On May 31st and June 1st 2001, The Foundation for Active Healthy Kids brought 59 grade nine students from across the province of Ontario to Toronto to participate in Youth Summit 2001: "Physical Activity - Love it? Want it? …Need it!" The purpose of the event was to provide a forum for youth from across the province of Ontario to come together and openly discuss their thoughts, opinions, and solutions on issues regarding physical activity participation, and healthy lifestyles.

Youth Summit 2001 was held in conjunction with the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association's (OPHEA) Active Healthy Schools Symposium which assembled 75 key stakeholders from health, education, and recreation to discuss and develop recommendations to increase the capacity for physical activity among children and youth in Ontario.

The Need

One of the greatest challenges to increasing physical activity levels in children and youth is developing programs and services that they want to use and participate in. Research shows that individuals tend to participate in physical activity when programs and services meet their needs. Because these needs vary from individual to individual, a logical and engaging solution is to involve youth themselves in the planning and development of these programs and services to ensure their needs and interests are met.

The Foundation's Youth Summit provided a forum for youth to openly discuss their ideas on the topic of youth inactivity. This information will be used in the development of future initiatives to allow more of Canada's youth to reap the benefits associated with an active and healthy lifestyle.

The Participants

While over 750 youth applications were received in response to the direct mail and web promotions, funding was only able to accommodate 59 to attend the inaugural Youth Summit. These lucky youth were chosen by a selection committee based on the completion of their application, with strong consideration also given to participant diversity (gender, ethnicity, physical limitations, and location in the province). As a result, Youth Summit 2001 was attended by a diverse group of 28 girls and 31 boys from urban centres and rural areas all across Ontario.

The Program

Students arrived throughout the day on Thursday, May 31st and participated in pre-Summit activities to familiarize themselves with the facilitators and each other, and have some fun. They played games, toured University of Toronto, ate a barbeque dinner, went on a shopping spree at the Nike Store, and danced to live music before going to bed in UofT dormitory rooms.

On Friday, June 1st, the youth were taken to the Ontario Science Centre and joined adult participants of the Active Healthy Schools Symposium for breakfast and an inspiring opening address from Canadian Olympic Team Member, Mark Boswell. The youth and adults then separated for the remainder of the day and the youth participants listened to remarks from entertaining Much Music VJ, Bradford How. Afterwards, the 'core' of the day got underway with the first of three 75-minute discussion sessions on the topic of physical activity and healthy eating programming. The youth sat in tables of seven or eight and each responded to scenarios and questions led by their facilitator. After lunch, youth shared their views during the last two discussion sessions on policy and public awareness around physical activity and healthy eating. Throughout the day, participants had the opportunity to voice their opinions individually on video, through a 'Speaker's Corner'-type format. At 5pm Youth Summit participants traveled home after a quick visit to Science Centre exhibits. Visit the Youth Summit Photo Gallery to view images from Youth Summit 2001.

Dr. Patricia Miller served as lead facilitator for Youth Summit 2001 and oversaw the group discussions and youth activities throughout the two days. Eight facilitators supported Trish by leading the group discussions and acting as chaperones for their group of youth throughout the course of the Summit. All facilitators have educational and applied experience in working in the area of youth and physical activity and underwent a police background check.

How it Went

The opportunity to share their opinions and feel that their ideas are important was probably the most important theme that came out in comments from the evaluations. One youth wrote, "I really loved having people care about issues that concern us. I like that they took the time to listen to our opinions." Each of the three discussion sessions was rated very favorably. Both speakers, Mark Boswell and Bradford How, had a positive impact upon the youth. There were also many comments testifying how great the facilitators were. The Nike shopping spree was the favorite activity at the Youth Summit.

When asked "What did you like best about the Youth Summit 2001?" one of the most frequently stated aspects was the opportunity to meet new people. The most poorly rated items on the evaluation were the travel arrangements and the communication before the Summit, largely due to the short time frame in which the event was organized. Overall, all participants rated Youth Summit 2001 as excellent (83.3%) or good (16.7%) and The Foundation has received several other written testimonials from pleased youth and parents since the completion of the Summit. In the words of one youth, "Overall, an awesome experience!" For full evaluation results, click here.

The Proceedings