Striving for lasting change
At Sport for Life, we’re not waiting for change to happen. We’re making it happen.
Our nationally recognized not for profit organization consists of sport and physical literacy experts with the long-term vision necessary to be catalysts for lasting change within the sport and physical activity ecosystem and beyond. By bridging gaps between sectors, creating new collaborations with Canadian institutions, and mobilizing our knowledge to communities across the country, we aim to create a future in which absolutely everyone has access to quality sport and physical literacy experiences.
We’re thinking globally, and acting locally.
When it comes right down to it, the work we do at Sport for Life is quite simple: as a knowledge-based social enterprise we encourage governments, institutions, schools, and sport organizations to improve their programs and services in ways that will benefit everyone—not just the high achievers. We see a continuum through the stages of human and athletic development, not a division between “the best” and “the rest”. We aim to align our work with the UN’s sustainable development goals. Our vision is for every Canadian to find a custom-designed physical literacy pathway that works for them throughout their entire lives, and we believe that we can accomplish this through collaboration, innovation, inclusion, and integrity.
Our mandate is simple: “Create. Share. Mobilize.”
The work we do requires relationships. Since we incorporated as a not for profit in 2014, we’ve been able to increase our work to bring the government, health, education, recreation, and sport sectors together. Our network includes officials from all levels of government, health practitioners, educators, recreation programmers, facility administrators, board members, coaches, officials, athletes, parents, and representatives from every corner of society. These relationships will be key in reaching people who don’t normally operate within a traditional sport context, helping them to recognize the positive effect physical literacy and physical activity will have on their lives. Coaxing people out of sedentary or unhealthy lifestyles will result in positive health and mental wellness outcomes. That means people will be living longer, healthier lives.
Meanwhile, we’ll be continuing our work, which means collaborating with new and existing partners, including academics and physical literacy and quality sport experts. We’ll promote and practice multi-sectoral collaboration with our projects, while introducing long-term development strategies into national organizations through community and club programming. We value our key partnerships with national, provincial and territorial communities, organizations, and governments. Without them it wouldn’t be possible for us to continue our work on the front-lines of the physical literacy and quality sport movement.
The ideas that we champion are often radical, and our approach makes some uneasy. That’s because we’re believers in Kaizen, a philosophy that calls for relentless improvement. We see not only the way things are, we see the way they could be. Our organization has grown rapidly, and our mandate has grown with it. As thought leaders, we produce everything from eLearning modules to print publications to wide-scale international conferences that mobilize physical literacy and quality sport knowledge.
At the end of the day, we’re innovators who constantly ask “can we do this better?’.
The answer is always yes.
