YMCA children getting provincial boost

Two new programs to encourage children to get active are being rolled out at Niagara’s YMCAs.

Kid Fit: Yoga and Kid Fit: Cardio will be added to the programming roster in 2017 thanks to $79,607 in provincial funding announced Monday in St. Catharines.

Delivered through the Ontario Sport and Recreation Communities Fund, the money is intended to help Niagara children get active and create healthy habits they will carry through to adulthood, YMCA of Niagara CEO Janet St. Amand said.

The funding will cover the cost of developing the program curriculums, training 87 staff members in fundamental movement skills and physical literacy assessments, and running the programs for one year.

Geared toward ages three to 12, the programs will help 800 children across Niagara develop their physical literacy skills.

Teaching children to run, catch, hop, throw, balance and be agile is critical in order to transition them from healthy active children to healthy active adults, St. Amand said.

Those skills, she added, are “vital” in a day when children are “less active than even before and childhood obesity rates continue to rise.”

The eight-week programs will first be piloted in early 2017 at St. Catharines, Grimsby and Niagara Falls YMCAs before being expanded to all six Niagara locations. A program co-ordinator has been hired to develop the curriculum, which will be done in conjunction with Brock University and Canadian Sport for Life.

St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley, who made Monday’s announcement, said there’s growing competition for the attention of children, particularly with today’s technology.

Too much screen time can be unhealthy, he said, while lauding community efforts to try and encourage children to engage in healthy activities.

Bradley called the two new programs yet another opportunity to “see kids active with something other than their fingers and thumbs.”

The provincial government, through the Ontario Sport and Recreation Communities Fund, is supporting 129 organizations in 2016 with a total $7.2 million.

MARYANNE FIRTH/POSTMEDIA NETWORK The province announced $79,607 in funding to create two new children's programs at Niagara's YMCAs. Here St. Catharines YMCA day camp participants Alex Zou, Hailey Beattie, Jasmin Texin and Carlina Chiocchio warm up with some exercises before heading...