The Sport Hub sets big goals
Already working in Antigonish, organizers hope to spread model across province
ANTIGONISH - Sport Hub has started making Nova Scotia’s hub – Truro and area – its new target after a successful launch in the Antigonish area.
The goal of Sport Hub is unity within a region’s sports landscape to not only help the involvement and retention of athletes but also coaches and volunteers. By encouraging cooperation and co-ordination between all sports organizations – from the largest and most established to the newer and considered up-and-coming niche sports – the challenges for all involved are shared and improved upon. Maybe even overcome.
And with successful outcomes, an individual’s involvement in their chosen sport – at whatever level or capacity - becomes an even more enjoyable experience.
“The idea of sharing, ‘here is how we did it here,’ or ‘this is how this program worked for us,’ from one organization to the other, one community to the other, has been enlightening,” said Stephanie Spencer, community sport lead with Sport Nova Scotia, in talking about the success of the Antigonish start-up.
“We spent a lot of time in Antigonish to get the ball rolling and show proof of concept, and we had an engaged and committed group of people continuing to say, ‘yes, let’s figure this out.’
“With any of the roadblocks we were hitting, they were so flexible, ready to pivot or think about something in a new way. The willingness of the Antigonish partners continues to result in the success of this community-driven initiative. Huge credit to the organizations involved.”
Laura Duggan, who is helping to spread Sport Hub to not only Colchester but, eventually, across the province, said the early set-up work was tested by COVID and not only was it a great testament to the involved organizations’ commitment to the concept, it showed how Sport Hub can be beneficial when unexpected circumstances arise, requiring even more cooperation.
“Because everyone was already communicating so well, the immediate instinct was to gather everyone together virtually to see how they were going to work through this,” Duggan said. “How communications would roll out, how they could stay on the same page and present consistent messaging and protocols to the public. This pulling together in times of need demonstrated the power of community collaboration in the face of adversity.”
WEBSITE, NEWSLETTER
Along with encouraging better lines of communication and co-ordination, the program involves a comprehensive subscriber website that compiles each organization’s/association’s pertinent information with links to such things as registration and schedules. There is also a newsletter that goes out to subscribers with important information.
Duggan said they have around 3,000 members in the system from their Antigonish set-up with the newsletter reaching around 1,500 homes. She talked about the website’s efficiency being due to the ongoing input from the sports groups.
“It’s not like we built a website and said, ‘here you go, here is your website,’” Duggan said. “It was built with the organizations based on their needs and feedback.
That is still ongoing, so we’re always going back and forth with partners, developing functionality by request. If they say, ‘we could use this search tool here’ or, ‘please add this filter, export, or resource,’ we have that open line of communication with them.
“This communicative style extends to the community members’ users as well. There is a support email families can contact anytime for assistance, with questions, or with feedback on the site. The site and newsletter are also great tools for spreading important information like funding opportunities and other resources.” Spencer echoed the points. “The web development team is local and part of the sports community. We are very open to feedback, so if something isn’t working well or something new is needed, they tell us. We work with them to ensure it fits their needs instead of just providing a canned product, and saying, ‘make it work for you,” she said.
“We’re saying, ‘OK, a priority has been identified by the group, here are options of what we can do; now, how do we make it work for all based on what one organization needs compared to another, and we can find solutions that work for everybody.’”
Duggan provided an example where it has already helped in Antigonish.
“Flag football tried to run last season through Football Nova Scotia (FNS), but promotion was challenging without a local foot in the door,” she said. “It ended up being cancelled because there were too few people signed up for it. But this year, FNS partnered with Sport Hub, and with it being in the community newsletter, up as a programming option on Sport Hub, and with promotions through the municipalities, they filled up super quick. They had to cap it off this year and there is a waitlist, which helps demonstrate demand and informs future program planning.”
Spencer said apart from the HRM, they’re learning the sports landscapes in other regions are similar to Antigonish, so they’re confident Sport Hub can find parallel success.
“Around the province, each organization and community does things a little differently, but the barriers and challenges are often similar,” she said. “Communication can be both inconsistent and inefficient, financial costs as well as demands on time and travel are high, few people wear many hats, resources are often duplicated, scheduling too often conflicts, and access is not always easy, or even possible for everyone. At the same time, the many successes of organizations are also not often shared, and in the end, we’re all looking to do the same thing – increase the access and retention of people in sport.
“We thought if there were similar challenges across organizations and communities, how much farther ahead could we all get by working together versus tackling it alone, while sharing what worked and didn’t work along the way? Then Trurocolchester, or another community that sees value in collaboration, can take the pieces they identify with and tailor them for their specific needs. They then end up starting with a good chunk of the work already done, instead of reinventing the wheel themselves.
“Everyone wins when communities are sharing and benefiting from the work of one another with the goal of making healthier communities through sport.”
For more on Sport Hub, including what has already been done for Truro-colchester and how to set up an account and receive the newsletter, visit mysporthub. ca.