**This is a follow-up on our ongoing work on physical literacy in education and childcare settings (read more on Projects page).
As part of the next phase in our strategy, we have set up a small working group to continue moving the advocacy effort forward. The working group members are:
- Alison Bochsler, Co-chair, OSPAPPH
- Chris Sherman, Co-chair OSPAPPH
- Lisa Kaldeway, Special Project Officer, OSPAPPH
- Chantal Lalonde, Special Project Officer, OSPAPPH
- Dr David Colby, Medical Officer of Health, Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa)
- Chris Jones, Executive Director, PHE Canada
- Drew Mitchell, Director of Physical Literacy, Sport 4 Life Society
On January 26th, OSPAPPH submitted a letter on behalf of the working group to the Honourable Liz Sandals, Ontario Minister of Education. The letter outlines the physical literacy policy recommendations and requests an opportunity to meet with Minister Sandals or an assigned delegate.
The letter represents a key milestone in our advocacy efforts to elevate physical activity as a public health priority in Ontario. In fact, since 2011, we have recognized physical literacy as a key public health and physical activity priority. Close to thirty individuals and/or organizations officially endorsed our policy recommendations (see our Backgrounder Document for the full list of endorsements). In addition to the endorsements, the Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa) passed resolution A15-6 Physical Literacy in Education and Childcare Settings June 2015 and submitted their own advocacy letter to the Ministry of Education to which they’ve received a response.
The working group looks forward to engaging with the Ministry of Education to identify priorities and strategies for ensuring that all children and youth are provided with the education and environment to support the development of physical literacy.
In the interim, the working group will be seeking public health and stakeholder input to gather success stories of physical literacy strategies already occurring across the province.
Your OSPAPPH Executive
