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Physical and Health Education Canada
agrees - Healthy habits must start earlier
PHE
Canada acknowledges the 2010 Active Healthy Kids Canada
Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth
Ottawa (ON) April 27, 2010 – Physical and Health Education
Canada supports the 2010 Report Card on Physical Activity
for Children and Youth,released today by Active Healthy Kids
Canada. The Report Card is an important tool for monitoring
the active living practices of children and youth. It helps
to identify priorities for improvement, and to advocate for
support and change for all Canadian children and youth.
According to the Report Card, Canadian children, five years
of age and younger are dangerously physically inactive which
jeopardizes their future health practices and their opportunity
for optimal growth and development. Lifestyle patterns are
usually set in the early years and serve as predictors of
obesity and health outcomes in later childhood, and even through
adulthood. The earlier children develop a healthy, active
lifestyle, the better the chance that they will grow into
healthy, active adults.
“Helping
children to value the importance of being physically active
as part of everyday living cannot start too early,”
says Andrea Grantham, executive director of PHE Canada. “Children
should be provided with as many opportunities as possible
to experience the joys of movement, helping them to be ‘moving’
a minimum of 90 minutes per day. This provides a natural foundation
for physical activity that can be nurtured through other programs
such as physical education, sport and recreation, and active
play.”
For
the fourth year in a row, the Report Card has given children’s
physical inactivity levels an F grade stating that only 12
per cent of Canadian children and youth are meeting Canada’s
physical activity guidelines of 90 minutes a day. Further
there are no signs that interventions are in place or imminent
that will help children to increase these levels to the targeted
17 per cent by 2015, as set out by provincial and territorial
government ministers responsible for physical activity, recreation
and sport.
As
the only national, charitable, voluntary-sector organization
whose primary concern is to influence the healthy development
of children and youth by advocating for quality, school-based
physical and health education, PHE Canada is extremely concerned.
“It
is startling that we continue to discuss the grave health
of our children, and little action has resulted,” says
Andrea Grantham, executive director of PHE Canada. “We
have a generation of children who are not developing the skills,
the knowledge, the habits or the value of the importance of
physical activity as part of their daily living, and who are
experiencing health issues that were once only seen in adults.
What is it going to take to convince governments at all levels
that action must be taken? The situation is only getting worse,
not better.”
For the first time, this year’s Report Card assigned
an F for federal government investment, down from last year’s
C grade for Federal Government Strategies and Investments.
“A
new paper tells us that federal government spending on physical
activity has declined dramatically since the 1980s,”
says Michelle Brownrigg, CEO of Active Healthy Kids Canada.
“While we are seeing some success stories and some national
commitments to encouraging sport and activity, spending at
the federal level in real dollars per capita is half the amount
that it was in 1986. We need to follow Michelle Obama’s
lead with the Let’s Move campaign and put child and
youth inactivity higher on the national agenda.”
Physical and Health Education Canada is a national, charitable
voluntary-sector organization whose primary concern is to
influence the healthy development of children and youth by
advocating for quality, school-based physical and health education.
PHE Canada's vision is "All Canadian children and youth
living physically active and healthy lives" and as such
advocates and educates for quality physical and health education
programs within supportive school and community environments.
For more information, visit www.phecanada.ca.
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REGISTER
NOW for International Walk to School Week, October 4 –
8, 2010
Register
online before June 25th
2010. Registered schools across BC will receive posters, stickers,
and practical planning resources to help plan an iWalk to
School Week in their school community. Last year, over 84,000
students across BC participated and enjoyed the benefits of
healthy and active living with their parents, teachers, and
school community while reducing school traffic congestion.
For more information, visit the Directorate
of Agencies for School Health BC
(DASH BC) website.
2nd Annual BC Secondary School iWalk
to School Week Challenge October 4 – 8, 2010. REGISTER
NOW!
Register
online before June 25th 2010.
Registered high schools across BC will receive posters, pins,
and practical planning resources to help plan an iWalk to
School Week Challenge. Last year, an estimated 2,000 high
school students across BC challenged themselves and their
peers to walk to school while at the same time promoting social
connections, physical activity, and concern for the environment.
For more information, visit the Directorate
of Agencies for School Health BC
(DASH BC) website.
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