The current and evolving state of physical activity promotion in Canada
Creators: name: Wilson, Ron
name: Costas-Bradstreet, Christa
name: Cameron, Christine
name: Vanderloo, Leigh
name: Mitchell, Drew
name: Petrella, Robert
Publisher: name: The Health & Fitness Journal of Canada
Year: 2022

description: Chair: Dr. Ron Wilson, Theme Lead for Exercise, UBC Faculty of Medicine. Presenters: • Christa Costas-Bradstreet, Director, Partnerships and Policy, CPRA. • Christine Cameron, President, CFLRI. • Leigh Vanderloo, Knowledge Translation Manager, ParticipACTION. • Drew Mitchell, Director of Physical Literacy, Sport for Life. • Robert J Petrella, MD, PhD, FCFP, FACSM is Professor and Head, Department of Family Practice and Division of Sport Medicine, University of British Columbia and Emeritus Professor in Family Medicine and Kinesiology at Western University; Developer and Principal Investigator for the Hockey Fans in Training (Hockey FIT) Program. Purpose: This symposium will bring together speakers from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), ParticipACTION, Sport for Life Society, the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute (CFLRI) and the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA) to discuss the current state of physical activity (PA) promotion in Canada and its evolving direction. Over the past 40 years, the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute has been a leader in physical activity, sport, and recreation research in Canada. The CFLRI has developed a comprehensive, long-standing, and credible surveillance system which monitor not only population participation rates in physical activity and sport, but has also collected a multitude of factors associated with participation rates from the population and from key settings which support participation. This data has been integral for national policy development, evaluation, and for assessing impact. As Canada’s premier physical activity brand, ParticipACTION helps Canadians to incorporate PA into their daily lives, through impactful engagement initiatives and thought leadership. One of the ways that ParticipACTION works to achieve this mandate, is to ensure that Canadians and its multi-disciplinary partners and collaborators are informed about physical activity, sport participation and sedentary behaviour by gathering, translating, and disseminating the most relevant evidence on the subject. For 50 years ParticipACTION has been one of the world leaders in sport and physical activity advocacy. The organization has engaged more than 4 million Canadians to sit less and move more through their initiatives, events, and programs. ParticipACTION’s vision is a Canada where PA is a vital part of everyday life. Sport for Life is a leader in the area of Physical Literacy. Physical Literacy for Communities (PL4C) leverages multi-sectoral capacity and connections to affect change in health outcomes around chronic disease and injury. Physical literacy presents an opportunity to leverage capacity and develop healthy strategies together. In both the young child and older adult population, the skills and confidence of an individual to participate in various physical activities is a strong predictor of participation levels. The awareness and education of physical literacy (as it applies to the older adult population and informs the strategies of PA advocates, promoters and facilitators, and older adults themselves) is proving to be the missing the link in the successful and sustained increase in PA participation by older adults. Informed and inspired by Indigenous perspectives and input from many key organizations and leaders A Common Vision for Increasing Physical Activity and Reducing Sedentary Living is a national policy document intended to lead the country forward to move more and sit less. This policy has a singular focus on physical activity and its relationship to sport, recreation and health. PHAC is coordinating implementation of this policy. A Common Vision is for all that have a stake in promoting physical activity and reducing sedentary living in Canada. Funded by the PHAC and a host of partners, the Hockey Fit program is designed to use the power of sport, of being a fan of local hockey teams to engage at risk men in a healthy lifestyle program that produces important long term health indictor and behavioral change. Results and Conclusions: Together the presenters will address the current state of promotion and the challenges ahead for improving PA levels and reducing sedentary behaviour in Canada.
description: The Health &amp; Fitness Journal of Canada, Vol. 14 No. 3 (2021): Proceedings from the 8th International Society for Physical Activity and Health Congress