Recreation North Vision
Across the North, the power and potential impact of recreation is embraced and valued as an essential service.
Recreation is understood to enhance personal, social, and environmental health and wellbeing and contributes to greater balance between quality of life and economic development.
Program Development and Delivery
Goal #1: A successful, practical, and relevant program; a basic sustainable level of recreation opportunities; and staff/volunteer development and retention in communities.
2019 – 2020 Highlights:
This fiscal year was our second full year of the Recreation North Training Program. The changes made from the pilot to the program—ability to begin at any time; and consistency in format and expectations in each learning event—prove to still be working well. We continue to see learners join at various times of the year, generally as they gain employment in the recreation sector. The online learning has proven to be successful.
This year we developed a new learning event, BF 102 – Proposal Writing, with the expertise from the NWT Literacy Council. This learning event gained a lot of interest, including bringing new people to Recreation North that had not taken a learning event before.
We know the needs in each of our territories can sometimes differ. For this reason, each territory has the option to deliver learning events in-person. This year, the NWTRPA delivered two in-person learning events in Fort Smith, at the request of the Town of Fort Smith Recreation Department. A computer lab was used so learners could understand how the online delivery works and transition to that approach for the remainder of the certificate if they wished. In Yukon, RPAY has been piloting a blended approach, in collaboration with Kwanlin Dün First Nation. A trainer meets with their Recreation Department staff each week to review the learning event material and have discussions on the topics for that week. These learners are also registered in the online learning event, which provides them with opportunities to engage with learners from other places.
Typically, one to two learning events have been delivered monthly from September-May. Learning events are still largely filled to capacity (15 learners), with new opportunities for partnerships consistently being found.
This fiscal year, RPAN was the first association to deliver the Recreation North Youth Certificate. This certificate was delivered in-person, followed by a practical component in each youth learner’s home community before receiving their certificate.
Nathan Mannilaq from Taloyoak had the following to say about the training: “The training helped. It taught us to prepare and be ready, to be more disciplined around the children and to plan.”
This fiscal year we also began a provincial pilot with Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia. The pilot was meant to target delivery to individuals from rural, remote, and Indigenous communities. Five learning events were delivered over the course of the pilot; one final learning event is currently being delivered. Ongoing evaluation has been occurring, with a final evaluation report due to the steering committee in May 2020. (The steering committee consists of a member from each provincial recreation association.)
2019 – 2020 in Numbers:
- 15 learning events were delivered online between May 2019 and March 2020 with learners from each territory.
- A pre-learning event/orientation to Moodle is available to learners at any point in time to understand the online system.
- Learners from Nunavut grew this past year, partly due to a scholarship available from RPAN.
- 26 people earned their Certificate in Northern Youth Recreation Leadership in Nunavut.
- 36 participants from the four provinces joined
the provincial pilot.
Governance
Goal #2: An accountable, well-managed partnership and management team with the capacity, credibility, and connections to sustain the program over many years.
2019 – 2020 Highlights:
The management team, consisting of the executive directors of RPAY, NWTRPA, and RPAN, has had a strong focus on sustainability this year. Completed partnership and operational agreements have planned an important role in structure the growth and evolution of Recreation North. The NWTRPA Executive Director, along with the Program Manager and Learning Consultant, attended the 2020 Arctic Inspiration Prize Ceremony. While in Ottawa, they also participated in both formal and informal networking opportunities to discuss funding and sustainability pathways for Recreation North. These discussions have become more imperative as we wrap up the provincial pilot and determine next steps for Recreation North.
Sustainability
Goal #3: A sustainable future for Recreation North and the program with expanded option for capacity building and community service.
2019 – 2020 Highlights:
We have spent the last fiscal year working with the Canadian Recreation and Parks Association (CPRA) to create a pathway for learners to move from the successful completion of the Certificate in Northern Recreation Leadership to the CRPA’s Professional Development Certification (PDC). We are currently finalizing the details of this pathway. Once the content for the pathway is complete, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be signed by the three executive directors and CPRA.
