The TELUS Manitoba Community Board has made a significant contribution to our culturally-based community sport program for Aboriginal youth and young people by donating $14,000 to help encourage youth volunteer mentors of the program succeed academically.

“We are humbled by this generous—and important—contribution by the TELUS Manitoba Community Board, to a program which creates safe, relevant, and meaningful sport spaces for Indigenous youth and young people living in diverse communities to rediscover the joy of sport and to share this experience by becoming sport leaders in their community, ” said Dr. Douglas Brown, Dean, Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management.

The Rec and Read program consists of interconnected levels of multi-age mentoring, whereby adults (recognized young adult community health leaders, supporting teachers, or “young adult allies”) will work with high school mentors to design and deliver an after school nutrition, physical activity and education program for early years students that is tailored to the needs of each school/community.

There are eight sites within Winnipeg. These include:

• The Maples/James Nisbet
• The Maples/Elwick
• St. Johns/Ralph Brown
• Children of the Earth/Niji Mahkwa
• Daniel McIntyre/Shaughnessy
• John Taylor/Buchanan

The majority of these schools are located in inner Winnipeg neighborhoods with high numbers of families in low socioeconomic groups.

Since 2006, over 2,761 junior high school and elementary students and 246 university students and community mentors have participated in the program.

Each year, program participants are attracted to Rec and Read because of its strength-based programming philosophy as well as its holistic health and wellness benefits. These benefits include:

• Increased knowledge about and access to healthy nutrition.
•  Increased opportunities to participate in moderate to vigorous physical activities.
• Increased opportunities to acquire and/or develop literacy skills and practices.
• Increased opportunities to build inter-cultural relationships that are meaningful, supportive and enjoyable.
• Increased opportunities to be playful, which is always good for the spirit.
• Career and Educational Pathways.

Integral in the process of donating these funds to Rec and Read is TELUS Manitoba Community Board member, Tim Prokipchuk [B.Comm.(Hons)/88], who was on hand to present the cheque to Dean Douglas Brown and Rec and Read  Director, Dr. Heather McRae.

He is a long distance runner who will be competing in his first marathon this year in Ottawa. The 40-year-old began running when he was ten, eventually running for Sisler High School [in Winnipeg’s North End] and later becoming a member of the University of Alberta cross-country team.

According to McGavock, running not only informs his research, it is also a key to his own personal mental health.

McGavock, an associate professor of pediatrics and child health in the College of Medicine.

“Juggling all of these different projects can be stressful at times, but going out for a run is the best way to deal with a lot of the issues that come up,” he says. “I don’t worry about what the run is going to do for my body. I think of how it’s going to make me feel mentally.”

McGavock, also a research scientist located at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, traces his interest in diabetes research back to his undergraduate days.

“I was interested in exercise and physiology, so I was looking for conditions where exercise would have the biggest impact and diabetes came out the clear winner,” says McGavock who completed two post-doctoral fellowships and holds a PhD in Physical Education (Alberta), MA in Kinesiology (McGill), and Bachelor of Physical Education (U of M).

After being invited to work with pediatric endocrinologist Heather Dean, at her clinic at Children’s Hospital, McGavock observed a gap between what he’d been taught in terms of the prevention and management of diabetes and the reality of the barriers facing the young patients he was seeing every day.

At this point McGavock began to examine was missing when it came to diabetes prevention and management, particularly with Indigenous youth.

“With our current medical model, we teach the disease but we don’t always teach the factors that patients are facing,” he says.

One of the most underappreciated barriers Indigenous youth face is adversity, which can manifest itself in different ways.

“First and foremost, there’s transgenerational stress with youth living with parents and grandparents that have lived through residential schools and have suffered through colonization. Another big issue is poverty and food insecurity,” McGavock says. “On a mental health level, these youth are isolated. Not only geographically, but youth who are overweight and living with diabetes are often bullied and isolated within their schools. When young students come into conventional treatment and prevention programs it just doesn’t resonate with them because weight loss or blood glucose control are not top priorities for them.”

“Manitoba is leading the charge in Indigenous health research in youth at the College of Medicine.”

That’s where the work of McGavock’s applied research chair seeks to develop a theoretical framework that moves away from simple diet and exercise and focuses on the issues that are relevant to young people, particularly resilience. The chair will focus on the area of resilience to promote strong, independent youth that over the long run will combat obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The initial model for McGavock’s research outlook was formed when he was invited to Garden Hill First Nation by Larry Wood, the local Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative worker. Wood’s work is challenging as his community suffers from a level of type 2 diabetes in youth that’s significantly higher than the general population.

While there he found that the children, despite the adversity they face, were very resilient and that was where he decided to focus his research.

“The first time you go into a grade four classroom in a remote northern community, the kids are exactly the same as they would be in Tuxedo or River Heights,” he says. “They want to learn, they want to get involved in things and they love to play and be happy. That was when we developed this program to focus on the resilience and on the strengths of youth, rather than on the deficits,” he says.

To capitalize on that resiliency McGavock worked in consultation with Larry Wood and community stakeholders to implement an Aboriginal Youth Mentorship Program, an after-school initiative that provides physical activity, healthy snacks and games for elementary school children and is delivered by high school students. The model, originally developed by colleagues in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management Joannie Halas and Amy Carpenter—Rec and Read—is guided by a theoretical framework developed by Martin Brokenleg called the Circle of Courage, a framework consisting of four elements: belonging, independence, mastery and generosity.

Since its inception, the Rec and Read program has been adopted by four more communities across Manitoba with over 300 youth participating.

“I am standing on the shoulders of giants and following a clear path set by leaders in this area. None of this would have been possible without the work that’s already been done by the leading Manitoba scientists and Indigenous scholars that came before.”

“The success of this program would be making it available to any Indigenous child in any region in Canada and support their goals to wellbeing and a healthy life.”

Recently, Research Manitoba announced $2.5 million in funding for DEVOTION, a new research network in Manitoba focused on the developmental origins of diseases, led by McGavock and colleague Andrew Halayko. This new network will focus on improving health outcomes among Manitoba’s children and youth through transdisciplinary work between scientists, policy makers and community partners.

The DEVOTION network will bring together clinical and basic researchers from multiple disciplines to create a team that will work together to unravel the early life determinants of chronic disease in children.

“Some kids get a chronic disease and others don’t,” McGavock says. “We’re asking what we can do in the early years to prevent that from happening.”

DEVOTION also includes an advisory stakeholder group consisting of Indigenous community members and organizations, policy makers and health care professionals that will guide the research program.

“That’s really an important piece,” McGavock says. “The research of DEVOTION is going to be driven by the needs of community members.”

Collaboration plays a significant role in McGavock’s work and he is quick to credit the many mentors and health professionals who have come before him to make his work possible.

“Manitoba is leading the charge in Indigenous health research in youth,” he says, mentioning the pioneering work of professors Heather Dean, Patricia Martens, Sharon Bruce, Barry Lavallee and Catherine Cook in the College of Medicine.

“I am standing on the shoulders of giants and following a clear path set by leaders in this area. None of this would have been possible without the work that’s already been done by the leading Manitoba scientists and Indigenous scholars that came before. They’ve made it possible for someone like me to come in and do this kind of work.”

This story was originally published in the Summer 2015 issue of Research Life.

The University of Manitoba Access Program (UMAP) celebrates its 40th anniversary this fall and provides Indigenous students with a support network designed to increase student success. The program, offered through Extended Education, expands opportunities for students with social, economic, geographic and cultural barriers, or a lack of formal education. Students are given tools to achieve their educational goals such as academic and personal counselling, tutorial services and exam preparation, an expanded orientation, and even a limited amount of financial assistance. Additionally, support is also provided specifically for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students seeking health care-related education.

The Aboriginal Business Education Partners program (ABEP) celebrated their 20-year anniversary this past November. ABEP, part of the Asper School of Business, offers a community for Indigenous students as well as academic and financial support from application straight through to graduation. The program was started 20 years ago when the then-dean of the school noted that only “a handful of Aboriginal people had earned their [BComm] degrees,” said Wanda Wuttunee, former director of ABEP.

The transition from high school to university can be an overwhelming experience, so the Promoting Aboriginal Community Together program (PACT) was established to help alleviate this first-year stress. PACT pairs new Aboriginal students with experienced Aboriginal students to support each other in the university experience.

“I am so grateful to PACT students for taking the time to share their knowledge,” said Carla Loewen, who helped set up the program. Carla currently works as a student advisor in the Aboriginal Student Centre. “Aboriginal student success is a team effort, and I am just glad to be a part of it all.”

The trailblazing Rec and Read Mentorship program is a culturally-based, community-focused physical activity program for all young people living in diverse communities. Indigenous teachings and worldviews inform Rec and Read’s holistic approach to nurturing intercultural mentoring relationships. University and high school students manage the program and receive ongoing support from the program coordinator based at the U of M. Both the university and the high school students work collaboratively to develop their mentorship and leadership skills.

In 2014 the program was the first place winner of the annual MacJannet Prize. This prestigious, international award celebrates university programs that act as models of excellent global citizenship and civic engagement.

Designed to provide Aboriginal persons (Status, Non-Status, Métis, Inuit) with access to university studies, the Engineering Aboriginal Access Program (ENGAP) provides academic, social and personal supports based on the individual needs of the student.

In 2015 ENGAP is celebrating 30 years of successfully providing guidance to Aboriginal peoples pursuing a degree in engineering. This year will also mark the 100^th graduate of the program, and each of the ENGAP alumni are invited back to help celebrate this important milestone.

Windigo-Khan is a traditional aboriginal game, similar to tag, where the player at the front of the line, the mother, must protect the last player in line, her baby, from the Windigo. This game was one of many played at the annual Traditional Aboriginal Games (TAG) Celebration at the Max Bell Centre on Thursday, April 16.

Students play windigo-khan, a traditional aboriginal game

“There are very few people who know the traditional aboriginal games. And teaching all these students for the last 10 years, it’s getting out into Manitoba, across remote communities, northern communities as well, ” says Blair Robillard, a traditional aboriginal games instructor.

Robillard said the games are about so much more than play. They help students and their mentors learn important life skills.

TAG day brings university students, community members and youth together.

“The bonding and the trust that occurs, between all the players and all the members is phenomenal. It’s also introducing the high school students to how to communicate effectively with university students as well as the children”

The day’s events are part of the Rec and Read mentorship after-school program which brings together university students, community members and youth in cross-cultural learning. The program focuses on physical activity, as well as nutritional and educational programming.

“The students are building their skills, their confidence, as well as getting the connection to the university. Hopefully they further their education, after finishing high school and come to university.”

The TAG Celebration programming also involved traditional smudge, and university tours. As events winded down, students and staff lined up again, this time to write funny messages and autograph each other’s t-shirts.

“I think the success of the program is also that there’s always laughter, and that’s the healing component.”

The trailblazing Rec and Read Mentorship Program won first place in the 2014 MacJannet Prize, awarded by the MacJannet Foundation. The annual prizes celebrate university programs that act as models of excellent global citizenship and civic engagement: programs that raise awareness and encourage community engagement within higher education.

HOW IT WORKS: University and community mentors work with high school mentors to plan and deliver weekly after-school physical activity, nutrition, and education activities for early-years students. The program also acts as an intercultural service-learning site for U of M students.

ITS REACH: More than 1,400 high school and elementary students, and 220 university students and community mentors, have participated in 12 Winnipeg schools and four northern communities. Since 2001, the number of participants has jumped by more than 250 per cent.

THE GOAL: To provide pathways of opportunity by tapping into and building on the skills and abilities of young people, strengthening connections to school, community, and cultural organizations. Their vision states: “All youth have a desire to belong, grow and give of themselves.”

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: “Without question, oppression and discrimination wound the human spirit but they also generate profound resilience, creativity, courage and strength,” says Halas, who recalls a stand-out moment when she knew the program was striking a chord. “One evening, while walking in their community, a high school mentor saw an early-years mentee walking across the street with their parents. The young child also noticed them and excitedly exclaimed to his parents: ‘Look, there’s my teacher!’”

April 6, is also the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. The United Nations believes sport can be used as a tool for education, development and peace. It can also promote cooperation, solidarity, tolerance, understanding, social inclusion and health at the local, national and international levels.

FUNDERS: The City of Winnipeg, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Manitoba Health and Healthy Living, Sport Manitoba, the Executive Lead for Indigenous Achievement, an anonymous donor and in-kind donations from the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management

LEARN MORE

• Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management
• Prof. Joannie Halas
• Rec and Read on Facebook
• MacJannet Prize 2014 Winner
• Healthy Living award winner

MORE ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SPORT FOR DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE

• IDSDP From the United Nations
• Background on the first International Day of Sport for Development and Peace
• International Day of Sport for Development and Peace on Facebook

To see the impact the University of Manitoba has on the global community take a look at this map. If you have a community-minded story to tell, please do so by submitting your story here.