A little background

Sogo Active, powered by ParticipACTION and sponsored by Coca Cola Canada, is a national youth engagement movement for physical activity. It is designed to increase levels of physical activity among Canadians age 13-19 by drawing on the power of young people to reach out to their less active peers, to develop their leadership skills, exercise their creativity and to break down the barriers to active living that many young people may encounter. Motivate Canada runs the Sogo Active program in Ontario.

Why do we need Sogo Active?

The need to motivate youth to be physically active is well known and many programs have been developed to tackle the issue, yet 90 per cent of Canadian children and youth are still failing to meet the guidelines outlined in Canada's Physical Activity Guides for Children and Youth. Sport participation in 15-18 year-olds declined from 77% to 59% between 1992 and 2005, and many children and adolescents spend 4-6 hours of their discretionary time in front of a screen each day. (Source: Active Healthy Kids Canada) A wide range of factors and barriers include lack of social support, the cost, gender and disability issues, negative youth related policies and the overarching challenge of making a connection with inactive youth.

Sogo Active will help youth overcome barriers by encouraging young people to find solutions and make changes.

How does it work?

Sogo Active, unlike any other youth initiative, gives young Canadians the tools, the network and the funding to design, change and control their own individual active living plan. Youth 13-19 will create a unique profile for themselves by registering at www.sogoactive.com where they can network with peers, set and track their active living goals online. The second phase of the program will be launched the week of July 12th . This phase includes a new website and the new programs new concept will revolve around “Challenging yourself”. Youth will be able to either create an individual or group challenge, join a challenge or they can create or attend an event.

They will discover a range of traditional and non-traditional organizations and physical activities that fit their needs, interests and lifestyles.

Local organizations can support youth groups with access to active living facilities, training, programs, equipment and other resources. They will register as Community Hosts on www.sogoactive.com.

Micro grant funding is available for youth groups who express a specific need for resources (equipment, transportation, coaching, instructing, nutrition) and meet specific criteria (please view attached grant application for criteria). Youth will be directly involved in formulating their grant application. The second phase of the program has expanded the micro grant opportunities to include One-time Sogo Events.

The Sogo Active Ontario Youth Advisory Committee (OYAC) supports the planning and execution of the Sogo Active program in Ontario. It is a dynamic and group of outgoing youth volunteers that provide support to organization and youth engaging in the program within their community and mentor community and youth leaders to develop skills to deliver sport and recreation programming.

Challenges vs Events

Challenges

• Proposed by youth or hosts or ParticipACTION;
• Are ongoing for a period of time (3 times a week for 4 weeks) National challenges will be posted for launch and accessible for any youth to join.

Events

• Proposed by hosts or ParticipACTION (with input from organizations/PTCs);
• Are one-time events (like a tournament or ‘try-it’ night or an information night;
• Can be an activity or educational or promoting Sogo.

Community host criteria

• Have established policies, guidelines and governance structures;
• Respected presence in the community;
• Experience with youth programming and willingness to adopt a by youth, for youth approach;
• Capacity to help youth deliver the program (e.g., help with administration, facilities and training, provision of a staff member or volunteer to support the group if required);
• Can commit to helping with youth-led challenges and events that promote engagement of less active youth in physical activity.

Why should community organizations sign on?

• Reach out to youth through the online platform and help them get more active;
• Help youth access Sogo Active funding to support their challenge and events;
• Access data collected online for the program about youth and youth physical activity;
• Be an active partner in addressing the inactivity crisis in Canada;
• Access a legacy of youth programming after the torchbearer stage;

For more information, visit the Sogo Active website at: www.sogoactive.com or contact Ontario Provincial Coordinator Megan Sutherland at: megan@motivatecanada.ca or (416) 426-7340.