Funding
Overall value of funding
Community organization leaders were overwhelmingly positive about the value of the Teen Physical Activity Grants and they acknowledged the importance the funding had within their organization. One director began by saying: “We would not be able to provide those opportunities without the funding, it’s pretty simple. It just wouldn’t happen” (BC organizer P1). The athletic director of an inner-city high school elaborated on the value of the microgrants:
“It was funny, ’cause you think it’s not like we got thousands upon thousands of dollars, but even just a small amount made it possible because we were struggling with fundraising and we were struggling to get the money to do certain things … Whereas I think without that funding, some of those things would have had to be axed.” (MB organizer P8)
For programs which had multiple objectives such as sport, PA, arts, and culture, the funding allowed community organizations to maintain all aspects of their programming:
“I am not just saying this because it is an interview – it really allowed us to get materials that we could not have had … It permitted us to do things we couldn’t have done if we hadn’t had the subsidy, or perhaps we could have done it, but we wouldn’t have had money to do other things too … So, it allowed us to continue other artistic and cultural activities but also to keep our sport component which is super important.” (QC organizer P8)
Flexible use of funds
Community organization representatives identified that one of the major benefits of the microgrants was the ability to use the money flexibly within their organization: “they give you a lot of flexibility in what you want to spend it on to promote your idea to get kids active” (MB organizer P1). The microgrants allowed organizers to develop programs which were responsive to their community’s needs:
“I know that the money is coming from top down but just the way that [ParticipACTION] have really allowed it to happen from a grass roots place, organically is really great … having faith that people have great ideas and know what their community needs.” (YK organizer P5)
Organizers also spoke about the value of the microgrants as opportunities to try out new programs or activities, or to refine the programs or events within the organization:
“It gives you that ability to tweak things. And so for us we realized realistically 10 weeks with holidays is too long of a challenge … So that’s something I would not have known until we actually delivered the program … I think that’s what’s cool about [the microgrants] because they will help fund the same [program] again, and they will help, in a sense tweak it.” (ON organizer P2)
Organizers in Québec said that in addition to being able to try out new activities, they were also happy that they could use the funding to maintain programs that had been previously developed: “there is a reality, do not reinvent the wheel. There were two skiing [programs]; even if they were similar, this is not serious. If something works, it isn’t necessary to always innovate. We must do what young people like” (QC organizer P6). The microgrants were unique funding opportunities because they allowed community organizations to sustain previously-established programs/events, or organizations could develop a completely new PA program/event based upon the teen participants’ interests. This process of having the opportunity to pilot programs helped organizers to determine which programs were going to be viable and sustainable within their organization and to develop ‘best practices’ for running programs in the future. Thus, the flexible use of grant funds was considered a major strength of the microgrants.
Microgrants make activity affordable
Many of the community organizations that received funding served as the main providers of PA opportunities for adolescents in the community. For example, the leader of a teen group said: “there’s nothing here for them so I just felt bad about it” (NL organizer P7). In some communities the local high schools served as a provider of PA opportunities for adolescents, particularly for adolescents from low socioeconomic households: “I think that money is kind of a part of it because I know that dance is really expensive, and there are a lot of sports that are really expensive so a lot of kids don’t have enough money to do those things” (YK organizer P5). As a result, a common theme throughout the interviews was that sport and PA was often “available but not accessible” to adolescents (QC organizer P8). The idea of activities being available but not accessible was particularly evident for families of adolescents with disabilities in small communities in Newfoundland & Labrador. Program organizers said that a swimming program served as one of the only sources of PA for the adolescents: “a lot of kids don’t feel comfortable going into the regular stream programming. But there’s nothing else…a lack of funding available for these families for recreation is big as well” (NL organizer P9).
Consequently, the microgrants enabled community organizations to make PA affordable and accessible within the community: “By giving these young people a wide range of activities, the resulting impact provides accessibility” (QC organizer P6). A teen from Manitoba said that without the funding to subsidize the school’s program, “it would have been more of a financial strain on my parents because they don’t really have the most optimal jobs and I don’t work either so I wouldn’t have been able to pay for it” (MB participant P14).
Running programs and events
Facilitators
Program organizers identified two key facilitators for running their programs/events. First, all the program organizers discussed the ease of applying for the Teen Physical Activity Grants and said the application process helped them run the program or event:
“I’ve applied for a lot of grants for a lot of things that require you to write so much and they’re looking for something very specific … I really like the process for this one a lot better.” (NS organizer P4)
The grant application process was also useful for new organizations that did not have much experience applying for grants:
“In terms of, like ParticipACTION [Teen Challenge], the biggest takeaway I have was that because of the challenge, the way they worded challenge, it’s helped us on the organizational side get organized. ‘Cause we’re a new charity, we have all these ideas but we didn’t know how to make it most effective, and also we didn’t know how to measure. So we were just writing a program every Saturday with no real focus. The challenges have actually helped us focus and they’ve actually helped us in terms of making it a little bit better.” (ON organizer P2)
Another facilitator was having motivated, supportive leaders and instructors as the ‘champions’ for running programs/events: “I think that once you get an outside instructor locked down it becomes easy. A regular outside person that has good rapport with the kids” (NS organizer P4). It was also important to ensure the organizers and instructors had the support necessary to continue running the programs or planning events:
“This is going to sound kind of silly but what helps to run the programs is to help keep the people running the programs from burning out … just making sure that anybody who is running these things has that kind of underlying support so that they don’t run out of energy to keep these activities going for the kids.” (MB organizer P8)
Barriers or challenges
The community organizers reported a number of general challenges to running PA programs, including a lack of space or infrastructure to host events/programs, difficulties in recruiting volunteers (i.e., parents) to run events/programs, and insufficient government funding for PA programming. First and foremost, the organizers indicated that PA programming was expensive and they lacked money to run programs or events, which was one reason they were appreciative of the Teen Physical Activity Grants: “One of our biggest complaints is cost obviously. Yeah I think if I had to put my finger on the biggest challenge it’s trying to keep the costs affordable” (BC organizer P1). For example, hiring instructors to lead teen programs was often expensive: “I’d love to have more money to be able to pay the artists who are coming in to teach the kids what they’re worth as opposed to what the going cheapy rate is, so I always feel bad about that” (NS organizer P4). Another organizer in Manitoba said that cost was a challenge in trying to provide PA programming to large groups of teens: “it does get expensive especially when you’re working with large numbers of people so we have been getting, trying to be very creative with our funding and got used equipment and so on. I think the more we remove those barriers I think the easier it is for kids to participate” (MB organizer P1).
Some community organizations also reported difficulty in recruiting and retaining teens for programs/events: “One of the challenges is getting kids. You know like if you start something and you have 50 people sign up, after 3 or 4 months you only have 10 people left, and that’s what always happens with me” (NS organizer P4). Organizers identified that increasing teen recruitment was one of their main objectives for the future: “we have been trying to recruit more, that’s always been our priority really so we would just continue to do that” (NL organizer P3). Conversely, other community organizations reported that running programs or events with the Teen Physical Activity Grants increased enrollment in their programs (see below: Sustainability and legacy). Organizers who reported strong enrollment said that they used targeted approaches to advertising the program/event through word of mouth, media such as radio announcements, social media including Facebook and Twitter accounts updated by youth participating in the program, and through advertisements in local newsletters. Community organizers said that engaging youth in the initial development and advertising of the programs/events was also a key strategy to overcome the challenge of recruiting and retaining teens.
Impact of microgrants
The microgrants were valuable in promoting PA opportunities for adolescents in communities across Canada. However, the microgrants had value beyond providing opportunities for PA: we also identified ways in which the microgrants had an impact for the organization, for the individuals participating in the programs, and for the participants’ families and communities.
Impact of microgrants: organizations
Building and strengthening partnerships
The microgrants allowed community organizations to build and strengthen partnerships with other groups in the community. For example, a skating club in British Columbia partnered with a minor hockey organization to run a ‘try it free’ skating day. The organizer said that without the grant funding, the skating club would not have been able to participate with other organizations to run the event:
“Definitely it allowed us to strengthen [partnerships with other organizations]. Minor hockey has way more money than we do. And they can offer so many more things than we can and normally we would not be able to participate in that kind of day with them because our costs are much higher.” (BC organizer P1)
The microgrants were used to maintain existing partnerships. For example, a community organizer from a fitness centre in Prince Edward Island sought funding to allow youth in grade nine to participate in a weekly fitness class to familiarize them with the fitness centre and teach them about PA and working out at a gym, which addressed the strength-training curriculum in the students’ physical education classes. The microgrant funding was also used to work with existing community partners to maximize the impact it could have. For example, organizers purchasing ski equipment had existing relationships with the manager of a sporting goods store, and they were able to purchase ski equipment and maximize their relationship with the store:
“I can know a sponsor-partner but if I don’t have any money to get an advantage from him, then there’s no point … Previously, I was working at Sport Expert and the boss, I know him well … so he gave us some discounts. So, we had a bit more. For example, for five hundred dollars, you can usually buy a pair of skis if you are lucky, so if it isn’t too expensive and on special … Anyway, we got a lot more than what we could with regular prices so that helped a lot. The money helped our ski club a lot.” (QC organizer P8)
Building credibility: leveraging funds
The microgrants helped community organizations to build credibility that they were competent and able to secure and use grant funding successfully. One organizer said:
“… in terms of the granting world how it works is when you go to apply for these grants they will only give you what you’ve managed. So these little grants over time are helping us show we manage our money responsibly, we’re able to deliver these things with the money. It helps build credibility with these other granters. And now this is our 3rd year and we just got approved for a $10,000 grant from a church, and it looks like we might get some other funding from [other granting agencies]. I would say it does help in terms of building credibility.” (ON organizer P2)
This organizer also said that the microgrant funding could be used as leverage to obtain additional funding from other organizations: “if we’re able to get $500 from ParticipACTION [Teen Challenge] and $500 from the police, now we have $1,000 budget, the program is going to grow” (ON organizer P2). Similarly, organizers in Nova Scotia said that by getting smaller grants such as the microgrants, it generated more grant funding opportunities for community organizations:
“I think success in grants definitely creates more buzz and success in grants. I think people who offer grant money want to see that it's be used. They want to see it's going to be used the way you said it was going to be used. They like to see a product of some kind …there's definitely a buzz about grants and getting out there as long as you know you can do it. Then I think that one grant turns into another, turns into another, turns into another.” (NS organizer P4)
Thus, another benefit of the ParticipACTION Teen Challenge Grant Funding was the ability for the community organizations to apply for further grants. If a Teen Challenge Grant was used to successfully implement a PA program or event, the organizers were appreciative of the option to apply for additional Teen Challenge Grants to support the program over time.
Community organizers in Québec also noted the value in obtaining funding from the ParticipACTION Teen Challenge program and the importance of associating themselves with organizations with the same values and priority on PA: “We attempted to associate ourselves, like with ParticipACTION, to promote sports, PA” (QC organizer P6). The director of a skating program said that when advertising the ‘try it free’ days and a skating scholarship program, “we actually put this article in the paper stating that it was in partnership with Coca-Cola and ParticipACTION” (BC organizer P1). Thus, by obtaining funding from the ParticipACTION Teen Challenge program, community organizations built credibility around their mission and their ability to use funding to support PA programs for adolescents within the community.
Organization sustainability and legacy
In some cases the microgrants were used to sustain programs and created a lasting legacy beyond the duration of the program or event. One of the grants was used to hold a ski and snowboard event in Québec and the money was used in part to purchase ski equipment for the event; the equipment was then used by the community organization’s ski club. The ski club had been a tradition in the community for nearly 30 years, although it had suffered from low attendance and high costs. “We want to keep it here because it’s a tradition. So we work very hard to keep it running. So, I think without the equipment maybe it wouldn’t be, it wouldn’t have been possible to keep it … So this allowed the club to continue” (QC organizer P8).
One high school received funding to purchase new basketball jerseys, which improved athletes’ enjoyment while participating on the team and instilled a sense of school pride: “the uniforms offered us a way to have a legacy to continue using them to actually give the kids a set that they’d be proud to wear, represent our school in other buildings and you know I just thought there was great value in that” (MB organizer P1). One teen spoke about how wearing ‘real’ basketball jerseys helped to improve others’ perceptions of the inner-city school: “Well everyone around the school and other schools they basically say that our school’s really ghetto, so the [new] uniforms don’t make us look really ghetto” (MB organizer P3).
Several community organizations also said that running the programs or events with the microgrants increased teen enrollment in their programs. For example, one organizer said, “it increased our membership which increased our income, which then increased our staffing and our equipment, and just overall just everything got better for everyone” (BC organizer P1).
Impact of microgrants: teen participants
Increasing physical activity
The programs or events offered with the microgrant funding allowed adolescents opportunities to develop existing physical abilities or to be exposed to new physical activities: “I never used to be able to swim on my own without anybody really close to me, but now I can swim on my own and not have to worry that I’m going to drown” (NL participant P7). The majority of adolescents said that by trying new activities, they also improved their physical fitness:
“I’ve been watching [breakdancing] forever and I’ve never gotten a chance to learn it, now I do. And it was a big bonus that I got in shape, but it wasn’t really a factor that pushed me, because I wasn’t like ‘man I really need to get in shape.’ I was just kind of like, I really like this, I want to do this, and I happened to get in shape because of it.” (NS participant P5)
One community organizer said that exposing youth to various activities helped to reinforce the message that “you don’t have to be an athlete to be active” (PEI organizer P4). Furthermore, adolescents said that the programs funded by the microgrants enabled them to discover a passion for an activity they had never experienced before: “It gave me something to do that I like enjoy doing, like I never had anything else that I liked so much before. Does that make sense? I finally found something that I think I would be doing for a really long time” (YK participant P1).
As a result of adolescents developing their physical abilities and trying new activities, the programs made it possible for adolescents to become more physically active and develop healthy lifestyles: “I’ve definitely become more physically active, and that’s a big difference in a person’s life … it’s made me healthier, it’s made me more aware, so I make better choices, and that’s definitely changed my life by doing things like that” (PEI participant P2). A teen in Ontario said that without the boxing program, “I would be way less active, I would come home, play [video] games, do nothing” (ON participant P6). In Québec, a teen said that before playing sports at the youth centre, “I was not very energetic at all. I hardly did anything, only walking with my friends and we would talk. That was it. I did not do any sports, nothing. But, now things are different. A couple of my friends practice sport a lot, and we are active. It’s fun like that” (QC participant P2). Another teen in Nova Scotia said that as a result of the fitness program offered through the high school, “I got a lot more active and just said I’ll stay away from the couch, I’ll stay away from the computer, all that stuff, just other lifestyle choices that I made” (NS participant P2). He continued and said:
“I’ve gotten noticeably thinner so … people are just asking if I had gone on a diet, if I had been exercising more. I say yeah, I just got more active … I kind of feel proud that I’m not the person I used to be and I’m proud that they are noticing that I’m making an effort to change. So it’s a kind of confidence boost there.”
Personal growth (e.g., self-esteem, confidence, leadership)
The adolescents’ development of their physical abilities also changed the way they viewed themselves and felt about themselves. For example, some adolescents said that being more physically active helped them to feel better about their weight and their abilities:
“With sports I definitely lacked a lot of confidence. I mean even last year when I was in the sports I didn’t want to try a lot of things, different moves and things, tried to play it really safe … [Now] I will try new things, more difficult things. Yeah, [I] feel more confident on the team.” (PEI participant P3)
Another teen said that through his participation in the program he learned “it’s OK to be different, like being fat and skinny, or tall and short, ‘cause it doesn’t really measure your talent. You can be tall but not good at dribbling, or short and good at rebounding” (MB participant P5). A girl participating in a boxing/life skills program said,
“If I don’t do this program, I don’t think I would ever knew how to protect myself, and if I got bullied or raped or anything I wouldn’t know how to protect myself … So boxing give me a lot, and my body changed … before I was a little big and when I came to boxing, my body changed, so [did] my personality, I became better person.” (ON participant P3)
Thus, the development of physical abilities helped the adolescents to develop a positive self-image as a result of participating in the community organizations’ programs or events.
Adolescents participating in the PA challenges also reported that they gained self-esteem, confidence, leadership, and social skills:
“I feel I have more confidence … Whereas before I had a massive inferiority complex. I used to be incredibly hard on myself, I would push myself to be better than other people just to feel like I could be more successful in ways that they were or successful in ways that they weren’t. But now I’ve stopped comparing myself to others and it was about a month after I started [the program] that so I think there is a correlation there.” (NS participant P2)
He continued, saying “I’m much more confident with myself now, I would say that breakdancing has been a big part of that.” The adolescents’ personal growth was corroborated by the adult organizers and instructors: “their self-esteem changes and they become very proud of what they’re doing and ‘look at me, look at what I can do’” (BC participant P1).
The adolescents’ positive growth and social skills also transferred into other areas of their lives. For example, Michael (pseudonym) was a teen with a disability who participated in a swimming program, and his aunt reported that prior to engaging in the swimming program he would not have felt comfortable even participating in an interview about his experiences: “he’s not a loner anymore … this is different too, for him to talk to a stranger and answer questions … And I said how do you feel about that? And he said ‘that’s OK Aunt Susan’” (NL participant P6). In Michael’s case, participating in a social activity such as a swimming program helped him to become more comfortable interacting with strangers in everyday life. Another teen who participated in a dance program and was able to go on a trip with his classmates said “Coming from a different country to Canada where things are a lot different, at first I didn’t really know how to engage in some of this stuff but once I started joining … I kind of gained the confidence that I know I need to live in this foreign country so I kind of developed a lot of confidence and self-esteem” (MB participant P12).
Impact of microgrants: community
Community and family
The microgrants had a broader impact on the communities beyond the adolescents or the organizations that benefitted from the funding. A breakdance program served as an opportunity to develop stronger community relationships with new Canadians: “creating stronger partnerships with the international community right, like with the Filipino community … I think we have the same opportunity around dance to do that [develop partnerships] because that’s another thing that we’re very, very interested in” (YK organizer P5). Some of the PA programs or events offered opportunities for families to engage in affordable PA together. Organizers in Newfoundland & Labrador said:
“The ability that [the grants] allow us, like I say, to offer a free program is a big plus because a lot of our families are financially strapped so this gives them an opportunity to partake, and not only our participants partake but other kids that they’re financially strapped to keep active. ‘Cause keeping active is not cheap, to be involved in sports and other recreational programs are not cheap, so the fact that we can allow this not only for our participants, for their family, is a big thing.” (NL organizer P9)
Similarly, organizers running a teen boxing program hoped to have an impact on PA and healthy lifestyles for adolescents’ families: “It’s all about inclusion and even if you’re like, ‘you know what, I want to bring my big sister, I want to bring my mom,’ bring your mom, she can work out too, we don’t care, right, it’s all about creating that blueprint for life, it’s like a whole family working out together” (ON organizer P2). Adolescents also said that their increased PA had a positive impact on their family members: “it kind of passed over to my family … we've all been kind of getting more physically active. So it's kind of like a domino effect, like this starts and then the rest follows” (PEI participant P2).
Development of volunteers/teen leaders
There were several examples of community organizations and events/programs supported by the microgrants contributing to the development of volunteers and teen leaders, which in turn benefitted the organizations as well as the wider community. In some cases, adolescents were informal peer leaders when teaching one another skills, such as in the case of the breakdancing programs in some communities. In other cases, adolescents had more formal volunteer and leadership roles, such as helping with fundraising and event organization. For example, organizers in Québec engaged their teen advisory board to provide input for PA programming and to run the ski and snowboard day at the youth centre. A community organization in Ontario involved adolescents in the process of leading boxing classes and also in writing grant reports following the completion of events or programs:
“The whole goal is for kids in the program to later come back and become mentors. So for example one of the programs we ran with ParticipACTION is called ‘my turn to coach.’ The coach designs a workout plan, they assign tasks, they do a report, they learn to invoice, and then they get an honorarium of $20. So they’re actually getting real life skills as well as sometimes cash.” (ON organizer P2)
Teen volunteers reported that they learned a variety of skills through volunteering with the community organizations:
“You learn how to volunteer, you learn how to organize things, you learn how to say ‘OK this time I need this,’ and you learn how to schedule, you learn penmanship, people are like ‘I can’t read your writing,’ you’re like ‘oh I better fix that.’ You learn typing skills, e-mail skills, language skills, you get more opportunities ’cause you’re talking to parents and you have to talk respectfully, but you have to assert yourself as a person of authority, so you learn that kind of thing.” (BC participant P2)
Adolescents also expressed that they enjoyed becoming more involved in their community through volunteering:
“It really helped me realize how much I enjoy being active in school, active in the community and extracurricular activities … I started joining other programs that would help out with things because I enjoy being part of something, so it helped me realize that I enjoy being part of something big really and helping and meeting new people.” (NS participant P6)