The after-school time period is a particularly important time in children's and youths' lives. These after-school hours offer a critical window for active and social play, though many young people are engaging in more passive forms of entertainment. In fact, only 39% of children and youth (5-17 years of age) in Canada met the recommendation of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous - intensity physical activity per day (2024 Participation Report Card). By providing an opportunity for children and youth to engage in physically active and supportive after-school programs, there is a great opportunity to positively impact their health, well-being and safety.

We believe physical activity is critical to every child’s healthy development and fundamental to every Albertan’s quality of life and overall well-being. Through this initiative, we aim to support more after-school programs in providing more quality physical activity experiences for children and youth, ultimately resulting in more Albertans meeting the recommended levels of physical activity.

Many organizations in the province of Alberta have invested in the issue of physical activity in after-school settings over a sustained period of time. Ever Active Schools began taking a leadership role in coordinating these organizations through the Alberta Active After School Committee in 2014. 

Since that time, the committee has developed a repository of resources on the Alberta portal of the Canadian Active After School Partnership, developed and piloted the Provincial Activity Guidelines for After-School Programs in Alberta, implemented those guidelines through an online certification module, built a community of practice for programs, and built capacity of programs to support physical activity through the delivery of training opportunities.

One important piece of work that was built to support the implementation of the Provincial Activity Guidelines for After-School Programs in Alberta is the free online Physical Activity 101 certification module. This training aims to educate and build the capacity of after-school programs in Alberta so that all children and youth in the province meet the recommended levels of physical activity.

In addition to the certification module, there is an activity database with more than 800 activities for after-school programs that can be filtered by age range, skill, play area, group size and more. 

In 2023, we were able to create a second online training module, Physical Activity 2.0: Inclusive Play for After School Programs, building on the teaching of Physical Activity 101, this module provides an introduction to what inclusion is and why it is important for your after-school program. This training also provides the opportunity to learn about equity and diversity and how they are woven into the dimensions of wellness.

We've heard from many programs that they don't identify as a physically active program, that they don't have an extra 30 minutes to dedicate to physical activity, that they don't have the space, or that training is simply inaccessible. We hope that our free training modules can shift that mindset. It teaches various ways to implement physical activity into otherwise sedentary programming; provides games and adaptations perfect for small spaces; and shows that you don't need to block 30 straight minutes to get 30 minutes of physical activity in.