Six central Alberta communities are teaming up once again to provide physical and healthy activities for youth.
The Healthy Living Team Coalition (HLTC) has applied for a grant through the Alberta Sport Recreation Parks and Wildlife Foundation to launch an initiative called, "Be Fit Force".
The Be Fit Force program is designed to provide non-structured activities and equipment for the partner communities and to encourage physical activity for children and youth ages 5-18.
The partner communities, Penhold, Springbrook, Innisfail, Spruce View, and Bowden have been working together on the coalition since spring of 2010 and have recently gained one new member for this project as the Town of Olds has joined the team.
The Be Fit Force program will feature a mobile unit, or bus, that would travel from town to town and administer free activities for youth at parks, schools, day care centers, churches, or wherever children gather.
The bus would be loaded with games, physical activity equipment, educational resources, and prizes for participants.
"Out main goal is to address inactivity," said Heather Fletcher, community facilitator for the Town of Innisfail.
"We have found that most children are not meeting the daily physical activity requirements."
The program would also be focused on keeping youth busy during the after school critical hours, which have been identified as 3-6 p.m. when children are most likely to be home alone, said Fletcher.
During the summer most of the daytime hours have been identified as critical hours so the bus would make both scheduled and unscheduled stops throughout the day in the partner communities.
If the coalition receives the grant it would fund the program to run for one year, April 2011 to April 2012.
The members of the coalition are hoping that if the program is successful they will be able to find a way to keep it sustainable and will be able to keep running the program in the future.
The coalition is currently waiting on a response from the Alberta Sport Recreation Parks and Wildlife Foundation. If the grant application is denied then the coalition will be discussing other options to try and offer similar programs to the communities.
