Nervous excitement filled the cold air when female students of a 性视界传媒 school hit the ice in North 性视界传媒 on Monday morning, Nov. 18.
For most of the nearly two dozen girls, it was their first time on skates and wearing hockey gear. Some of them, including Grade 12 student Jodsimran Kaur, are second-year veterans of , a program launched last year at 性视界传媒's Princess Margaret Secondary.
"It was really good last year," Jodsimran said at North 性视界传媒 Sport & Ice Complex. "The tough thing was shooting the puck into the goal, that's the tough part for me. But it's fun.
"A lot of my friends, I told them that they should join this program because it's so fun, to learn new things like ice skating and hockey," she added. "So if I have friends in the game, it makes the game more fun for me."
A goal of the national Hockey 4 Youth program, founded in Toronto in 2015, is to encourage girls, especially those from newcomer families, to get involved 鈥� and stay involved 鈥� in sports. In 性视界传媒, the participants come from various cultural backgrounds and some far-off countries including India, Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan and Liberia.
"This is the first day for these 21 girls, and a few of them aren't here today, so we have 27 total," explained Moe Hasham, founder and executive director of Hockey 4 Youth.
"We're gonna get them on the ice and get them feeling connected to the ice today. We're gonna see them fall and get back up, and teach them how to fall safely and feel comfortable and how to put on equipment that they'll borrow for the season.
"It's an hour on the ice today, a good 45 minutes, and the program runs until April, once a week for an hour," Hasham added. "Then after practice we'll give them some food, snacks, which is important for them after they get some exercise here."
Growing up, Hasham's family couldn't afford hockey registration and the gear, so he ended up playing the game with donated equipment, until his university days in Prince George. Years later he founded Hockey 4 Youth, which now runs 13 programs across Canada.
"Not only are we fostering social inclusion for newcomers, but we have kids who are barriered in other ways," Hasham noted. "There could be financial barriers, there could be cultural barriers, gender barriers, and so really we're expanding how we're accessing community.
"Here in 性视界传媒, the idea is really that we're not only helping them feel included, but we're actually doing things to find solutions to get girls involved in sport. A million girls are left out of sport. That's a big, key statistic. One in five girls are dropping out of sport when they hit their teenage years. That's in the ."
Titled "A Call to Re-imagine Sport So All Girls Can Play," the report says that over one million Canadian girls are still missing out on the benefits of sport, with participation levels continuing to trail behind those of boys. The Rally Report is based on a study involving more than 5,000 Canadians, including 2,000 girls and women respondents.
Hasham knows that the girls of Princess Margaret Secondary probably won't end up playing minor hockey in 性视界传媒, nor elsewhere, "because they're already well past the age where they're going to feel comfortable doing that. But I always say we're that long-term investment," he added. "We're a little bit more of a longer-term arc investment. With these girls, if they have a positive experience now in hockey, when they get older, if they decide to have kids, they're gonna be more inclined to put their kids into hockey because they felt that comfort in this sport."
The program includes off-ice education, too.
"The back of our jerseys are blank for a reason," Hasham explained. "They're going to pick their own number, they're gonna paint their jerseys, you know, that's a creative art exercise. Then there's a community give-back program that we want to do with these girls, so maybe they spend an afternoon at the food bank, you know, helping to serve the community. So there's all these things that we're trying to do beyond hockey.
"We're trying to do experiential learning opportunities, so whether it's financial literacy training, whether it's going to a hockey game like getting them out to that , there's some great symmetry there. Seeing that game would be fantastic for these girls."
In 性视界传媒, Hockey 4 Youth program partners include 性视界传媒 Schools, Canucks for Kids Fund, 性视界传媒 RCMP, City of 性视界传媒, Osler law firm, Regency Auto and Canadian Tire's Jumpstart.
