In winter, maintaining wellness and a healthy lifestyle can be difficult, but youth workers from the Friendship House Association of Prince Rupert were up for the challenge as a part of the FNHA Winter Wellness grants.
Organizers at the Friendship House offered opportunities for youth that are sometimes not easily available or accessible. This included access to the Prince Rupert Recreation Centre and all of its facilities. Access to the pool meant that youth stayed active during the colder months, had access to programs and struck up friendships with other youth. Even now, the group still attend AquaFit classes. The gym, trail hiking and ice skating were also offered to the youth. These activities were very popular and noticed by many of the other patrons and community members who use the recreation centre.
"The community saw all the youth and their families at the pool and were asking why we were there all the time. I told them that we provide the access for free"
The program offered many more benefits for those that attended. For one youth, access to the recreation centre helped them to lose 15 pounds in a safe and encouraging environment. Participation in these activities also entered youth into a draw to have expenses at the Gathering our Voices youth conference in Victoria covered. This annual conference involves Aboriginal youth from all over BC. The opportunity to attend was incentive enough to have youth take part in the youth program.
"The contest to get help with the youth that went to the Youth Conference was a success as we had some youth that never went to the pool before ask if they could take part and that would count towards their chances of attending the Youth Conference in Victoria".
While the program was a success, there are always challenges to overcome and the biggest one that organizers had were transport and equipment. With the high interest in activities, transportation was an issue and costs were more than expected. Finding outdoor shoes for hiking also presented a challenge. However, these were overcome with support of youth workers and resources available to the Friendship House.
"This experience showed youth that physical activity has many benefits and the weather should not stop them from going out and also that some exercise costs nothing but the time to invest in their health and wellbeing".
With a high level of involvement and enthusiasm, we at the First Nations Health Authority look forward to seeing what youth programs and activities are on offer once the weather starts to warm up in Prince Rupert.