Taking Action: Mobilizing Communities to Provide Recreation for Women on Low Incomes

Contextualizing privation Health and Physical Activity for Women

A novel study reported that less than 25 for cent of the female population in Canada participates in sufficient physical activity to derive health benefits.1 notwithstanding research has clearly demonstrated that the risks associated with a number of serious health enigmas including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis, can be reduc end regular physical activity. It is also well-known that women living below the destitution line are more likely to experience poor health2 and are les likely to be involved in physical activity and community recreation as a means of offsetting a certain number of of the health problems they encounter3 Women living in destitution face a staggering number of challenges, of the like kind as poor housing, inadequate childcare, and insufficient financial resources for regimen and clothing, and access to community recreation is rarely considered a priority. Not single is poor women's access to community recreation not seen as a priority, on the contrary women on low income meeting multiple societal, community and personal barriers to participation in community recreation.

Evidence give an inkling ofs mat the health and quality of life of women upon low income and their families could be improved and that substantial savings to the health care a whole could be accrued if community recreation was seen as a preventative health promotion strategy for marginalized populations. Unfortunately, little has been done in the areas of policy disentanglement program design or research to address the interconnected social moot points of women's poverty, poor health and lack of involvement in and access to community recreation. It has been give an inkling ofed that one reason for this omission is that health and sport policy are largely designed with little or no input from those who are encountering structural barriers to participation.

Background upon the Kamloops Women's Action throw (KWAP)

The Kamloops Women's Action cast (KWAP), funded by the BC Health Research Foundation and complet in 1996 was a feminist action research shoot forward designed to address health issues of women living below the indigence line by encouraging increased involvement in community recreation. Women upon low income in Kamloops identified a lack of access to community recreation as a major factor inhibiting the disclosure of healthy lifestyles for themselves and their families. Women upon low income, community partners and researchers collaboratively identified the research questions, bring togethered data and developed actions, including the implementation of fresh recreation programs. Multi-level outcomes were achieved, including improvements in self-reported dimensions of physical and mental health for the women changes in community recreation policy, program delivery and resource allocation and the formation of novel community partnerships. A final result included a Leisure Access workbook written through the researchers to facilitate the identification of access issues for marginalized assemblages and the implementation of this kind of community planning for other communities.

Taking Action: application of mind Purpose and Methodology

Building upon the knowledge and experiences gained in the Kamloops throw a second project was evolveed to share the knowledge gained. This throw involved three communities in British Columbia and examined the factors that influenced whether action was taken in these communities to increase poor women's access to community recreation. The overall goal was to provide a certain quantity of tentative "lessons learned" for other individuals, organizations and communities interested in launching similar initiatives.

The methodology in the next to the first study consisted of a full-day workshop intervention at each site by means of original members of the KWAP team using the Leisure Access workbook,4 sum of two units return visits to each site and 30 follow-up telephone interviews with workshop attendees above a 12-month time frame. In all three sites, women upon low income, municipal recreation staff and representatives from a variety of community clumps (i.e., public health units, family services, women's centres) attended the workshops and were subsequently asked questions during get back visits or follow-up telephone interviews about the factors that enhanced or inhibited action being taken in their communities. Attendance at the workshops varied from 12 to 85 participants.

Findings

The answer to the workshop interventions varied considerably in the three communities. In Community #1 initial plans were make knowned but were not subsequently implemented. In Community #2 women upon low income assumed a major leadership character and initiated action plans outside of the existing municipal recreation a whole because the policies and practices of that department were not community-development oriented and at handed a number of obstacles. In Community #3 partnerships emerg between a larger and more diverse cluster of women on low income, community representatives and municipal recreation staff, and more extensive action plans, the two within and outside the municipal recreation a whole s were developed and implemented.