Miriam Katawazi, Centretown News
Newly crowned activators receiving their certificates at the Catholic Centre for Immigrants. About 30 bright-eyed 16-22 year olds, clad in orange T-shirts with the word “ACTIVATOR” emblazoned on their backs, gathered for a weekend leadership forum on Nov. 21-23.
Motivate Canada, a national non-profit organization devoted to promoting social entrepreneurship among youth, developed the ACTIVATE program to establish leadership skills and health and wellness outcomes in youth across the country. The ACTIVATE program is in its 10year but this month’s ACTIVATE Ottawa event was a first.
In the past, youth aged 16-22 could apply to be a part of the annual forum, and selected applicants would be brought to Ottawa to participate in the event. Afterwards, they would go back to their communities and run ACTIVATE projects, using their newly found leadership skills, and health and physical activity knowledge.
And though the program has been a success, bringing the program to a local level was in response to a challenge that has plagued the national forum.
“What has happened in the past,” says Dan Dubeau, program manager of ACTIVATE, “is the youth go back to their communities and the hope is they’ll do these projects that will benefit their communities, but often they’re left without the networks to do so.”
By localizing the event, participants now have a network made up of community organizations, Motivate Canada and other youth mentors who were present at the conference. Some examples of ACTIVATE projects in the past include boot camp sessions, running clubs and wheelchair basketball clubs.
Participants from across Ottawa came together at Centretown’s Catholic Centre for Immigrants, on Argyle Avenue, for the conference. They were nominated by community organizations in the city.
Kelly Blais, coordinator of the Y Kids Academy at the YMCA, was in charge of selecting her organization’s team of youth for the conference. Blais says she tried to find youth within the YMCA that had shown “strong leadership skills, motivation, and people who had a likability factor so other youth would want to follow and engage with them.”
Canadian Paralympic athlete, Chelsea Lariviere, spoke at ACTIVATE Ottawa’s opening ceremonies on Nov. 22. Lariviere, who was born with cerebral palsy, won a silver medal at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens in the 100 metres wheelchair-racing event.
Lariviere spoke to the group about a range of topics, including bullying from her peers growing up, bad sportsmanship and how to create realistic and achievable goals.
“You are all activators,” Lariviere told the group. “You all have the potential to become leaders. You just need to have a support system in place.”
Also at the opening ceremonies was True Sport, a foundation dedicated to the promotion of ‘good sport’ experiences among communities and organizations. True Sport was Motivate Canada’s main partner in the ACTIVATE Ottawa conference.
Kasey Liboiron, project manager of True Sport, says ACTIVATE is one of the most unique events her organization has been part of. “It’s youth-driven development at its finest,” she says.
Liboiron engaged the group by talking about the differences between ‘bad sport’ and ‘good sport.’ When talking about bad sport, participants raised their hands to share experiences of hazing, aggressive parents, not performing their best, and misguided coaching. When discussing good sport, they spoke of making friends through sport, feelings of accomplishment, and positive reinforcement from teammates and coaches.
Liboiron stressed how the activators should do their best to make sure that when they go back into their communities, their physical activity projects will bring about the positive experiences and feelings they listed.
Now, it’s time for activators to return to their communities, with their newfound tools and skills, to implement a physical activity or sports initiative.
The activities are meant to last twenty weeks and are to run for, on average, an hour and a half per week. The hope is for all of the projects “to be up and running by the new year,” says Dubeau.