The Ottawa Sports Pages has begun a new weekly series spotlighting local sports inclusion initiatives.
Many Ottawa sports groups are taking strides to make their programs more accessible and welcoming to all. We’ll be highlighting their work, while also illustrating some of the barriers participants can encounter.
The series is a bit of a continuation to the special edition newspapers we previously produced about race/income, LGBTQ+, parasport and women’s inclusion in sport.
Those special editions came out during COVID when the regular sports schedule was disrupted. Many conversations about sport inclusion began at that time, and now that sport has returned without restriction for the most part, many of the initiatives discussed and planned are coming to life.
“During the pandemic, people had to kind of stop what they were doing, but what they filled their time with was becoming part of a collective to figure out how to get back and be better,” says Marci Morris, executive director of the Ottawa Sport Council. “So I think it really strengthened our sector as a whole.”
The Ottawa Sport Council has taken the lead on creating an equity, diversity and inclusion toolkit for community sport organizations to learn how to practically deliver on those objectives. It’s an Ottawa-powered project, but the toolkit will likely also be relevant for community sports groups across the country.
That’s one of the initiatives featured in the series – we’ll post links to all of them below on this webpage as they’re published.
We have lots more stories in the works already for this series, but if you know of a local sport inclusion initiative we might like to spotlight, please let us know at editor@ottawasportspages.ca.
Samuel-Genest HS holds 15th Olympiad for students with intellectual disabilities
Samuel-Genest high school hosted a record 250 participants for the 15th edition of its Olympiad for students with intellectual disabilities on May 19, along with 160 assistants and nearly 100 student volunteers. The event was organized by students in Samuel-Genest’s entrepreneurship class, with more help a social change and challenges course, while phys ed students ran sports stations. READ MORE…
Live clinics added as Ottawa Inclusive and Para Sport Expo grows in year 2
Nelson Smith discovered sledge hockey by accident. Smith stumbled into the sport when watching his granddaughter play hockey at the Jim Durrell Recreation Centre. He signed up and played until he was 70. Now 76, Smith manages public relations and marketing for Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario. He wants to make it easier to find and play the sport and hopes the June 3 Ottawa Inclusive and Para Sport Expo will help. READ MORE…
Indigenous Hockey Equipment Drive touches down in Ottawa on May 27
Graham McWaters is a busy man. He’s constantly planning his next moving truck rental, driving to hockey equipment donation events, packing up all the gear, taking the fresh truckload back to storage, then repeating it all again, sometimes the very next day. Not to mention coordinating how to get the equipment off to its intended recipients in often-remote Indigenous communities. READ MORE…
Ottawa Basketball Network aims to grow sport one more court at a time
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Hockey rallies to make positive impact off the ice with pair of local events
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Nighthawks’ Stick Together program offers free field hockey to Indigenous youth
Nepean Nighthawks Field Hockey Club founder Sandeep Chopra has been coaching for 40 years and has seen several of his players compete at the top international level, but he nonetheless picks the club’s Stick Together program as perhaps his favourite career highlights. “This is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done,” Chopra says of the program for local Indigenous youth. READ MORE…
Kanata Nordic’s We All Belong initiative introduces winter sport to new communities
When Marlene Alt first started cross-country skiing as a student at Western University, she wasn’t athletic at all. Her roommate had to talk her into trying the sport for the first time. But when she got into skiing, it gave her confidence. That confidence is one of the driving factors behind Alt spearheading the We All Belong program at the Kanata Nordic Ski Club. READ MORE…
‘Still a lot of learning to do’ on community sport inclusion, says Ottawa Sport Council director
Marci Morris still has to have those conversations. As Ottawa Sport Council executive director, she still finds herself having to explain the importance of inclusive environments in sport. While she has witnessed lots of growth in the 10 years since the Council was founded, Morris believes “we still have a lot of learning to do” about equity, diversity and inclusion in sport. READ MORE…
Boxing Without Barriers’ first show gives spotlight to athletes often sidelined in combat sport
Boxing is not included in the Special Olympics. It’s not a sport at the Paralympics. But at a basement gym tucked in a corner of Ottawa’s Little Italy, boxing is for everyone. Boxing Without Barriers, founded by Chantal Deketele, offers non-contact boxing for people with disabilities. Deketele started it when she saw the lack of accessible opportunities in the sport. READ MORE…