More options for women

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Now even more young Aboriginal females will be able to take advantage of a program designed to increase their participation in sports.

The program, funded by Sport Canada, is called Team Spirit: Aboriginal Girls In Sport.

Officials with both the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Education (CAAWS) and the Aboriginal Sport Circle (ASC) are thrilled with the financial commitment Sport Canada is making to the program-$307,000 over four years.

Team Spirit is similar to On The Move, a national program CAAWS has been overseeing the past decade. The mandate for On The Move has been to increase opportunities for inactive girls across the country aged nine to 18.

Team Spirit is geared specifically to young Aboriginal females.

"This is an initiative to have them have equitable opportunities such as the boys," said Sydney Millar, the Team Spirit project manager who is also the CAAWS's national co-ordinator for On The Move.

Team Spirit kicked off earlier this year in Indian Brook, N.S. About 60 girls took part in the 12-week program, which saw participants focus on softball, volleyball and swimming activities.

Four other programs will start during the 2005-06 season. They will be held in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The B.C. program, dubbed Aboriginal Girls in Action, will be operated by the Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Association of British Columbia. Alberta's Tallcree First Nation will offer a multi-sport program, including badminton, basketball and volleyball.

The University of Saskatchewan will join forces with Saskatoon's Joe Duquette High School to provide a basketball program called Hoops and Dreams.

And in Manitoba, the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg will operate a program called Girls Night Out at six of its clubs across the city.

The Aboriginal Sport Circle received a total of 32 applications for the four programs that will be federally funded this year.

"This speaks to the need for funding to support community sport programs for Aboriginal girls and young women," said Gina Doxtator, manager of Aboriginal coaching and leadership.

"The Aboriginal Sport Circle and CAAWS will work with our national and provincial networks to identify other existing sources of funding and advocate for more funding to become available."

Two additional programs will receive funding in 2006-07 and then two others will be chosen for 2007-08. That will bring the total of funded programs to nine over the course of the Team Spirit project.

Each program will run for a period of 12 weeks. The goal of the program, however, is not to have participation end at that point.

"Hopefully they'll be turned on to a certain sport and through the program they'll have other opportunities made available to them," Millar said.

Millar said officials with the program will try to hook up participants with other existing community sporting clubs. And if such clubs do not exist, they'll try to provide some education to community leaders on the benefits of starting some sporting ventures.