 |
| Prince Rupert Gymnastics Society Executive Director Nicole Beauregard delivered a presentation to City Council on Monday |
With the Fall Registration Season just ahead for youth and adult activities in the Community, the Prince Rupert Gymnastics Society booked a primo spot to deliver an update to their local activities in Price Rupert.
As part of the City Council Committee of the Whole portion of Monday night's Council Session, Nicole Beauregard, the Executive Director of the Prince Rupert Gymnastics Society provided Council members with an extensive overview of the Society's work and plans for the fall and beyond.
Ms. Beauregard provided some background both toward her recent arrival in Prince Rupert and her work with the Prince Rupert Gymnastics Society as its Executive Director.
As part of her introduction, she also noted of her past work with the City of Kamloops as well as in sport and physical literacy development.
"I'm the brand new Executive Director with Prince Rupert Gymnastics and I'm coming from the City of Kamloops, I was working with the municipal government for the last thirteen years in Sport and Physical literacy department ...
Really what attracted me to Prince Rupert was a few kind of key formulas.
A head coach that had national level three certification, an incredible working board and the vision of a City Council that supports non profits. And we are in a facility that the City of Prince Rupert owns.
So that was sort of a piece and a formula for me to come here and work within the community and work with Prince Rupert Gymnastics"
 |
| Prince Rupert Gymnastics leases space from the City of Prince Rupert as part of the city's Rushbrook Warehouse facility program |
The presentation provided some background towards the theme of physical literacy and how it has additional benefits towards community itself.
Of note towards the work of the local Not for Profit Society, she provided a quick overview of their programs and recruitment work to bring instructors.
As well, the presentation explored some of their many activities over the last five months and what they have planned for the fall period ahead.
"We have approximately 240 participants that work with us and really it's again about inclusion. So in terms of physical activity only 20 percent of children actually meet the physical literacy guidelines and physical activity guidelines in Canada and so that's of course even more profound in the North in terms of physical activity.
Children and youth, especially girls 1 in 3 drop out of sports compared to 1 in 10 boys. So Gymnastics is a sport primarily designate in traditional format to girls, women or how participants identity.
But we have had an opportunity to change some of that this past year with a new head male coach, which has been incredible for our program.
We've also been working in a pilot with the schools through May and June, just with that pilot reaching out to them since I arrived we reached 178 students in two months. So that was pretty incredible and it was really just a test of the partnerships around Prince Rupert to see what we have to offer"
Ms. Beauregard expanded on some of the partnerships that the sport and the local Society continues to build in the community as well as to share an increased awareness of what the Rushbrook Warehouse based society has to offer through its facility.
Upon the conclusion of her remarks, the Council members had an enthusiastic response to her presentation and offered up a welcome to the community.
First off was Mayor Pond who noted of the range of programs available
"I noticed on your summer programming you had stuff for people like me and I was very tempted, but my schedule wouldn't allow it, but there's still hope yet"
Councillor Forster asked for a larger overview of the All Abilities program and what it may offer the community.
Councillor Neish noted of the ongoing evolution for the Society in the city.
"Welcome to Prince Rupert and you know I've been a strong supporter of this group since it started and it's good to see they're taking the step to hiring someone to do these things on a daily Basies.
Because you know obviously the group started out as bunch of volunteer parents and you know, you only have so much time during the day to do these things.
And it's good to see that they've evolved to hiring somebody to kind of take care of these and try and make a stronger group, so Good Luck.
Councillor Cunningham picks up on themes related to their growth and the prospect of a potential seniors program.
"One thing I've noticed with your group is it's really reaching out to a lot of diversity in the community, so on that I commend you. And on the Senior's Centre I think I'll be giving you a call about that"
Mr. Cunningham also asked for some background on their work towards assistance for lower income residents in the community.
Ms. Beauregard outlined the approach that the Society is taking towards those themes
"We do work with KidSport here as well as community JumpStart, so they support participants that need a little bit of help ... those organizations allow that opportunity to be enrolled in a seasonal piece.
We also this summer offered free programming, we offered physical literacy and Gymnastics at the park"
She also outlined their fall program that allows for a test period for participants to explore the programs available.
Councillor Cunningham also asked if the Society was planning to take part in the upcoming Community Registration, he was advised that Prince Rupert Gymnastics had plans to do.
A look at the Community Registration Session set for September 6th can be reviewed here.
You can review the full presentation from the City's Video Archive, Ms. Beauregard's presentation opens the Council session on the night.
More notes from Monday's Council Session can be reviewed from our Council Timeline Feature.
To learn more about the Prince Rupert Gymnastics Society see their website, or follow their Social Media Stream.
A look at the work of Prince Rupert Gymnastics can be found from our archive page.
No comments:
Post a Comment