|
In 2004, City of Mississauga and University of Toronto Mississauga encouraged
organizations across the city to come together to collectively work toward improvements in
local health forming the Healthy City Stewardship
Centre (HCSC). The Healthy Mississauga 2010 Plan was
developed by HCSC, and in this plan Get Active Mississauga is a priority area under the goal:
"All people in Mississauga will value and strive for optimal health." Get Active
Mississauga created the GET ACTIVE Mississauga Plan, in January 2005, when
the Ministry
of Health Promotion unveiled the Active 2010 program
which gave seed money to towns and cities to develop their own municipal physical activity
plans. The GET ACTIVE Mississauga Plan, motivating people to Get Active, was lead by the
YMCA, sharing coordination with City of Mississauga,
and developed alongside 38 other local organizations. Part of the Get Active Mississauga Plan
includes facilitating research within the community.
Many recent studies have
reported that adolescent females are usually the least active demographic in comparison to
adults and younger children.
Research has also shown that physical activity levels decrease during adolescence,
particularly among females. While some
research has examined barriers to physical activity among female adolescents, we know
little about barriers between females and ethno-cultural groups. This is particularly important
in a culturally diverse setting such as the City of Mississauga. Canada has over 200 ethnic
origins and Mississauga has the third highest proportion of immigrants with diverse ethnic
origins in Canada according to the 2001 census
data. Nearly half of Mississauga's residents are immigrants and numbered 285, 650 (46.8% of
the population).
Based on all of the information provided via the 2001 Statistics Canada Census Report, Get
Active Mississauga has partnered with the University of Toronto Mississauga, and the University of Guelph,
to conduct a city-wide research. Over 100 Indian and Polish females, aged 13- 17, across Mississauga participated in 13
focus groups in local community spaces to discuss physical activity. Over 20 community groups
were contacted to assist with recruitment of focus group participants. Participants were placed
in groups according to ethnicity, Indian or Polish. All focus groups were recorded and analyzed
on the basis of unique and shared barriers between Indian and
Polish girls.
The results of the focus groups will help us understand if there are cultural barriers
and challenges to daily physical activity. By understanding these barriers and challenges we
can work with other partner groups to provide solutions, which can be implemented via each
partner organization, in order to increase daily physical activity leading to healthier happier
Canadians.
Click here for
preliminary results
|
