Canadian Active After School Partnership

Canadian Active After School Partnership

Call for Mentor Communities

October 2012

The Canadian Active After School Partnership (CAASP) is a collaborative that was formed in 2010 with the objective to enhance the delivery of quality after school programs across Canada. CAASP goals include increased access for all Canadian children to after-school programs that provide an opportunity to engage in physical activity, healthy living and sound nutrition practices.

CAASP presently includes the Active Living Alliance of Canadian with a Disability (ALACD), Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada (BGCC), Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS), Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA), National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) and Physical and Health Education Canada (PHE). CASSP is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

CAASP contributes toward the ultimate goal of enhance health for every child and youth in Canada. The program aims to support children in their optimal development physically, socially and emotionally.

Community Barrier Project

As part of the partnership activities in 2012-2014, CAASP is launching a national project to reduce community barriers to quality after school programs. Specifically, the CAASP partners are executing a mentor mobilization strategy to provide community to community support to address barriers to active and health after school programming.

CAASP is seeking to identify ‘promising practice’mentor communities that have successfully overcome after school programming challenges in one or more of the following areas:

1)Rural and remote settings

2)Urban low social-economic settings

3)Girls and young women

4)People with disabilities

5)Joint use municipal school board agreements

One mentor community for each area will be selected and matched with 4 communities that are presently facing challenges to providing after school programming and services in the identified area. Through ongoing engagement (via calls, meetings, document sharing) the mentor communityand associated CAASP partners will provide guidance and support on the‘promising practice’to mentee communities. The 4 mentee communities will also learn from each other’s experiences throughout the process.

The mentorship will take place between November 2012 and February 2014.Each mentor community will be asked to commit to continuing a self-directed mentorship role with additional communities after the end of the project.

As part of the project, CAASP will fund and facilitate the creation of a case study on the ‘promisingpractice’ mentor community that will be disseminated to communities across Canada to support further action. A case study will also be done on the mentoring process to support further partnership and collaboration.

The expectations for the mentor communities include:

Actively serving as a mentor community from November 2012 – February 2014
Communicating on a regular basis with CAASP on progress and challenges in mentoring process
In partnership with CAASP, mentoring of 4 communities in taking action on a specific target area through a series of meetings, conference calls and document exchange
Commitment to self-directed mentorship with other communities after the close of the project
Participating in required reporting and evaluation with CAASP

The benefits for the mentor community include:

Some financial support from CAASP to address the costs and staff time that will be required to play the mentor role
National profile of mentor community’s after school ‘promising practice’ via the national dissemination of a case study across communities, organizations and federal government officials
Relationship development with 4 communities across Canada and potential for additional mentoring opportunities with other communities
A case study of the mentoring process for use in future engagements

We welcome your expression of interest in serving as a mentor community under this project and ask that you indicate your interest by November 9th, 2012.

Within your expression of interest – please tell us about the challenge your community faced in the afterschool time period, the ‘promising practice’ you applied to the challenge, the lessons learnt in reaching this ‘best practice’ and the value you believe you can provide by mentoring other communities (1-2 pages maximum)

Questions or expressions of interest can be submitted to:

Anne Morgan (Recreation and Parks Yukon)

Rural and remote settings

Jan Vesna (Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada)

Urban low social-economic settings

Sydney Millar (Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity)

Girls and Women

Jane Arkell (Active Living Alliance for Canadian with a Disability)

Peoples with Disabilities

Larry Ketcheson (Parks and Recreation Ontario)

Joint Use municipal school board agreements