The growth of both Active for Life and public awareness of the term “physical literacy” has been astonishing and is a testament to B2ten‘s belief that getting children moving is vitally important in Canada. Here are some of the highlights from our journey:
Active for Life
Since 2012, Active for Life has built a full-fledged media organization, publishing more than 1,000 original articles in both English and French. Our top articles have been shared thousands of times and viewed almost one million times. We publish a weekly newsletter, specifically for parents, as well as a biannual newsletter for coaches, rec leaders, and educators.
Learn Through Active Play
Launched in 2024, Learn Through Active Play is a fully funded professional development program that supports early childhood educators in preparing children for school and for life by integrating active play habits into daily programming. The program was developed based on a study that involved 600 children across 39 childcare centres in Alberta and British Columbia. LTAP is evidence-based, inclusive, and designed for the real-world conditions of childcare and early learning settings.
Active Start
Active Start is a free monthly newsletter tailored specifically to the age of your baby or toddler that’s filled with activities and tips for busy parents. As children progress from crawling and climbing to running and jumping, Active Start helps show new parents how to keep their children engaged in fun and active play, which will help them develop the habits that will keep them moving and active for life.
ActivePlay.ca
Launched in October 2023, with the funding support of Canada’s Early Learning and Child Care – Innovation program, Active for Life created a new website for early childhood educators that provides free resources to support active play for children ages 0-5 years. ActivePlay.ca features short videos with great ideas for fun games and activities. It also includes educational posters to share with parents, plus short articles about active play and child development. The videos and posters are currently available in French, English, three Indigenous languages, and six international languages.
Social media
Our social media channels have experienced tremendous growth since we first launched, expanding our community, reach, and engagement. Taken together, we have the ability to reach more than 90,000 parents and professionals through Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Alliances
Olympic athletes such as Tessa Virtue, Jenn Heil, Shelley-Ann Brown, and Eric Guay, and professional athletes like Steve Nash and Vincent LeCavalier, have supported our efforts by appearing in our PSA videos, attending in-person and online events, and speaking about physical literacy in the media.
Outreach
We’re committed to equipping parents, caregivers, and professionals who work with children with the tools and resources they need to provide high-quality physical literacy programming:
- Our activities and lesson plan builder have simplified the process for educators to easily incorporate physical literacy into their programs.
- Resources for those delivering physical literacy programming to educate their communities of parents about the importance of physical literacy.
