Community physical activity connector!

The Cause

A quick history: this initiative sparked in February 2015 with the purpose of educating and empowering Edmontonians to get active. Another goal was to get various organizations and sectors working together to forge new relationships and partnerships, and to have new initiatives emerge as a result. So far we have achieved success with a booming social media following and connections to many health and fitness organizations in the City. With only three volunteers on hand, we organized “Demo Day”, an amazing event to celebrate National Health and Fitness Day on June 6th 2015. In advance, Senator Nancy Greene Raine (voted as Canada’s Female Athlete of the 20th Century) had approached us to attend and speak at Demo Day! Since this event we have seen a number of free fitness pop-ups (which are different than paid outdoor classes) around our beautiful City. Here is a clip that CTV did on the event: http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=630339&binId=1.1203428&playlistPageNum=1

We have had this dream from the beginning to host a community connection platform. We want to let people know about the importance of physical activity and all the great local opportunities that exist, including low-cost and free activities for all ages and abilities – in the format of a rolling calendar and forum. Currently with only two volunteers and using primarily Twitter and Instagram (growing an audience organically), we have managed to connect people with their communities and various active opportunities of which they were previously unaware. We want to create an online space for individuals, families, and organizations working with individuals who would benefit from the information.

One photo has been attached of our June event but many photos can be found on our social media accounts, which  will give you a better feel for how we are engaging with people:

Twitter @activeyeg

Instagram @activeyeg

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/activeyeg/

Who Will it Benefit?

Our quest is to encourage as many Edmontonians as possible to participate in preventative health and wellness activities – our main focus is physical activity. We are interested in reaching not only those already engaged in active opportunities but also to establish what barriers and challenges exist for those not participating. We intend to do this by continuing to collaborate with organizations in diverse industries and sectors including government, not-for-profit, and local businesses. We plan to act as a primary resource for these organizations to help distribute their wellness information and to connect with resources outside of their own scope to broaden their own impact. The reason it is so important to reach as many Edmontonians as possible is because we are experiencing more chronic diseases than ever before. This places a huge burden on our City’s and Province’s quality of life, economy, and our healthcare system. The good news is that most chronic diseases are largely preventable. According to Wellness Alberta, “Every $1 invested in prevention can be expected to result in at least $4 savings in future acute care costs”. This means your dollars will go far in helping preventative chronic diseases!