Alina Lizotte recently completed the Recreation North Training Program. Alina lives in Hay River, NT and earned a Certificate in Northern Recreation Leadership in October 2019. Alina shared a bit about herself.
My involvement in recreation started at a young age in Fort Resolution, NT. From opening the community gym for soccer or volleyball at nights, to running the women’s hockey league and also coaching and travelling with the local slo-pitch baseball team–recreation has always been a part of my life and will continue to be for a long time. I’ve always found recreation is a great way to find a sense of community, and to travel around the northern and southern regions of the NWT.
Recreation North’s Training Program delivered Northern specific learning events that can be utilized to fit smaller communities’ needs. This program delivered learning events that built on each other and gave me the tools to keep building my skills as I continued with the program. These learning events were very unique and fit what I needed to learn to become a better recreation leader.
I liked that the events were done over a two week period. It gave us time to work on each assignment in a timely manner and complete them within our busy schedules. I also enjoyed the once-a-week conference calls, as it gave us a chance to connect with other recreation leaders across the North, share our ideas and learn together.
I found that towards the end, I was having trouble finding a place to connect to the internet and complete my assignments, but other than that the work was very straight-forward and easy to comprehend.
I will use the knowledge gained from this program to further my recreation field job dreams come true. I’ve always wanted to become a recreational leader and hopefully, with this recent certificate I can do that.
A few words of wisdom from me would be to never give up. If you’re having trouble understanding or completing the assignment, just ask Caroline (the trainer) and she’ll be happy to assist you in any way. She is such a great teacher and mentor; she always wanted me to succeed. And you can prepare by setting aside two hours every week, although the assignments do not take that long. There are always extra support documents, PowerPoint presentations and additional information that will come in handy for our future jobs as recreation leaders. Utilize all documents. I find them very helpful for planning events, or budgeting programs, or getting to know your community; these are just a few examples. I would say it is not a lot of work, but great value and a lot of useful information.