Canadian Parks and Recreation Association

Purpose

This 27 months project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA) will achieve this by scaling up its current training by delivering webinars in four critical areas to community base professionals and practitioners, by building an online community of practice, implementing initiatives, as well as designing and hosting an interactive toolkit. Supplement for activities includes two additional in-person workshops, targeted follow-up sessions with up to ten organizations and/or communities that are in the process of addressing gender equity practices, enhanced modules on safe sport and intersectionality, and storytelling to strive for gender-equitable programming and facilities. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by advancing inclusive policies and practices and increasing networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change. CPRA will support positive distribution of authority, voices, and decision-making power, while addressing persistent harmful gender norms and attitudes to support women’s equality. CPRA indicated systemic gender inequities and harmful sector norms which preclude girls and women from participating in physical activity. These barriers can be entrenched in the physical spaces and places that recreation and sport take place, and in the norms and attitudes that exist in these places and spaces. To address these, CPRA proposes a feminist recovery response to build community capacity, in applying a gender lens to recreation, sport places and spaces by providing both knowledge dissemination and mentorship amongst the sector. CPRA will work with several partners, as well as their 13 members from the parks and recreation associations across the country, to enhance leadership opportunities for women and girls.