Commitment to policy, education and advocacy
Field Hockey Canada has been invited by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) to participate in their True Sport Journey pilot project. During this pilot, Field Hockey Canada has worked with the CCES True Sport staff to identify True Sport tools and resources that align with organizational values and help to identify ways our sport can commit to the True Sport principles and foster sport experiences that are consistent with True Sport.
“The activation of the True Sport Principles is how we create a safe sport environment and a positive field hockey culture,” said Jenn Beagan, Field Hockey Canada’s True Sport Manager. “Where often Safe Sport is talked about in terms of things not to do, True Sport focuses on what you can do to intentionally and consistently create safe, positive, inclusive, welcoming, and fulfilling sport experiences.”
Beagan noted that Field Hockey Canada is “using True Sport as a positive, proactive, unified approach to developing a sport culture through a commitment to living the True Sport Principles.”
In 2021, Field Hockey Canada launched a social campaign called #FHCSheCan to feature stories of female athletes, coaches, administrators, volunteers, and support staff, and showcase the accomplishments of women and girls involved in field hockey. As per the True Sport Principle of ‘Include Everyone,’ we are working to make sure field hockey is visible, accessible, and exciting for female-identifying participants. By featuring these stories within our community, our hope is to motivate and empower girls to start playing and stay involved.
In 2022, and as part of the True Sport Journey Field Hockey Canada’s commitment to creating positive sport culture will continue. We plan to expand the presence of True Sport in field hockey and increase communication about it to our community, stakeholders and sport partners and are taking this opportunity to launch our FHC True Sport Framework. The framework includes information on how FHC intends to activate True Sport within our organization and programming, but also provides guidelines to support organizations, as well as individuals that help in building True Sport into their programs
The True Sport area of our website has been updated to include resources that address policy, education/access, and advocacy/culture in a variety of topics such as Safe Sport, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, and Health and Wellness. This will be expanded throughout the year to feature other positive examples of how True Sport has been activated with field hockey across our country.
It is our goal to continue to work with our stakeholders to plan, build, and implement programming that supports our mission to create fun field hockey experiences in Canada, and to lead a system that reaches all our communities across the country. Keep your eye out for more information on this project on our website and social media over the next months.
