As a remote community, there are limited opportunities for the youth living in Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan to participate in wellness activities, in or out of school. The community wanted to change that and to improve the health and well-being of their youth. They reached out to Ever Active Schools, and in the 2021/2022 school year, their ideas came to life. 

Two Health and Wellness Consultants were placed in the community as part of the Wellness Hub team. These consultants support health and physical education classes; offer professional development; plan, execute and support various wellness initiatives; and offer credit-earning opportunities for students after-school. 

By partnering with EAS rather than simply hiring two staff, Montreal Lake Cree Nation is also supported by the rest of the EAS team and the wide variety of knowledge, skills and strengths within. Our team works closely with Senator Allen Bird Memorial School, Montreal Lake Sports & Rec, as well as other members of the Wellness Hub team.

Montreal Lake Cree Nation sees physical activity and wellness programming as a sustainable way to improve health outcomes in their community. By working to build capacity and increase confidence and competence among the school staff, we hope to see more activity options to get students moving. We’ve helped the community acquire land-based learning supplies, such as snowshoes, camping gear and fishing gear, as well as an abundance of physical activity and recess equipment to support students to be active whenever possible.

Since the partnership between the Nation and EAS began, two top-quality fitness centres have been opened for the community to utilize, and we’ve been able to offer several credit-earning opportunities – these opportunities helped two additional students (20% of the graduating class) to finish grade 12 in the 2021-22 school year!