues, highlights, challenges, approaches, experiences, etc. There was tremendous change in the landscape of women and sport in these decades, and the stories attached to these events are important to record and share. Suggested areas for contributions include: experiences, organizing, strengthening and advocacy.

If you are interested in contributing, please send an expression of interest and a paragraph about what you propose to cover lorrainegreaves@hotmail.com by March 30, 2012.

For more information, download the 'Invitation to Contribute' (.pdf)

7. LOBBY DAY 2012

The Sport Matters Group (SMG) is organizing a lobby day on Parliament Hill which will take place on Tuesday, April 24 2012.

The lobby day will provide champions from the sport, physical activity and recreation sector with an opportunity to meet with parliamentarians, ministers and officials in order to raise awareness around key issues. The lobby day is provided as a service without charge to SMG members.

If you are interested in joining their delegation, please fill out the form found here. For more information, please contact SMG’s Public Affairs Coordinator, Krissy Murphy, at krissy.murphy@sportmatters.ca or call 613.231.7472 ext. 227.

8. WALK IN HER SHOES 2012

To celebrate International Women’s Day, staff at CARE Canada walked 8,000 steps as part of their Walk in Her Shoes campaign. While many Canadians across the country have started their eight-day walking challenge, there is still plenty of time to sign-up and challenge yourself to walk 8,000 steps a day for 8 days and raise funds to fight global poverty. The best part is that it is a personal challenge so participants have the flexibility to start when it works best for them. In 2011, thousands of Canadians rose to the challenge and raised over $100,000 for the campaign.

Please join us this year and walk in solidarity with women and girls around the world who must walk an average of 8,000 steps a day to collect water, firewood and other basic necessities to keep their family alive. The 2012 campaign is bigger and better with the introduction of fun prizes and fundraising incentives.

To learn how you can receive a beautiful necklace made by women that have been empowered through a CARE Village Savings and Loan Association in Uganda, sign up now at care.ca/walkinhershoes.

9. UPCOMING CAAWS WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS

CAAWS will be hosting the following workshops and presentations in the coming weeks:

Mothers in Motion – Tyendinaga (ON), Sturgeon Falls (ON)
On the Move – Woodstock (ON), Toronto (ON), Ottawa (ON / French)
Women and Leadership – Toronto (ON), Sunshine Coast (BC)
Aboriginal Women and Leadership – Couchiching (ON)

For more information and details, visit CAAWS' Calendar of Events at http://www.caaws.ca/e/calendar/.

10. CELEBRATIONS

Current Vikes women's field hockey coach Lynne Beecroft (Victoria BC) to be inducted into University of Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. Charmaine Hooper (Texax, USA) and Andrea Neil have been named to the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame. Field Hockey player Sarah Forbes (Toronto ON) to be inducted into New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame.

Erin Mielzynski (Guelph ON) made history when she became the first Canadian woman since Betsy Clifford in 1971 to win a World Cup slalom race.

Jane James (Duncan BC) has been elected as Chair of the Canadian Para-Equestrian Committee (CPEC) for the 2012–2013 term.

The International Softball Federation has selected three female umpires to represent Canada at the ISF XIII Women’s World Championship taking place from July 13-22, 2012 in Whitehorse, YK: Noreen Atkinson (Georgetown ON), Joyce Bellini (St-Hubert QC) and Susan Strafford (Burnaby BC).

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