Hey Everyone!
I can’t believe that the first month of this pilot project has already come and gone. Everything here in Toronto seems to be going by so fast. It seems like just yesterday I was coming in for my first day at The Spot (Jane and Finch Community Centre) and meeting Obosa and Alicia (my counterpart and supervisor for the term).
Over the last month I have been hard at work planning and laying down the preliminary framework for the Sport for Newcomers Initiative (S4N) here in Toronto. Although we haven’t run any programming here yet, a lot is going into brainstorming and organizing for programming to start up here in the fall.
Before I get too deep into anything i’d like to take this chance to talk a little more about the Sport for Newcomers Initiative’s mission and goals, and how I will be working within this community to deliver programming to help meet and further them. In the long run, the hope is that this pilot programming, both here in Toronto and in Edmonton, is a great success and similar initiatives can be brought to new communities across the country!
So for some background info, the Sport for Newcomers Initiative is a branch of the SportWorks program that is run through Commonwealth Games Canada. This program is currently in its 25th year and has helped to further Sport for Development initiatives in developing commonwealth countries around the world.The Sport for Newcomers (S4N) Initiative is designed to build and enhance the capacity of Newcomer Service Organizations in Canada leading to increased sport frequency rates and retention of Newcomer Youth.
Personally, I have had the great privilege to be apart of this program in 2017 when I was stationed in Botswana working to develop and deliver swimming programming to at risk children. I hope that my previous experiences working to develop programming will allow me to help this pilot succeed and grow. At this time I don’t have much to share as programming has yet to commence, but in the coming months (and in subsequent blog posts) I will go over the programming that we will be running and provide more insights into what else is to come in the future.
So stay tuned for some exciting upcoming program updates!
Dante Losardo