[00:00:00.240] – Speaker 1
Foreign.
[00:00:13.280] – Speaker 2
I’m Chris Tompkins and welcome to the Shaping Our World podcast. My goal is to invite you into a conversation that will leave you more confident in understanding and inspiring the young people in your life. Each episode we talk with leading experts and offer relevant resources to dive deeper into the world of our youth today. Today we have Jules Porter on the show. Jules is the Director of Programs at Jays Care Foundation where she partners with agencies nationwide to support children facing barriers, including living in remote areas, living with disabilities and experiencing bereavement. Prior to working at Jays Care, Jules was a consultant for the association of Hole in the Wall Camps, where she launched therapeutic recreation programs for children with life-threatening illnesses in Africa, Asia, Europe and the US. Following that, she worked at Right to Play, where she spent 10 years designing sport for development programs focusing on 80 First Nations communities in Canada. I’ve gotten to know Jules as her and her team at Jays Care actually partner with Muskoka Woods to give girls in one of the programs they run a camp experience. Each year, the girls from First Nation communities west of James Bay, a community that experiences high rates of suicide, attend a retreat at Muskoka Woods where they develop leadership skills, make peer connexions and find a place where they’re able to flourish despite the challenges they face.
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I think you’re going to really enjoy the conversation that we have today with Jules and I know if you’re like me, you should get a pen and paper. As she dives deeper into some research some information about sport and how that connects with greater outcomes for young people. And I can’t wait for you to hear about how sports help kids who are in complex social situations, how it helps them thrive and grow and develop. Before we meet our guest, a quick word about an opportunity at Muskoka Woods. Starting as a staff member here, I found it to be more than just a job. I discovered a pathway to personal and professional growth. We are committed to intentional staff development, providing training and building a network that can propel your career forward. Imagine working where you’re nurtured to grow, with access to amazing facilities and staff care events. If you’re seeking a role that prepares you for what’s next, visit jobs.muskokawoods.com for more details. Now let’s get into the heart of our show. Great to have you with us, Jules.
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So happy to be here.
[00:02:53.300] – Speaker 2
So good to chat with you today and really interesting topic we’re going to dive into on young people and sport and particularly around Indigenous youth in Canada. And really looking forward to the conversation. And as we get going, why don’t you help us get to know you a little bit more. When you were growing up, what shaped your world? What were the big influences in your life?
[00:03:13.480] – Speaker 1
I mean, ironically, given what you do for your regular year round job, I would say that the biggest shaper was my time at overnight camp. I grew up going to a camp that doesn’t exist anymore, but it was in Minden, Ontario called Kouabi. And when I was 15 years old, they hired me to work for them and I learned how to take care of kids and clean toilets and scrub dishes in the kitchen. And I think it really changed my set of what I was capable of doing and what sort of filled my boots, what made me feel good about myself and the kind of things that were going to make me feel happy and joyful in life. So I’d say that was probably my biggest influence.
[00:03:57.880] – Speaker 2
It’s so interesting. A lot of people share that and I know there may be some bias because of who the interview is with, but I do think it’s because so much of the formational opportunities that young people have, like some of their earliest leadership and some of their deepest friendships were formed at camp, at summer camp. And yeah, just kind of like a different type of world for young people to thrive and grow and develop. So yeah, it’s interesting to hear and you’re still all connected to that, so we’ll get to that in a minute. But help us understand a little bit more about what your day to day looks like. What’s shaping your world today? Tell us a little bit about what feels your boots now.
[00:04:38.840] – Speaker 1
Well, it’s interesting I guess what’s shaping my world? Like all the positive things outside of work that are shaping my world are kind of the concept of being in your mid-40s and still finding things to learn and to do. So this year I learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube.
[00:04:58.720] – Speaker 2
Oh, wow.
[00:04:59.400] – Speaker 1
I learned how to quilt. I started doing water aerobics in pickleball and you know, I tried to read a book every week. I’m trying to keep my brain active and sort of excited and I think so those things are keeping me going. But I will say the other thing that’s sort of shaping my world now more than I ever imagined it is being kind of a sandwich generation and being like right in the thick of having two kids who are both teenagers and taking care of parents who are, who need a lot more support than they did 10 years ago. So that’s definitely opened my eyes to a Whole other phase of life I didn’t realise was coming.
[00:05:46.310] – Speaker 2
I think there’s probably a lot of our listeners who would identify with that. I think it’s interesting to hear about where people are at and how that shapes how they view the world and how they tackle being a parent. And also their work, particularly for someone like you, that works with young people today, probably have a podcast about, like, how you intersect parenting and working with young people, but that’s a different conversation. So why don’t you tell us just a little bit about what you’re doing that’s shaping the world of kids today. Tell us about the work you’re doing.
[00:06:15.250] – Speaker 1
I work for the charitable arm of the Toronto Blue Jays. We’re called Jays Care Foundation. And the work that we do here, everything we do, is really designed to use sport, particularly baseball, primarily baseball, as a vehicle to tackle complex social issues. So, you know, I think typically when you think about issues like kids struggling in school or having low attendance rates or struggling with grades, or kids who are arriving to the country and trying to grapple with learning a new language while also integrating into a school system, or kids struggling with self identity and self esteem, typically the route to a cure for those issues falls in line with the first kind of concept you think of in that issue. So when we talk about kids struggling in school, the first thing you can think of are how do we fix the education system? Or the issue is with mental health, how do we fix the mental health system? But what we try to do at J’s Care is, is figure out how you can use something as malleable as sport to actually help solve some of those really complex issues and in ways that maybe folks haven’t tried using it before.
[00:07:41.690] – Speaker 1
So we run lots of programs. We had 63,000 kids in our programs this year, and we run programs in almost every part of Canada, and we work with kids who face significant barriers in their communities or in their households or in society in general, and try to use sport as a vehicle to help them build the future that they want for themselves, unlock all their potential.
[00:08:10.470] – Speaker 2
And just because of my biases, can you tell us a little bit for those listeners, Muskoka Woods and Jays Care partner with one of their programs that we do to bring kids away. Can you tell us a little bit about that programme? Just because it’s a little more near and dear to my heart?
[00:08:26.960] – Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, Muskoka Woods rocks. We’ve been really, really lucky to be able to host a programme at Muskoka Woods for quite a long time now. And that programme is called James Bay Girls at Bat. So it evolved shortly after, I am assuming many listeners will recall, when Atawapis got discovered, declared a state of emergency about 10 years ago, they’d had a lot of suicidal ideations and completions in their First Nation community. It’s a remote First Nation on the James bay coast and GA’s care and the Toronto Blue Jays are really invested in supporting Indigenous communities and we wanted to help in any way we could. And luckily I had spent a lot of time working in partnership with first nations in my previous job, so I was able to rally lots of folks who had been in that arena for a long time. And we collectively, with the help of about 150 advisors from communities on the James Bay coast, created this programme that’s specifically for teen girls. So essentially 11 to 18 year old girls who live in remote first nations on the James Bay coast. And it’s a leadership and mentorship programme designed to help them forge really positive and meaningful relationships with peers and with other adults who care deeply about them and to help them experience and try out lots of new things, things that they can try out in Muskoka Woods like high ropes and wood burning and talent shows and all the things that you get to do at camp, but also things like powwow dancing and drum making and ribbon skirt making and cultural activities that they may or may not have access in their community.
[00:10:29.150] – Speaker 1
So we’ve been running that programme now for eight and a half years and hundreds and hundreds of youth come twice a year to these retreats that we host at Muskoka Woods and the youth are, you know, they are gaining all the benefits that you get from getting to go to overnight camp, as well as a really, really strong network of peers all along the James Bay coast that they can rely on when they transition into post secondary and they have, or even when they transition to high school and they have to move away from their communities. They have a much bigger sort of social net to catch them now than they did before.
[00:11:08.570] – Speaker 2
And we’re quite humbled to host that programme. And we don’t do a whole lot, to be honest, to sit back and watch you and your team do some incredible work and yeah, love knowing that that happens and excited that it’s part of our community. So in your career you’ve worked at Right to Play, designing programming for First Nations Community as a consultant at Hole in the Wall Camps and now as the director of programme at JAYS Care, and as you mentioned, kind of a Little earlier. Your whole career really has been dedicated to helping kids face barriers and develop through sport and play. And you did a really good job of talking about what that was. But can you tell us a little bit more about. And it was probably called Sports for Development Programming, how that kind of works, like, what are some of the nuts and bolts? How do you get kids involved in sports? How do you recruit them? What’s the kind of the makeup of the programming that helps with the bigger outcomes that you were talking about?
[00:12:12.590] – Speaker 1
I think sport in general has all sorts of amazing outcomes that can be gleaned from it. You know, any, any adult who participated in sport when they were younger, if that sport experience was a positive one, they can usually attribute lots of things like self confidence and peer, like new peers and new skills that they developed as a result of the sport. Sport for Development generally is designed with a very, very specific goal in mind that has almost nothing to do with the sport. So you design the programme because you want kids to develop independence and as they learn the sport and get better at the sport, that’s a secondary benefit. So a good example of that, I think would be you mentioned that I had worked at Hole in the Wall and for listeners, I guess it’s important to mention that that charity is now called Serious Fun Network and they’re the charitable arm of Newman’s Own, sort of salad dressing. All of Newman’s Own products go to supporting these camps. So these are camps all over the world for kids with blood related illnesses, HIV and aids, cancer, sickle cell, anaemia, haemophilia. And I worked at those camps for many, many years, for like seven years.
[00:13:31.400] – Speaker 1
I got to run camps in Africa and Asia and in Ireland and in the southern states. And those programs are designed primarily to help kids who have been in the hospital system for a very, very, very long time develop a sense of independence. You know, when kids have spent so much time in hospital, often what happens is their parent becomes their closest friend. They have much smaller social network than other kids and they’ve been protected in sort of every turn. And so every activity that is designed at those camps is designed to help kids forge new friendships, but also to help them carefully dip their toe into independence so that they can develop a skill that maybe they haven’t had the same opportunity to develop that other kids have. So that’s an example of Sport for Development at Jays Care, another example would be we run a programme called Challenger Baseball. And so for listeners who are in Toronto, I run a version of it. At Withrow park in the spring and in the fall with a couple of my buddies and my family. But it’s an adaptive baseball programme for kids living with cognitive and, or physical disabilities.
[00:14:53.460] – Speaker 1
And so, you know, if, if you think back to your own childhood and going to school and trying to make it on the limited sports teams that are available when you’re in primary or middle or high school, I think most folks find it really hard to remember a kid with a disability who was a student at school making it on one of those teams. Like they’re just very, very few opportunities for kids with disabilities to play sport. Challenger Baseball is designed to create a space for kids to play sport. But a couple of things that are really challenging realities for kids with disabilities in Canada. There was a research study that was done about eight years ago that was published, I think, in the Globe and Mail, that said that 56% of kids with disabilities reported having one or fewer friends.
[00:15:49.380] – Speaker 2
Oh, wow.
[00:15:50.340] – Speaker 1
And so Challenger Baseball is a baseball programme designed for every kid to leave with at least two new friends than they had when they came. And that is the primary goal?
[00:16:02.180] – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:02.860] – Speaker 1
The secondary goal is to help kids develop a lifelong love of sport. Like, we want them to come and see themselves as an athlete and then take advantage of any other accessible opportunity that’s put in their way. Because long term, that’s going to significantly change their trajectory in life. It’s going to reduce their obesity rates, it’s going to increase their friendships, it’s going to reduce social isolation. So when I run Challenger Baseball, or when any of the volunteer coaches across the country run it, the baseball programme looks so different than like a Little League programme or a Baseball Canada programme in that when the kids show up, we start with lots of warm ups and icebreakers. Like, the idea is kids to pair up and make friends. Every chance we get to break kids up into partners and challenge them to discuss their favourite movie they’ve ever watched, or the five words they would use to describe their weekend. Last weekend will do that while they’re playing catch. Because the end of the practise to assess whether it’s worked or not is to see whether any of those kids are inviting each other to their birthday parties.
[00:17:16.760] – Speaker 1
Like, that’s the indicator for success.
[00:17:19.400] – Speaker 2
It’s amazing.
[00:17:20.280] – Speaker 1
Not whether they’re, you know, I mean, it’s great when they’re become much better at baseball, when they fall in love with baseball, but if they haven’t made a friend through our proactive approach, then we’ve failed. Yeah, I think those are two, like examples, but we have lots of them that are running in the city. And each one is sort of designed with a different goal depending on who the primary beneficiaries or participants are. And so every programme looks super different depending on what the goals are.
[00:17:50.820] – Speaker 2
And what is it about sports that helps get at some of these outcomes? I mean, is it as simple as, you know, we do one to ones at camp with staff and, you know, there’s a goal of, you know, building friendships and investing in people’s lives. And I think particularly for guys, we always encourage them to be like, doing that. Go shoot hoops, like, do something else active while you’re building relationships. Because sometimes, like, is it that simple? Just the nature of sport and organised sport gives people something to do that they’re not actually trying to make friends. Is it, how is it structured? Is it being at like, what makes sport and organised sport like this so important to get? Because I love that, right? Like, the byproduct is they love a sport and they learn, you know, to develop a lifelong love for sports. But the real goal is like, friends and developmental stuff that. But you never say that. It’s not like, hey, come to our programme because we want you to have friends. Right?
[00:18:53.980] – Speaker 1
So yeah, yeah, we’re not like, come to our suicide prevention programme.
[00:18:57.380] – Speaker 2
Yeah. So how, how, how does that. What do you think it is about sports that really allows you to get at something that on its own might be a little more challenging to, to see happen?
[00:19:07.850] – Speaker 1
I think I, like, this is going to be a tiny bit nerdy and maybe too much information, but I think.
[00:19:14.970] – Speaker 2
That, oh, we like that on this show. So go for it.
[00:19:18.330] – Speaker 1
Okay. Okay. So there is like a tonne of research, brain based research that really clearly demonstrates that. Well, one, that there are a tonne of kids in the world today, in Canada today, that are more dysregulated than they’ve ever been before. And that I think is partially a combination of the side effects of COVID 19 and the number of lockdowns that happened in Ontario in particular, but all across Canada, coupled with the amount of exposure that kids have online to things that are going terribly wrong in the world, plus all the other things that are happening in their lives. So, you know, the way that the brain functions for folks who don’t know a tonne about exposure to trauma is that, you know, all of us walk around with this lower brain and this upper brain, and the lower brain is essentially the part of the brain that we use to survive traumatic situations or survive stressful. Situations. It’s like our fight, flight and freeze responses down there. It’s what we rely on to keep us safe. And a tonne of kids are stuck down there. They’re constantly wearing a suit of armour to survive in their homes and it’s not safe for them to take that armour off when they’re in school.
[00:20:49.750] – Speaker 1
It’s not safe for them to take that armour off because they need to be constantly vigilant. But the, the issue is that like to, to develop friendships or to learn chemistry or biology or spelling or math, you need to get out of that downstairs brain and get up into your upstairs brain or your, your prefrontal cortex. Like that’s where the big thinking is happening. And sport, if it’s done correctly, actually contains like the three key ingredients to help kids leave their downstairs brain and enter their upstairs brain. All the research. There’s this amazing psychiatrist, psychologist and therapist in the states named Dr. Bruce Perry. And he wrote this book called the Boy who Was Raised As a Dog. And he’s written all sorts of books. He wrote an amazing book with Oprah last year or two years ago, all about trauma in the brain. His research suggests that the three key ingredients you need are positive relationships. So really consistent, kind, calm relationships. So when you have a coach who is consistently happy to see you and welcoming and providing you with the schedule and telling you what’s going to happen, and not erratic in any way, shape or form, but sort of calm like a rock in the storm calm, that plus an elevated heart rate through physical activity.
[00:22:30.530] – Speaker 1
So when you can get kids heart rates to elevate to a, you know, to that space where when you’re running or moving, it gets elevated, it actually triggers this memory response that we all have from when we were in the womb, that the sound of the heart rate or the heartbeat of our mother’s heartbeat when we were in the womb is so powerful. And it, when your heart is pounding enough through physical activity, it triggers that memory and it actually relaxes your body and sort of activates the vagus nerve and helps you calm down. So you have relationships, you have this like intense physical activity and then you add manageable stress. So like the opposite of stress is not no stress. It’s like the right kind of stress. We need kids and adults to experience the right kind of stress. And sport, if you’re coaching it correctly, can give kids the right kind of stress. You can challenge them to say, what ball do you want to hit from today? And they can pick the stress amount. The ball that’s going to stress them out the right amount, that’s going to challenge them the right amount.
[00:23:42.010] – Speaker 1
That combination of relationships, physical activity and manageable stress is the key. It is like the antidote to the lower brain. And it actually helps kids lower their nervous system enough that they can enter their upper brain and start forging relationships and start listening and learning and start engaging in ways that they don’t typically. And so I think I’m, you know, I told you I love to quilt and I love Rubik’s Cube. Like, I’m all for art space programming too. It also does magical things for kids. But you can move faster in terms of healing and development with sport because of that elevated heartbeat. It’s like a game changer. So scientifically, like what we say here at jacecare when we train teachers and coaches is we’re training you to be a brain based coach. And it changes the way coaches and teachers see kids who are dysregulated and it changes the way they react to them when they’re dysregulated. And it changes the way I parent when my kids are dysregulated too.
[00:24:59.390] – Speaker 2
While you’re just kind of unpacking some of that and looking at current research around where young people are, I’m conscious that you’ve been working with young people for quite some time and you’re clearly aware of the research and what it’s saying. Can you tell us other changes you’ve observed in young people from when you first started out to now, beyond just even the developmental stuff? Because I, I know a lot of parents are thinking like, okay, how do I get my kids involved in these sports? Like, from your perspective, are kids just as willing as they used to be to join in activities like this? Are they more likely? Like, even, I’m just thinking, even around, like what you’ve observed around young people participating, are they more or less participating when they get there? Are there different issues that are arising from your experience? Can you help us maybe get sense of where kids are at today?
[00:25:49.110] – Speaker 1
I think fundamentally kids are the same as they’ve always been. You know, they, they want to be loved and they want to find a place where they fit in. They want to try things and they’re scared of failing and they’re scared of looking silly. Like, I think that’s consistent and, and will continue to be consistent forever. I think that they face more, more challenges now. Like, I think certainly there are fewer opportunities to get involved if you don’t have the financial resources than there used to be. I Think there’s also, there’s such a plethora of distractions. And so I think, like, in all of the programs that we run, kids bring their cell phones and they want to be on them all the time and they resist hard when we say, put the cell phone down, the cell phone’s not welcome here. And even, like teenagers whose armour is so thick, you know, like they’ve got the hoods over their heads, their hair is covering their face, they are not going to be looking up at you, no matter what. It doesn’t take much to win them into an alternative. And so what I mean by that is, like, I’ve never met a kid who will not eventually lean in if given an opportunity that is, you know, like, love based.
[00:27:15.290] – Speaker 1
So I think that when parents have kids who are resisting engagement, they’re usually resisting because they’re scared of something that, you know, they’re scared of failing or of looking silly or being mocked online. And you can’t protect your kids from all those things that might potentially happen. But I think that my rule of thumb generally has been that kids, even though they want to drive the car of their own life, I think until they’re 18, if you’re lucky enough to be parenting them at home, your job is to be the driver and they’re going to try to take over the wheel all the time, but your job is to continue holding the wheel. And that kind of stability is like the most formidable gift that you can give a kid. And so I think making it clear that your expectation is that your kids actually try two activities a week, whatever they may be, you know, it doesn’t have to be a sport, it could be an art. Because I think kids learn relatively quickly that the things that they’re most worried about often don’t come true. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, they’re experts in all the thinking traps that teenagers fall into.
[00:28:41.090] – Speaker 1
You know, that everything terrible is gonna happen and that I’ll never recover from this going badly. But once they try it out, nine times out of ten they’re like, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be and they gained something great from it.
[00:28:58.950] – Speaker 2
Let me take a moment to highlight an opportunity that goes beyond the classroom. For over 30 years, Muskoka Woods has been the backdrop for unforgettable school trips. At a Muskoka Woods overnight school trip, students not only get outside and active in the beautiful surroundings, but experience new activities, forge stronger bonds with classmates and ultimately grow in confidence. With over 280 organisations visiting yearly, we know a thing or two about creating life changing experiences. Ready to see your students thrive? Visit schools.muskokawoods.com I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about your work with Indigenous youth in Canada. And I know that J’s Care helps answer the call to action around sport and youth programs as laid out in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, the report in 2012. Can you talk a little bit about the impact of the Indigenous Rookie League on First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities and any of the other programming that you’re doing? How is jacecare really taking seriously the call to action in helping Indigenous youth around our country?
[00:30:18.820] – Speaker 1
I grew up in Canada, I went to public high school in Toronto and I did not grow up learning anything about Indigenous history in this country. Like it wasn’t part of the curriculum when I was growing up. And then I worked for A Hole in the Wall and then write to Fillet and I spent a tonne of time working in refugee camps and internally displaced people’s camps around the world. And I really thought I had experienced and seen, you know, atrocities. And then after working at right to Play for five years, I was invited to help out with an Indigenous programme there called the Play Programme. And I got the chance to travel to a First Nation for the first time in my life. And I went to this little First Nation in Northern Ontario called Martin Falls. And it was the most eye opening experience for me ever. I suddenly realised that we, you know, there was this entire history in this country that I just had not wrapped my head around, I hadn’t been curious about, I hadn’t learned about. And there were so many people suffering in Canada that were sort of hidden.
[00:31:31.930] – Speaker 1
You know, the majority of Indigenous folks are living in these first nations that other Canadians would just never go and visit. So we have like so little exposure to each other. So Indigenous Rookie League has been an amazing programme to be a part of because I think that, you know, Jays care has had the chance to offer something that’s promoting reconciliation. But also, you know, the gift that the first nations that we work with in this programme are constantly giving is like education. They’re like remarkably generous in helping us better understand what happened in their communities and what happened to their kids and how and what happened to them and how long and deep the impacts have been for them. So that’s sort of part of my learning from it. But fundamentally Indigenous Rookie League is it’s a sport for development programme. So akin to all the other things that I was saying before the First Indigenous rookie league programme Jace Care was ever involved with was in Treaty 3, which is in northwestern Ontario. It’s a whole host of first nations that are really close to Kenora, and they’re all a part of a chiefs association called Kenora Chiefs Advisory.
[00:32:51.690] – Speaker 1
Their short form is kca. So kca, many years ago, like nine years ago, was recognising that they were having a number of mental health issues with youth in their communities. And those mental health issues were very, very closely related to the legacies of residential school. They knew that historically Indigenous folks in those communities had been really involved in baseball and softball and slow pitch, but nobody was playing ball anymore. So they called us and said, do you think we could try to use baseball to help out the youth in our communities? And we said, sure, let’s try something. So I spent a lot of time out there, as did a lot of my colleagues, listening and working with chiefs of all the communities out there, and youth from the communities and youth workers from the communities. And what we collectively designed was the first Indigenous rookie league. And that programme is a baseball programme where each community fields a baseball team or two. And the kids are, you know, as young as 8 and as old as 16. But the way that the teams earn points looks really different than the way that you would typically earn points in a baseball programme.
[00:34:15.550] – Speaker 1
So all of the points that you can earn are designed based on protective factors that can really help youth, particularly Indigenous youth, thrive amid conditions that are, you know, systematically tough. So some examples of protective factors, like the kinds that help kids sort of bounce and develop more ability to survive and thrive in harsh conditions, are things like a really strong connexion to their culture, a really strong connexion to lots of adults who care, like a. A strong foundation with their closest family. So some of the ways that that league takes that into account is teams earn points for every run they score in, but they also earn points if the host team can get an elder or a member of chief and council to come out and do like, teach a traditional teaching. Before the game starts, teams earn extra points for hosting a feast for the visiting team. Teams earn extra points for the number of spectators that come out and stay for the course of the game. And at the end of the game, they line up on the, on the baseline for their team and they earn points prorated against the size of their community.
[00:35:43.530] – Speaker 1
And so it’s, you know, the idea is to reinforce all the things that the communities have identified are most important to them through baseball. So we now have 15 indigenous rookie leagues like that with more than 70 First nations involved. And each league looks different. You know, we have a league in southern Saskatchewan where parents play in innings three and seven and earn points for their team because one of the biggest goals was to have parents stick around for the whole course of the game and be as invested in the outcome of the game as their kids are. And everyone looks slightly different based on what communities want. But I think so in terms of reconciliation, I think that the things that we’re trying to heed the call to is that kids growing up on reserves in Canada don’t have access to sport in the same way that kids in urban city centres do. And so we want to create more sport opportunities so that they have access to it as well. Kids in indigenous communities, you know that they have access to a different level of education because their education is funded by the federal government versus the provincial government.
[00:37:04.810] – Speaker 1
They just have, you know, it’s a different condition. And most Canadians would never get the chance to actually see that or experience it or understand it. And so I think, you know, the secondary benefit of the programme is that everyone who’s involved with J’s care gets the chance to actually learn more about the reality that kids in first nations are dealing with on a day to day basis and has more empathy and motivation for creating a Canada where every kid here has equitable access to the stuff that we think is a basic human right.
[00:37:44.720] – Speaker 2
I know my parents actually a little while ago went with their church to take hockey equipment up to Muskrat Dam area.
[00:37:54.400] – Speaker 1
Cool.
[00:37:55.360] – Speaker 2
Way far up there and they had the same kind of experience you did. Just like eye opening conditions that people live in in our country and, and just that like not having the equipment like you said, you know, where kids play, a lot of times they’re, it’s in disrepair and the equipment has not been, you know, you’re talking about access and some of it is just equipment and space too, you know, not even people to organise and run. And so I think they were just, you know, I think that was a bit of a life changing, eye opening experience for them. And so I love what you guys are doing with that as we’re kind of wrapping up our conversation. The vision and what you’re doing is about empowered young people with unlocked potential. And you talk about the actions you take around advanced equitable access, prioritise belonging, provide quality physical activity, build resilience. The outcomes are greater love for sport, sense of belonging, increased life skills, self regulation, leadership, positive sense of identity. And the impact is stronger, more connected communities, continued engagement and enhanced well being, which are just fundamentally incredible things to look at for young people.
[00:39:12.240] – Speaker 2
I wonder if there are a story or two of impact that you can think of that just kind of give a little more flesh and heart to the work that you’ve done that would, I think, inspire some of our listeners today about what J’s Care is all about. Can you think about a story or two that just unpacks these really good concepts and ideas that kind of bring to life the incredible work you guys are doing in the life of young people, particularly ones that maybe don’t have the same opportunities as others to have the activities and programming and adult care and investment to really thrive as they’re growing up.
[00:39:58.360] – Speaker 1
There’s a pair of kids from Chile. They immigrated to Canada two years ago, Franco and Francisco, and they’re brothers and they’re adorable. And they came to Canada when they were 6 and 9 and their family was immigrating here for tough reasons and had no. Had very little stability in Canada when they arrived. They moved into a shelter in Toronto and got their kids registered for a public school and neither parents nor kids spoke any English. And they. They arrived in May. We run a programme, jacecare runs a programme with the Toronto District School Board called RBI Summer Edition. And it’s. It’s a programme that connects to summer schools that are being offered in primary school. So the summer school runs in the morning and we run a day camp all afternoon so that parents don’t have to choose between summer school and, you know, worrying about where their kid’s going to be all afternoon.
[00:41:12.930] – Speaker 2
Right? Yeah.
[00:41:13.530] – Speaker 1
The program’s free and it involves free food and tonnes of physical activity, including lots of baseball and arts and crafts and all sorts of fun stuff. So Franco and Francisco were both registered for the programme by the school principal. They referred the kids into the programme and the kids showed up on the first day of programme and they spoke no English at all. And they were terrified, you know, like they hadn’t been to school yet. They were going to a programme in School. There’s 200 kids at this camp. All the staff are speaking English. And very quickly we had three staff in the programme there who were young and amazing and adaptable and their job is to work with the kids who are newcomers, who have little to no comprehension of English. And so they use these picture communication tools so that they can communicate with the kids and they play games with them all day and play sport with them all day. And Franco very quickly demonstrated a real love for baseball. And so, you know, he was getting more and more excited about baseball and happy to come every day. And Francisco was starting to learn English rather rapidly and he was starting to, like, pick up on school and doing better in the summer school programme because he was learning English in.
[00:42:41.270] – Speaker 1
In this camp programme. So they stayed in the camp for the full six weeks. And at the end of the camp, we pick a couple kids from each of the campsites that we run, and they get the chance to participate in, like, an MVP experience with them, with us, where we take them away to overnight camp. Both boys were picked from their camp and they got to come to overnight camp with us. And then the older one, Franco, got picked to win, like, an all star award from jacecare. And so he was featured in our commercial this year. And we filmed the commercial in Scarborough at a baseball diamond. And his entire family took the bus to the baseball diamond. Mum still doesn’t speak any English, but came with a tonne of baked goods and came for the staff and came with a neighbour who translated for her when she said that through jacecare, her kids had actually found a way to find a home in Canada that, like, this programme, had helped them find confidence in English, but also find a place where they belonged. And it had completely changed her sort of level of anxiety around, you know, the upheaval that was going on in her life.
[00:44:05.840] – Speaker 1
And so to me, I’m like, that’s a day camp. Those two kids are two of about 150 kids we have every year who have just landed as refugees or newcomers to the country who get referred into our day camp programme.
[00:44:21.760] – Speaker 2
That is so inspiring, you know, just listening to that. And, you know, I’m thinking, like, probably a lot of our listeners is like, okay, how can I. How can I get involved and help? You know, like, what. What would you say to parents who either are in a situation or know kids that need opportunities like this? How do they find them? How do they get involved themselves? And things like in a J’s Care programme, do you need help, like, volunteers? And what could we do if we identify a need for something like J’s Care in our own communities?
[00:44:56.590] – Speaker 1
Yeah, there are lots of things that you can do. So I would say if you identify a kid who. Or a group of kids who could really benefit from one of our programs, if they go to a publicly funded school in Canada, that school is eligible to start one of our programs. So tell their parents to tell a teacher at the school to sign up for J’s Care programme. That’s easy. That’s an easy way to refer off and make the programs happen. If you’ve got lots of energy and you want to get involved in a programme, we are always looking for volunteers to help us start Challenger Baseball programs or help us keep Challenger baseball programs running. So anyone can check on our website, which is www.jscare.com. and when you go to Challenger Baseball, you’ll see there’s a whole list of adaptive and inclusive baseball leagues that exist across the country. And what you won’t see on that list are all the places where we need them started. And it takes someone who’s got the energy to get it started to start it. Jays Care provides all the training, all the equipment, the uniforms will provide all of it.
[00:46:09.960] – Speaker 1
All you need to do is find a diamond and invite the kids and get some volunteers to help you run it. And it is the best experience. So I would encourage you to try that. And then I guess the easiest way to help us, when you watch a Blue Jays game, whether they’re winning or not, buy a 5050 ticket. Because all the money from those raffles that doesn’t go to the winner comes to us and helps us grow our programs. And if you’re, you know, deeply invested in Indigenous communities and want to see more happen across the country, reach out to us and donate. We can only spend 50, 50 money in Ontario and in Nova Scotia. So any programs we run in Nunavut or in any of the other provinces need to come from generous folks who want to see Canada do more and do better. And so we can use all the help we could get.
[00:47:09.090] – Speaker 2
So good. And I hope encourage all the parents to check that out and see if there are ways they can get involved. Maybe just a couple quick wrap up questions for you, Jules. Number one, we talked about a lot of topics today. You know, sport for development, you’ve gone into some brain development. Are there places you can, if parents are listening, going, how do I find out more about, you know, some of the things that we’ve talked about today? Are there places you can suggest them to go, good books to read, websites that help unpack some of this stuff? Maybe just a few resources that would encourage parents to, to keep tracking with this conversation after we’re done talking?
[00:47:47.300] – Speaker 1
I think so. For anyone who gets really excited about learning more about Indigenous history in Canada or, you know, understanding some of the significant challenges that Indigenous folks are facing, I think I would recommend there’s an endless number of amazing books out there to read, But I’d say 21 things you may not know about the Indian act is a great, really short read that like, usually drops your jaw and then gets you excited to learn more. If you prefer something that feels more like fiction and will make you laugh, but also help you learn, I’d say the Inconvenient Indian is an amazing book by an incredible indigenous author who has written more than anyone out there. And so you can get on a trend with that. There’s for, for the brain and, and trauma. I mean, I think Bruce Perry is awesome. I also think the Centre for Healing, I think it’s called the Centre for Healing and Justice Through Sport, is an American based organisation that does a tonne of training around trauma and the brain and their resources are amazing. And I work really closely with a woman out there who, who runs the show, Megan Bartlett.
[00:49:05.490] – Speaker 1
But if you look on their website, they’ve got lots of really cool content.
[00:49:09.450] – Speaker 2
To look at, which is just to interrupt, it’s chjs.org they’re incredible.
[00:49:16.490] – Speaker 1
And so I read all their resources and then there’s a lot of really cool free trauma training that folks can take. And I find every time I take another trauma course online, it sort of changes my approach to life and to my kids and to my friendships. And so I guess, yeah, I think it’s worth dipping your toe in. It doesn’t to read. It doesn’t mean that you’re worried that your kid has experienced capital T trauma or that you have, but it helps. I think it. All of the tools and tactics that it suggests for supporting kids who have been affected by trauma seem like really cool, good tools and tactics for every kid in the world.
[00:50:00.930] – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:50:02.410] – Speaker 1
You know, like they’re universally applicable and so I think they just make us better parents.
[00:50:08.370] – Speaker 2
Well, if our listeners are anything like me at all, this has been an incredibly insightful and encouraging and challenging interview. I mean, I’ve learned so much just listening to you, Jules, and appreciate all the work you’re doing. Maybe if you could just leave us with a sentence or two as an encouragement for parents who are walking through maybe some tough struggles with their kids around belonging or they, you know, trying to find friends or, you know, all the things that you talked about are what Sport for Development is trying to tackle. What would you say, kind of just as a word of encouragement as we’re wrapping up our conversation?
[00:50:50.830] – Speaker 1
I think I would say that fundamentally all the research says the same thing and that is that the greatest gift a kid can receive is unconditional love. And so, you know, I’m like every other parent who doubts themselves more times than I feel confident. But when I anchor myself in that, I think, you know, if you can keep offering that to your kids, keep loving them, even on the days when they’re, you know, driving you nuts or trying to make themselves seem unlovable, that’s what’s gonna get them through. And read the book, Dear Sugar, and say, read that book, and it’ll make you feel better about coaching kids and coaching yourself through the days that feel the hardest for both of you.
[00:51:51.800] – Speaker 2
Well, Jules, thank you so much for this conversation. And I know our listeners are going to all those resources you pointed out and checking out Jays Care. And so thank you so much for what you do and for giving us your time today. It was amazing. Thank you.
[00:52:05.560] – Speaker 1
Thanks for having me. I really appreciated it.
