About
The Provincial Consortium on Youth in Recreation has the goal to see more quality sport, recreation, youth engagement and physical activity programs for youth (ages 13 to 19) in Ontario. The Consortium works to achieve this goal by increasing the ability of staff and volunteers who manage or work in youth programs to have a greater impact in achieving a positive youth development approach in recreation and physical activity.
Three primary objectives of the Consortium are: enhance the opportunities for youth in recreation, sport, youth engagement and physical activity; improve the quality of activities provided for youth through a variety of evaluation tools and training for participants and leaders; and strengthen communication mechanisms across the province to encourage a healthy approach to youth in communities.
A critical aspect of the Consortium's work is its support of the ideal of youth engagement. The Consortium works to support opportunities for youth to have a voice in programs and services which affect them – thereby ensuring that their interests, and not those of adults, drive the youth engagement process.
The Consortium has created a list of articles and resources relevant to working with youth. While many of these relate directly to healthy, active and positive youth development, some are more generic in nature and speak to other aspects of working with youth such as youth as volunteers, and youth as decision-makers. All new articles and resources are distributed immediately to members of an email list – SPRYNT. This site will serve as a portal to an archive of resources which can also be found by clicking on the Resources tab on the Home Page. If you wish to become a part of the email list, email mprice@prontario.org.
View the last SPRYNT article sent – Here is a great paper titled Best Practices for Outreach and Retention of Middle School Youth in After-School Programs. First, it's about the middle age youth, so they use the terms kid and child a lot in it. Substitute 'youth' and it's pretty transferable information. Second, this paper was developed because of a failed program: failed in the sense that it was discontinued after two months but successful in that a lot of learning has come from that experience. What the organizers did was assess what happened, why few people came and why less stayed. The result is this great 33 page document that outlines the findings of their research and then, more importantly, gives a really nice 'how to' section that applies the knowledge of the learnings to real life situations. It can be found at http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/
The Consortium hosts an annual training event for manager and programmers of youth development and engagement programs. Held annually in November at the Kempenfelt Conference Centre, the MBA Symposium offers opportunities for youth workers to learn about trends, programs and resources which help support and inform youth development work. More information on the Symposium can be found by clicking on the MBA tab on the Home Page.
National Youth Week is held annually the first full week in May. For more information on examples of what communities have done to support this week, please click on the National Youth Week tab on the Home Page.
For more information on the Consortium or the initiatives it supports,
Please contact:
Parks and Recreation Ontario
1185 Eglington Avenue East, Suite 406
Toronto, ON M3C 3C6
Phone: (416) 426-7065 – Fax: (416) 426-7371
Email: mprice@prontario.org – Website: www.prontario.org
