PaRx, an initiative by BC Parks Foundation and driven by health-care professionals, is Canada's first national, evidence-based nature prescription program. The goal of PaRx is to promote prescribing time in nature for lifelong health benefit. This online resource includes useful tools to make prescribing time in nature simple, fun and effective: quick tips, patient handouts, a...
Levelling the playing fields (LTPF) is a project by the Montreal Urban Ecology Centre (MUEC) and the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal (ESPUM) to deploy free-play pilot interventions in five Canadian communities using two innovative models of re-allocating urban space in favour of young children: the school street and the play...
The Lawson Foundation’s Outdoor Play Strategy is an integral part of their strategic direction and guides their efforts in exploring how outdoor play supports the healthy development of Canadian children and youth. They initially invested $2.7 million in 14 core projects, which grew to $4.5 million in related grants. Through a third-party evaluation, the Lawson...
The Great Trail of Canada has released their 2019-2020 Annual Report, highlighting the many projects and successes across the country including increased accessibility, expansion of greenways, and support for Indigenous-led projects. Read the full report here....
The Raising Canada Reports are published annually and provide an in-depth review of the top 10 threats to childhood. In 2020, the report focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these threats. In subsequent reports, the lasting impacts of COVID-19 on children's physical activity and play have continued to be a central theme...
The Advancing Early Childhood Education Outdoors Now Roundtable, led by Dr Mariana Brussoni, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, explores the health and educational benefits of being outside, successful international models of early childhood education outdoors, and paths for advancing licensing outdoor early childhood education in British Columbia. This 3-part roundtable series explored the...
The 2020 Designing Streets for Kids Guide is a supplement to The Global Street Design Guide, collaboratively produced by the National Association of City Transportation Officials and Global Designing Cities Initiative. This new Guide is a comprehensive, inspirational, yet practical guide that challenges us all to imagine a better way forward for our urban streets. Among...
On July 13, 2020, the Lawson Foundation released a statement on the importance of outdoor play as a public health strategy to support the reopening of early learning and child care (ELCC) centres, and for children's development and learning. The statement was prepared with input from public health and ELCC sector advisors, and includes guiding principles...
On June 17th, 2020, ParticipACTION launched the 14th edition of the Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. This report is the most comprehensive assessment of child and youth physical activity in Canada across 14 indicators, based on data from multiple sources including the best available peer-reviewed research. Canadian children and youth received a...
The Government of Canada has put together the Risk mitigation tool for outdoor recreation spaces and activities operating during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist those responsible for parks and outdoor recreational places and programming (e.g. federal/provincial/territorial and local/municipal authorities, Indigenous leadership, sports and recreation organizations and coaches and leaders) in considering risks associated with operating their...
